Forgot to hook up inflator - near miss

[chillyinCanada]

With all due respect, given your experience and my inexperience.

I check the mirror adjustment before moving the vehicle and my truck has TPS, so walking around would be pointless.

I've been diving since June and would not have let this situation kick my ass. You don't have to be a 1500 dive cave diver to maintain your composure.

If you can't remain composed in a minor scenario like this one, you probably shouldn't be diving. You need to recognize the situation, think clearly and deal with the situation in a controlled manner.

You don't know what will happen to you until or if you experience a panic situation.

 

[CT-Rich]

With all due respect, given your experience and my inexperience.

I check the mirror adjustment before moving the vehicle and my truck has TPS, so walking around would be pointless.

I've been diving since June and would not have let this situation kick my ass. You don't have to be a 1500 dive cave diver to maintain your composure.

If you can't remain composed in a minor scenario like this one, you probably shouldn't be diving. You need to recognize the situation, think clearly and deal with the situation in a controlled manner.

It is easy to say it would never happen to me, especially if it hasn’t happened, yet.

**** happens, mistakes are made, you learn from them if they don’t kill you. Not being there it is easy to judge the buddy. After you ave a dive situation or two go south, you may not be that interested in judging the person.

Should this scenario turned into a life or death scenario? No. Could a relatively inexperienced diver have gotten freaked out? Sure. There plenty of easy outs to bring the situation back under control. He should have checked his gear better, like I said, he won’t make that mistake twice. I probably old have yelled at him to put his regulator back in his mouth and waited for him to catch his breath or dumped his belt.

 

[BlueTrin]

I dont know why that would be- i think its a good idea to practise emergency drills. K

Buddy breathing is not taught anymore by BSAC (for example) because there were incidents where stressed divers reverted to buddy breathing rather than using their alternate.

It is briefly mentioned here:
https://www.bsac.com/document/clari...-statement-on-alternative-supply-training.pdf

 

[BRT]

I think it's a great thing to practice for safety and understanding your equipment function. I would challenge those who think they're saving air by doing this prior to a dive , unless it is done a few minutes before entry. The effort required to lift the inflators hose up to your mouth , push the button and force a few breaths into the BC would likely cause a slightly increased heart rate ( depending on your fitness level) that would require the same or more air to recover back to where you were. If you were to start your dive immediately or close to immediately after inflating , I think you would need to breath that saved air back out of the tank to feed the burned energy.....just my opinion of course , I've tried to fill my BC manually before entry and find myself slightly hyperventilated and needing a few extra breaths to recover ( maybe I'm the one not fit enough )

I'm fat, not fit, but orally inflating my BCD does not cause me trauma.

 

[JohnWoods]

That’s good to hear , if that did cause you trauma , you shouldn’t take the next step and roll backwards into the water

 

[Mx617]

Well holy ****, this got a lot more attention than I expected. Posted it then went on with life not expecting this many responses.

1) Re: oral inflation - he was trying to inflate on the surface, should/could have ditched weights but obviously task loading was an issue. I don't know if he tried to inflate underwater or not. I would also say that the attempt to manually inflate made the situation worse. Keep the reg in, ditch weights, swim back to shore. Communicate with buddy that there's an issue. There were definitely some better options.
2) Re: overweight - so you guys are trying to say that with a fully deflated BCD he should have been positively buoyant? Or am I missing something here? When I said we descended to reconnect the hose, that was more a consequence of him being negatively buoyant than a conscious decision. Point taken though about the weight dump, that would have been a better next step.
3) "Your friend should have figured out a solution on his own, since he was at the surface on his own" - yeah I'm not going to sit back and watch my dad drown. Am I going to make sure I help safely so it's not two deaths? Yes of course, but to say he should have figured it out on his own kind of defeats the purpose of the buddy system, no?
4) Some of the responses are pretty holier-than-thou, but appreciate the feedback from the rest of you.

I think we will do some pool dives and skills practice before going open water again.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Well holy ****, this got a lot more attention than I expected. Posted it then went on with life not expecting this many responses.

1) Re: oral inflation - he was trying to inflate on the surface, should/could have ditched weights but obviously task loading was an issue. I don't know if he tried to inflate underwater or not. I would also say that the attempt to manually inflate made the situation worse. Keep the reg in, ditch weights, swim back to shore. Communicate with buddy that there's an issue. There were definitely some better options.
2) Re: overweight - so you guys are trying to say that with a fully deflated BCD he should have been positively buoyant? Or am I missing something here? When I said we descended to reconnect the hose, that was more a consequence of him being negatively buoyant than a conscious decision. Point taken though about the weight dump, that would have been a better next step.
3) "Your friend should have figured out a solution on his own, since he was at the surface on his own" - yeah I'm not going to sit back and watch my dad drown. Am I going to make sure I help safely so it's not two deaths? Yes of course, but to say he should have figured it out on his own kind of defeats the purpose of the buddy system, no?
4) Some of the responses are pretty holier-than-thou, but appreciate the feedback from the rest of you.

I think we will do some pool dives and skills practice before going open water again.

Not sure where you are located in BC, but if near Vancouver, check out Liz Tribe, a GUE instructor for a workshop. If on VI, Jay Schier (@decompression), an excellent UTD instructor. Learning to do a top down, right to left equipment check helps avoid this situation. It is a good habit to create. Good luck!

 

[Scuba Lawyer]

Re: overweight - so you guys are trying to say that with a fully deflated BCD he should have been positively buoyant?

You will get as many responses to that question as there are divers out there. I can only speak for myself (and this comes from my initial training in 1967 with no B.C. at all - I hear things have changed ). I always start out the dive neutral - not floating or sinking. As bubbles work their way out of my wetsuit and the neoprene compresses some, I become negative. As I burn off some air and ascend toward the end of my dive, I start to creep back up toward neutral. The old rule of thumb was to strive to be neutral at 10 feet at the end of your dive. The only way I've found to really do that is to be about 5 pounds negative at 10 feet at the start of your dive, which is really only a few pounds negative on the surface. YMMV

 

[CT-Rich]

Well holy ****, this got a lot more attention than I expected. Posted it then went on with life not expecting this many responses.

1) Re: oral inflation - he was trying to inflate on the surface, should/could have ditched weights but obviously task loading was an issue. I don't know if he tried to inflate underwater or not. I would also say that the attempt to manually inflate made the situation worse. Keep the reg in, ditch weights, swim back to shore. Communicate with buddy that there's an issue. There were definitely some better options.
2) Re: overweight - so you guys are trying to say that with a fully deflated BCD he should have been positively buoyant? Or am I missing something here? When I said we descended to reconnect the hose, that was more a consequence of him being negatively buoyant than a conscious decision. Point taken though about the weight dump, that would have been a better next step.
3) "Your friend should have figured out a solution on his own, since he was at the surface on his own" - yeah I'm not going to sit back and watch my dad drown. Am I going to make sure I help safely so it's not two deaths? Yes of course, but to say he should have figured it out on his own kind of defeats the purpose of the buddy system, no?
4) Some of the responses are pretty holier-than-thou, but appreciate the feedback from the rest of you.

I think we will do some pool dives and skills practice before going open water again.

I wasn’t saying you should let your dad drown. In an ideal situation, buddies stay together and each diver should have the skills to sort out problems with minimal help, should a separation occur. I think you handled the situation fine. Lessons hard learned are well kept. Personally, I avoid surfacing to deal with equipment problems. Stuff like disconnected inflator hose or a slipping cam-band are much easier to fix at depth rather than at the surface.

Don’t feel bad about this dive, stuff happens. You think about how things happened and next time you both will react differently.

I don’t know how close to full blown panic your dad might have been in. My guess is he had tunnel vision and was focused on one single path (orally inflate the BCD at the surface). It is your judgement on how to handle it. The lowest risk interaction would be to simply pop his weight belt and make him positively buoyant at the surface. As long as everyone has air and goes home, it’s all good.

 

[Storker]

Learning to do a top down, right to left equipment check helps avoid this situation.

IME even the BWRAF does so if it's done right. That "B" is for BCD, and having forgotten to hook up my suit hose once, I now use that to check that also my suit inflates.