Cheap Lesson

[Seaduced]

Two of our DM friends, my wife/dive buddy and I were diving from a resort's Boston Whaler. Because the boat is small, they wanted us to send our gear over the side, and then don it in the water. Everything went fine on the earlier dives. After I rolled my gear over the side, my wife said, we have a problem, your gear sank.

The water was only 25' deep, so it was no problem to recover it. I free dove to the gear, inflated the BC and rode it back to the surface. I had inflated the BC before sending it over the side, so I couldn't figure out how it sunk. My wife said, she thought it was under inflated so she hit the inflator. Which button, I asked? Turns out she hit the dump button.

Here is the issue, I have a Sherwood Gemini Breathable Inflator, she uses a standard power inflator and separate octo. On the breathable inflator, the regulator purge is on the end/bottom of the assembly, so the dump and fill buttons are both on the side of the assembly. The fill button is black and round, the dump is yellow and triangular-ish. On her inflator, the dump is on the end and only the fill is on the side. She just did what was normal for her and hit the big yellow button. Bye bye gear...

I have had the gear for a year. We have about 60 dives together with the gear. We pre-dive briefed its differences for several dives when it was new, but, stopped doing that after a while. I guess we figured we both had it down pat.

After I was sure there was no real problem with the gear, we finished an excellent dive. It was after I was back on the boat, it dawned on me... Gad, what if I had been in the BC... unresponsive... in deep water? It was an eye opening, but thankfully cheap lesson for me. I dive my gear, I know it. My wife dives next to my gear, she forgot. What about a pickup buddy on a cattle boat, which has exactly one pre-dive equipment brief? Was he paying attention?

She still gets ribbed about just calling a dive, rather than sinking the gear to get out of the dive. Not by me though, I have to sleep sometime.

 

[openmindOW]

That is an excellent post. Thank you.

Your analysis sounds spot-on. Had there been an emergency in which you were unconscious, your rescuer might have hit the wrong botton.

Personally, I am not a fan of breathable inflators, but there are people who like them.

I would venture 2 observations.

First, it sounds like a possible design problem to me. The inflate button is black and the dump buton is yellow. That does not sound like a good idea to me.

Second, the theory is that buddies in a team will learn about one another's gear during the Predive Safety Check. In practice, on a diveboat, particularly a small Boston Whaler, divers may not engage in a Predive Check. But it is a good idea to do the Predive Check, even if it may not seem very practicable at the time.

Thanks again for the post. It's a good lesson for all.

 

[DeltaWardog]

Thanks for posting your experience. Thinking about just this kind of thing was why my wife and I decided to buy the exact same gear, with the exception that her BC is the ladies model.
Having the same regs, octos (& location for it), BCs, and inflators makes the pre-dive equipment briefing very easy.

 

[Captain12Pk]

Very good question. There was a thread about the use of the "Air 2" type device vs. standard octo. posted here just a couple weeks back. It got rather long and heated, but if you have the time, it may be worth a read.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/258675-i-am-little-nervous.html

 

[alpanian]

Well, aside from small lesson learned, i'm glad you weren't on the edge of a 500ft reef wall...

 

[TSandM]

There is a safety factor in standardizing equipment. This is just one example of it.

 

[gypsyjim]

I had inflated the BC before sending it over the side, so I couldn't figure out how it sunk. My wife said, she thought it was under inflated so she hit the inflator. Which button, I asked? Turns out she hit the dump button.

I love it.

Have you checked your insurence policies recently? She may be practicing.

 

[tstormdiver]

Generally on most inflaters (both the traditional & breathable ones) the positioning of the buttons aren't all that different. The dump button being towards the end with the inflater button being higher up nearer the LP hose. Even the Air 2 where the buttons are next to each other The dump valve button is closer to the end & the inflater button is higher up nearer the low pressure inflater hose. I wouldn't be surprised if there isn't a type of BC inflater that may not follow this rule of thumb, but most that I have seen do.

 

[Rick Murchison]

There is a safety factor in standardizing equipment. This is just one example of it.

Indeed there is. I have long thought it would be a good idea to have a few equipment standards industry wide with which we could encourage manufacturers' compliance. We should have a single standard IP quick disconnect, for example, and another standard HP quick disconnect incompatible with the IP. Manufacturers could still make proprietary fittings if they want to, but if we had the "generally accepted standard" the market would dictate compliance.
I'm not proposing detailed standards all over the place, just a few, especially in safety areas like inflators, weight releases etc.
In this case, just something as simple as "Inflator is blue/deflator is black" would do. For a few years many manufacturers followed that recipe, but they've fallen off again and I'm starting to once again see all sorts of confusing colors and arrangements.
Rick

 

[Rick Inman]

Yup. Seen many times when people standing around pre-dive explaining the differences in there configuration, looking confused. Especially where new diver have come out of class seeing only one type of kit set-up.

"Now Fred here uses an octo, and Joe has an AirII, while Larry has this pony tank...so, let's see... Fred donates his octo which is in his pocket- no, it's in this ball - no, it's just hanging... and Joe's AirII he'll have to hold this button here to dump while he's breathing...and Larry's pony reg is bungeed around the tank which is attached to his main tank, and the tank should be already on but if it's not, just turn the knob which is upside down so you twist it the other way..."

No way someone is going to remember this if there is an emergency. They just grab for the primary. I actually tell new buddies who don't dive my configuration, if you need gas, you are welcome to grab the reg from my mouth.