ditching weights question

[gcbryan]

During training it's stressed to make sure the weight belt goes on top of everything else and it's important to have a quick release feature.

It's never stressed all that much about what to do after having to ditch weight.

I understand that if one has an intergrated BC it makes things better but if you don't what are the ways to mitigate the uncontrolled rise that would follow?

I know it would be rare to have a bladder fail at depth while on a deep wall dive so that resting on the bottom isn't an option to maybe have time to take some weight off the belt rather than the whole thing.

Is this just one of those things that you just have to hope doesn't happen?

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

When you're not able to swim your rig up, afraid you're going to pass out, etc. As for what to do after open yourself up for as much drag as possible to slow your ascent is the only option you'll have.

It's more likely you'll be faced with a situation at the surface, panicked diver with no air in the bc where you'd dump their weights to keep them floaty. This whole topic is covered in more detail in the Rescue type classes, but the old rule of thumb is any problem under water gets solved underwater unless you're talking unconcious or pushing unconcious (Co2 buildup or something) keep the weights on. Even an unconcisous diver should be surfaced slowly with air in the bc and weights dumped at the surface for the tow back to boat/shore.

 

[scubasean]

gcbryan once bubbled...
During training it's stressed to make sure the weight belt goes on top of everything else and it's important to have a quick release feature.

It's never stressed all that much about what to do after having to ditch weight.

I understand that if one has an intergrated BC it makes things better but if you don't what are the ways to mitigate the uncontrolled rise that would follow?

I know it would be rare to have a bladder fail at depth while on a deep wall dive so that resting on the bottom isn't an option to maybe have time to take some weight off the belt rather than the whole thing.

Is this just one of those things that you just have to hope doesn't happen?

I would think that, under all but the most extreme and unlikely circumstances, you'd only ditch while at the surface.

If you have to ditch at the bottom for some reason, I'd ditch the fewest of pounds. A diver with a 7 mil wet suit and a nonflooded BC is rather positively buoyant with no weight...If you ditch my weight belt, you are ditching six pounds, and I still have 20 in the BC....

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I agree with what's been said above. Ditching weights underwater should be a last ditch option and is normally something that is only done at the surface to establish positive bouyancy in a hurrry.

It is far more likely that a diver will lose a weight belt or weight pouch at depth. In that case dumping air from your suit or BC as fast as possible while flaring in a sky diver type position to increase your drag and slow your ascent is your best option.

In my young and stupid days, I got distracted (narced) at depth trying to fix a flooded dive light and then noticed it was no longer dark but rather dark green as I was half way to the surface at 80 ft, looking like the Pillsbury dough boy in my near fully inflated dry suit and ascending very rapidly. It was surprising how fast the ascent slowed when I went into a flared position. I almost had the suit vented by the time I surfaced.

 

[Boogie711]

That would be scary. Why didn't you just crack the neck and flood the suit? I mean, yeah, sure - you would freeze your butt off, but I'd rather be cold than embolized or bent. Hypothermia is easy to treat, and a lot cheaper than a Chamber ride!

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I had just started diving with an attached dry hood, full face mask and dry gloves. Up to that time my plan had always been to pull a wrist seal or neck seal loose to dump air in an emergency and as I discovered neither was an option. I neglected to reconsider this plan when I changed equipment. Really bad planning on my part (young and stupid).

Immediately after that dive I returned to using a conventional neck seal and neoprene drysuit hood to make it much more practical to dump air through the neck seal.

The bottom time was around 5 minutes and no formal deco stop was technically required, although the ascent rate was well in excess of the norm to put it mildly. I did do the then standard procedure for missed deco anyway which amounted to a sort of in water recompression with stops at 40, 30, 20 and 10 ft and called it good (more young and stupid).

The next morning I developed a numb patch of skin on my right leg and I blew this off as another symptom of a still healing back injury from a recent car accident aggravated by a strenuous day of diving (even more young and stupid) In hind site it probaby had a whole lot more to do with a DCS hit related to the deep dive and rapid ascent than the car accident and I still have some residual numbness there. (which serves as a pretty effective reminder of the hazards of acting young and stupid)

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

DA Aquamaster once bubbled...
I had just started diving with an attached dry hood, full face mask and dry gloves.

That's one of those times they tell you to cut the suit huh?

Seriously though, scary story DA, glad you're still with us to tell it.

 

[scubasean]

I'm aware that cracking the neck seal provides immediate help to a runaway ascent, but have a question...

In the DUI TLS350 suit, they have a warm neck hood which tucks into a "ring" around the neck of the diver...Not having received my drysuit yet, I''m curious if the warm neck hood would present a problem when attempting to vent using the neck seal approach...Seems like you'd have to be reasonably quick to pull the hood free, just to get to the neck seal....

Thoughts? (Didn't mean to hijack the thread...PM replies please, if you feel it would be more appropriate.)

 

[CD_in_Chitown]

Yeah, the Northern diver CNX has a neck warmer that is neoprene surrounding a latex seal so you can tuck the hood in. I found out after I bought one that this is believed to have contributed to a diver death last year. One reason I keep a knife handy, I'd hate to cut it but I hope I'll remember to before I make an uncontrolled ascent.