DM said "Don't worry about it".

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The dive operator should only provide safe and working equipment. There is no such thing as "don't worry about it", this is being dangerous and irresponsible. Faulty equipment can be lethal.
BTW, not even bother to fix the problem afterward is absolutely pathetic.
 
If I am diving with my own equipment on a basic shallow water dive and have problems, I might even tuck a tank under my arm and go in with no BCD. If I am renting equipment from an operator and the operator hands me a malfunctioning piece of garbage, I'm not accepting it.
 
A sealed diaphragm regulator will work just as well in the warm as it will in the coldest water you ever want to dive. My 32lb wing and steel BP works just fine in the tropics, since with it I don't need any additional weight to dive with an AL80 and it is the preferred configuration for single tank drysuit diving.

I don't even bother to remove the drysuit hose from the regulator, I just tuck it under the wing in the tropics.

Buy once, buy right. . .
I like to see the boat people who shouldn't be messing with my gear try to figure out where that extra hose goes.
 
Recently there was a woman who dove even though her inflator hose did not match her BCD. While technically she should have been able to orally inflate, or swim herself up, then she had some kind of medical problem as she swum up, and did not have inflated bcd to save her.
This thread discusses the details: Feb 19 2017 Cozumel diving fatality
Attempts to retrieve her body were also stymied by non-functioning equipment.


According to the April 2017 Undercurrent issue, that fatality is one of many that are part of a cover up to protect vested business interests:

excerpts:

"
from the April, 2017 issue of Undercurrent
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Divers arriving in Cozumel, Mexico, can sign up with any number of dive operators -- and generally are organized into groups and frequently not assigned buddies. Much of the diving is drift diving, which can lead to problems if a diver in a group needs to return to the surface early. That's what appears to have happened to a woman on February 19th near Palancar Reef, with fatal consequences.

We contacted several people in Cozumel to learn about the tragedy, but had great difficulty getting anyone to tell us what actually happened, and some inquiries were met with an aggressive response. One witness even replied, "Mexico isn't a salubrious environment for whistleblowers, or even journalists who merely dare to expose events seen as detrimental to the profit margins of vested interests. Cozumel is a small place, the tourist and diving industries have a lot at stake here, and human life is worth very little." Wow. This probably explains the reluctance of anyone to give any information.

This is the story Undercurrent distilled after some detective work and confirmed in part by a British diver who was there at the time, aboard a Deep Blue dive boat:

The dive had not started well for Tammy R. Schmitz, 43, from Denver (CO), diving with Scuba Mau's Gaviota1. Some witnesses reported she had trouble with her BC inflator mechanism, and once at the dive site, she found it was not compatible with the regulator and her direct-feed hose. In order not to lose the dive, she probably intended to inflate it orally as and when she needed buoyancy. A well-practiced diver can handle this, but if anything else went wrong, it could lead to an incident.

.....the article concludes :

"Because of the reluctance of many people to talk with us, we think there may be more to the story. We'll follow up, if we can."
 
I like to see the boat people who shouldn't be messing with my gear.

Boat people shouldn't need to mess with gear, and I applaud divers like yourself who take responsibility for their own equipment.

Divers should sort their own gear out and be responsible for it. With the exception of tanks and perhaps dive bags been put aboard that's the crew should need to do.

I'll watch people put their gear together and assist it they have an problem or make a mistake but that's it. If you think I'm going to change your tank you'll be waiting a long time.

This concierge mentality exhibited by some divers is stupid. They need to learn how to assemble their own gear, and test it, as well as recognising that only they are responsible for accepting the gear is serviceable and making the decision on the dive.

It's not difficult, its covered and practiced on the 5 confined water and 4 open water dives
 
The dive operator should only provide safe and working equipment. There is no such thing as "don't worry about it", this is being dangerous and irresponsible. Faulty equipment can be lethal.
BTW, not even bother to fix the problem afterward is absolutely pathetic.
This brings up the interesting concept of "trust the shops equipment dives". The OP was diligent and checked the gear before using it. Good!

My impression is that many divers using rental equipment blindly assume it all works. I have seen a release form where the dive op specifically states that it is the responsibility of the diver to ensure that all rental equipment is functioning properly. You have to initial to acknowledge you have read and understood the statement. While some may see this as a cop out cya attempted transfer of responsibility, the dive op claims it is there to proactively remind divers of best practises that are sometimes (often?) ignored. I have also heard the dive op personnel handing out gear and instructing people to verify it is all working properly.
 
Boat people shouldn't need to mess with gear, and I applaud divers like yourself who take responsibility for their own equipment.

Divers should sort their own gear out and be responsible for it. With the exception of tanks and perhaps dive bags been put aboard that's the crew should need to do.

I'll watch people put their gear together and assist it they have an problem or make a mistake but that's it. If you think I'm going to change your tank you'll be waiting a long time.

This concierge mentality exhibited by some divers is stupid. They need to learn how to assemble their own gear, and test it, as well as recognising that only they are responsible for accepting the gear is serviceable and making the decision on the dive.

It's not difficult, its covered and practiced on the 5 confined water and 4 open water dives
The only time I have the "concierge mentality" is when that level of service has been advertised (offered) and/or paid for. This is a level of service which many dive ops do offer and provide, but I will know that before I even get on the boat. Otherwise, unless I ask for help, please just stay out of my way. If I ask for help, however, then please be helpful and not make matters worse.
 
If I am diving with my own equipment on a basic shallow water dive and have problems, I might even tuck a tank under my arm and go in with no BCD. If I am renting equipment from an operator and the operator hands me a malfunctioning piece of garbage, I'm not accepting it.

Agreed.... there is no reason you SHOULD accept subpar equipment at ANY time, especially if you are paying to rent it.
 
What percentage of drowned divers are found at the bottom with weights intact? Too much.

Does it make sense to enter the water wearing ballast that you can not ditch?

It really depends on how much ballast you're talking about. I suspect that it is much more common for divers to inadvertently drop weights out of quick release pockets than it is to be pinned on the bottom due to too much weight. In warm water, if you are weighted properly, you shouldn't have enough weight to prevent you from surfacing anyway.

There is some logic to having ditchable weight on the surface in all water temps, but again, properly weighted recreational divers really really should have a problem staying on the surface. It's overweighted divers (like so many OW students, unfortunately) that have problems at the surface.

In cold water, with a thick wetsuit and quite a bit of lead, it makes more sense to have at least some of it easily ditchable.
 

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