donning gear offshore

[rcohn]

On a kayak you don the weight belt before entering the water. Some divers might try to don the BC/tank as well. Most would tether the BC to the kayak and place it in the water. You then have both the kayak itself and the inflated BC to hold onto when you slip in the water.

Life is easier when kayak diving if you don and drop the weight belt when sitting in the kayak. Much less chance of losing the belt.

Ralph

 

[92630Diver]

Using a weight integrated BCD would resolve the issue, no risk of losing the weight and the "chicken or the egg" conundrum is solved as well. You merely put on the one and the other tags along for the ride, it don't matter which comes first.

 

[Swamp Rat]

Originally posted by 92630Diver
"chicken or the egg" conundrum is solved as well

The EGG. Eggs have been around a million or more years before the Chicken. Just ask T-rex next time you see him.

 

[vicky]

Last Saturday a diver died in Eilat. He was trying to swim to the dibving site with two other buddies. they became separated by the current and he had difficulties swimming (over weighted??).
A casual diver who passed by tried to help him: he ditched his own weight belt and then the stressed diver's belt. Then he tried to inflate the stressed diver's BC.
Now comes the bad luck: The weight belt of the stressed diver was entangled with the BC, and the rescuer pushed the wrong button (deflated the BC instead of inflating it. Perhaps he wasn't familiar with the BC or the stressed diver was moving in panic and made it difficult to hold the inflator).
The result: the stressed diver rocked to the bottom, dragged by his own weightbelt and deflated BC.
The rescuer ditched his belt, so he couldn't sink to assist him.
The diver died.

Why all the story?
Because it is worth learning a lesson or two from it.

In your case, donning the gear in such a strange method (floating the weight belt on top of the BC all the way to the site and only then putting everything on) increases the chances of entangling the belt with the BC. In case of emergency (and with the help of Murphy's law) it may be a fatal mistake.
If you have a problem getting to a site with your gear on, don't dive there. It is better aborting a dive rather than jeopardizing one's life in such a stupid manner.

There are other "lessons for life" in the story:
Know the equipment of your buddies. Before the dive make sure you know his weight ditching method (integrated/belt), check that the weights are not obstacled by anything, be sure you know the air relief valves in his BC, the inflator, etc. Had his buddies performed this, the weight belt would fall down and the diver be alive today.
Sadly, most of the divers don't perform a comprehensive buddycheck.
It seems that in case of rescue, one has to be sure that he ditches first the rescued diver's weight belt first.

Have a safe diving and try your best to stay out of the Darwin Award candidates list..

 

[Starfish]

The tag-a-long method assumes that you are diving with a weight integrated BCD, which I do not.

 

[Starfish]

Part of the reason I posted this thread was because my buddy and I were TALKING about possible scenarios and how to manage them.

Thanks for the words of advice. --Starfish

 

[budgy]

I dive with a dry suit and a single steel tank. I can dump my tank and bcd and support the weight of my weight belt treading water. If I dived with twin tanks it would be even easier.
When you learn to relax in the water, many pounds of unneeded ballast can come off.

 

[bgonderi]

The consensus seems to be that quite a few divers are over weighted, presumably in the weight belt. This would make the weight-belt-before-BC ordering potentially result in a one-way elevator ride to the bottom.

That being said, during my OW certification dive, I don't remember having any problems remaining afloat when removing either weight belt or BC individually - we didn't do them both at the same time on the surface.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Originally posted by vicky
The result: the stressed diver rocked to the bottom, dragged by his own weightbelt and deflated BC.
The rescuer ditched his belt, so he couldn't sink to assist him.
The diver died.

No air in the tank?

 

[vicky]

The diver was before the dive, but he wasn't holding his regulator with his hand. Perhaps he was in panic and couldn't find it. As much as I understand now he had the weight belt on top of the octopus (meaning that perhaps he donned the BC and the belt afterwards), so perhaps when the rescuer tried to ditch the weights they dragged the octopus (and perhaps the reg) with them.
Now there is an investigation about this case, but it is a problem to know exactly how the gear was donned since when the group of rescuers from a nearby dive club found the body on the bottom they surfaced him and removed all the gear and tryed to revive him.