Ferry Crew Pulls Two Divers from water at Brackett's Landing

[bugfarmer]

(Apologies in advance for a lack of proper html links below...)

I read about this story and did not see it posted here. So I thought I would post and ask a "noob" question...

Here is the story about an injured diver and exhausted dive buddy:
Two divers rescued at Brackett's Landing by ferry crew
http://edmonds.komonews.com/content/two-divers-rescued-bracketts-landing

And a follow up to the story:
BCD problems led to problem for Edmonds diver http://edmonds.komonews.com/content/bcd-problems-led-problem-edmonds-diver

My noob question is about how the BCD "lifted up and caused his wife to become inverted in the water".

I see how this could happen with the dry suit and the article later mentions she will start diving again when she gets a new dry suit. I don't, however, see how this could happen with the BCD. Granted I have only dove with one type of BCD and quite like the one I have. Hence, the noob factor to my question...

Are there types/style's of BCD's that will tend to invert a diver under certain circumstances?

I try to read here and learn as much as I can from different situations. This one struck me because of my own ignorance about other BCD's. And this might be a handy piece of info to have when familiarizing myself with my dive buddy's gear.

The second link above mentions the diver's wish to remain anonymous. I certainly have no intention of invading said privacy and only hope to gather a bit of info.

BTW, I am happy to hear everyone made it out OK. I certainly wish the best for them.

Cheers,
Danny

 

[sydney-diver]

Hard to say, sounds like she was on the surface and ended up with her face immersed. Pure speculation, one way this can happen is with rear-inflate BC's, on the surface they tend to tip you forwards. Traditional jacket BC's act more like a life jacket and hold you vertical. Another possibility is a jackey style BC which is too large, the wearer could effectively fall down through it on the surface if the waist strap and chest straps were loose, esp if they're wearing a weight belt?

 

[Pubcrawler]

I learned about ankle weights by bobbing around in a shell with inflated legs one time years ago. Everybody had a good laugh while I was thinking about how dangerous that would have been under other circumstances. When I inflated my BC it just floated me horizontally face down. Full tank so low stress, but all I could do was roll on to my back, arch my legs down and let the air bubble out the neck seal. Moving my arms was not on the menu at that point. Once the air gets into your legs in those sack suits there isn't much that's going to happen except an uncontrolled and awkward upside down ride topside.

 

[TSandM]

There's been a lot of discussion of this one on our local board. Most of us can't figure out how a BC could invert her, but we can all see how an autoinflating BC could cause an unexpected ascent, and air in the feet of the drysuit could expand and put her in an inverted posture.

 

[parzdiver]

Very glad everyone was okay. I am just completing my rescue class and this reinforces for me the importance of even basic rescue training.

Sounds more like a dry suit problem, a back inflate BC can put you face down if over inflated, but a dry suit can get you inverted. There is the line in the one article:

He says that his wife is still shaken up by what happened on Saturday, but she will be back diving as soon as she gets a new dry suit.

​

 

[all4scuba05]

There's been a lot of discussion of this one on our local board. Most of us can't figure out how a BC could invert her, but we can all see how an autoinflating BC could cause an unexpected ascent, and air in the feet of the drysuit could expand and put her in an inverted posture.

Thats what I was picturing.

 

[bugfarmer]

There's been a lot of discussion of this one on our local board. Most of us can't figure out how a BC could invert her, but we can all see how an autoinflating BC could cause an unexpected ascent, and air in the feet of the drysuit could expand and put her in an inverted posture.

Ah! Thanx for that mention. I had looked for the thread there, and had not previously seen it. I do see it now. Will go read up...

Cheers,
Danny

 

[Lone Frogman]

When do the reporters ever get the story straight?

 

[openmindOW]

Was the female diver wearing a drysuit?

 

[diver 85]

?bi bc.....