How common is a wing failure, and how would you handle it?

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

A DSMB - as distinct from a SMB - by definition will have an OPV and so can be dumped with ascent to provide control.
So... The open bottom, no OPV (except the open bottom) sausage I routinely shoot from my safety stop on boat dives isn't a deployable Surface Marker Buoy?

I beg to differ. And so does the manufacturer of said sausage.


And to the OP: having redundant buoyancy is one of the many advantages of diving a drysuit in cold water. So in the unlikely case of a wing failure I'd return to using my DS for buoyancy.
 
I can imagine a scenario where you are 80 feet down, no air in your wing and 10 or more pounds negatively buoyant .

10lbs isn't much, especially with fins on. It means you might need to swim up at a safe ascent speed. As a teen I remember going to scout camp where we had to swim down 10 feet and retrieve a brick. No fins, no mask, no tank of preferred breathing gas. I think we were being weeded out for lifeguard training.

But here's a thought - you can (I think so anyway) safely simulate this next time you're on a training platform or other suitable (read that as a safe depth where you can't possibly go deeper without a shovel). Just dump all air and swim up. Next trip down take an extra weight belt with 10lbs on it, just carry it if you wish in the rare event you need to ditch it and again dump all air and swim up. If you really want to know (for science!) how much extra loading your fins and fitness can power to the surface without gas in the bladder (not yours, the gear's bladder) just keep ramping up the weight until it gets difficult. In fact this is the new way I'll test fins for power and efficiency. DISCLAIMER: I've taken my Ambien already, it's 2:15AM. I might be typing out of my skull and won't know it until one of you super-divers here calls me an idiot and says here's why RedWolf is a freaking idiot. You won't be the first to say it, you won't be the last. Honestly, if this is stupid please let me know why just so I convince myself to not give it a try to see how much weight is too much to fin up.
 
So from what I gather:

1. extremely uncommon

but...

Even without wing
Even without drysuit
You have lungs and fin power, which even weighted and at depth, shouldn't overcome your ability to fin up

In addition...

lift bag and/or DSMB with reel should help out

and finally...

ditch weights if all else fails
 
I have over 300 dives on my current wing and have never had a problem. Unless you are really hard on your gear you shouldn't have any problems with your wing diving recreationally. Check your gear before you go in the water and make sure that the LP hose and OPV valves and dumps are working properly. Most equipment problems start with poor predive gear checks.

If you do have a problem, even at 100' of depth, when I dive in a new XL 7mm full suit with hood, gloves, etc. I don't think I ever have more than about 1/4 of the wing filled. The wing has 30lbs of lift. If you're not over weighted, the compression on the wetsuit shouldn't add up to more than a few pounds. you should be able to swim that up. In the early days of diving, there were no BC's.

If you are not a strong swimmer, with that much weight (+/- 30lbs), some of it should be ditchable in a controlled manner (1 or 2 lbs) so you don't have an uncontrolled ascent. Remember that once you get to 30' or 40' you shouldn't have any problem with an empty wing.
 
I tried this.... with a wing blown on the left side and venting as I filled it .... I rolled over on my left side putting the tear down and filed the wing I at least had something to off set the some of the larger neg buoyancy. I did that cause I sufferd a a real blowout of a wing wearing doubles. No matter what I tried and how odd it was to make it work it still broke down to I should have had on a DS when using doubles and that problem would not hav been an issue. There is no time to use a smb or lift bag when you have no hard bottom to work from. makes use of a old vintage horse collar pretty appealing when you don't have a DS.

As to how common? I have had 3 of them. each and every one (in hindsight) happened from user error. I had the rig set up, and had in a location where other tanks/rigs would hit mine (during transport) causing an impact puncture that gradually tore open.
 
Last edited:
So... The open bottom, no OPV (except the open bottom) sausage I routinely shoot from my safety stop on boat dives isn't a deployable Surface Marker Buoy?

I beg to differ. And so does the manufacturer of said sausage.


And to the OP: having redundant buoyancy is one of the many advantages of diving a drysuit in cold water. So in the unlikely case of a wing failure I'd return to using my DS for buoyancy.
I stand corrected. The point remains, though, that a DSMB has a means of dumping air on ascent.
 
I had a punctured wing I dove with for about a dozen dives before I repaired it. It was even an OMS BWOD and I didn't have an issue with it. I had another wing that had a stuck OPV and was split on a seem after being recovered. It took me a couple of dives to figure out that it was split and I kept on diving it until I got the replacement. I never had a real failure while diving. If I did, I am so close to neutral at all times, that it would not be a big problem. I like a balanced rig.

Does this happen? Not often and you should be neutral enough to deal with it. When I can't be balanced, I opt for redundant lift, either in the BC or with a dry suit.
 
I would say that the solution to the ruptured wing issue is multi faceted:
1) have redundant buoyancy either in a dry suit, DSMB, lift bag.
2) have your rig balanced so you can swim it up in the event of a failure.
3) have ditchable weight in the event that your can not make your configuration balanced. Enough weight should only be ditched to allow an ascent to start - ditch too much and it could start a very buoyant ascent.
 
Wing failure is very rare. For a wing to fail you need your OPV to fail, potentially two depending on your wing, your inflator would need to freeze open, and the dump on your inflator would have to not be working either. I had the opportunity to tour a plant that makes wings, and see how the seems are made, and see a strength test be done. It took a lot of pressure to break the bladder, and it wasn't the seem that gave out. So I would not be overly concerned about a wing failure. That being said, all the advice given is good. Balanced rig if possible, ( personally I am overweight all the time as I dive twin 130's, but I dive dry as a back up), back up device if you are really concerned, and of course detachable weight, although this is the absolute last option and you only ditch a bit. If you drop your whole weight belt you are now rocketing to the surface.

Unless you are diving totally open blue water with nothing around you, and in essence no floor, then you likely have something to grab onto to stop your decent and give oyu time to figure out what you need to do.
 
At the basic diver level you shouldn't be so over weighted that you cannot swim to the surface in the event of a BCD failure. A balanced rig is a beautiful thing, you'll work less, especially in the shallower water.

The Ultimate Weight Check
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom