Orally inflating a dry suit

[rhwestfall]

hmmmmm... if SA made a DS adapter it might then become "useful"....

As said before, I still am trying to figure how, with 5-7mm "gauntlet" gloves (and some times 3 fingered mitts) I am getting to my wrist seals, of with a "warm neck" collar, I am getting to my neck seal....

all of this AND being OOA??????

Then again, I'm still trying to figure out why when I need to be adding air to my DS if I am going up to end a dive that went wrong?

 

[krawlings]

Why would you take all the time to fiddle with all that when YOU ARE OOA you do not have the luxury of time . you need to be getting to the surface not worry on how you get air . you swim rig up or (and ) ditch some weight. and as stated earlier by other posters that air already in your suit / undergarments
will expand as you rise up in the water column and your buoyancy will self correct and then you will vent as needed . I see in that situation the oral inflat is only viable once on the surface (in a OOA Scenario ) An oral inflate would work dung a dive to control air consumption . by exhale your used air to inflate your DS as needed.

 

[MalibuJerry]

I don't get this thread. We have a double failure, OOA and wing or BC won't inflate. This seems unlikely, but were it to occur and you did not have an alternate air source, you need to ditch weights and get to the surface as soon as possible. The expansion in the dry suit will help your buoyancy as you ascend. If you can't swim up, you need to dump weight, fast! not screw around with trying to get air into a dry suit to lift you. If you have air from your buddy you have lots of options, importantly, dumping weight, heading up together, relying partially on his bc, using a lift bag as well. It seems that the scenario of faulty bc and OOA is much more of a rookie risk, in which case more difficult and not-practiced ways of adding air to your dry suit are not going to work anyway.

But...the reason why I don't get this thread is the assumption that the drysuit is a redundant buoyancy compensator. To be redundant, it cannot rely on the same source for air as the BC! If it does it is not redundant! So if you need a backup, the answer is not the ingenious solutions here, it is plug the damn thing into a different bottle. Then this scenario requires three failures, OOA primary, OOA backup, wing failure.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

I don't get this thread. We have a double failure, OOA and wing or BC won't inflate. This seems unlikely...

Very likely if you broke one of the most basic rules...monitor your gas often. I am seeing in my mind's eye, a diver with no DS training but trying out a DS with a buddy also with no DS training, single tank and taking on additional task such as checking out their new camera or a new area of the quarry / lake / ocean, guages all over the place, smalll light that the diver got cheap so he/she could afford the camera or DS and then it happens! OOA! Reg does not work but you keep trying, buddy not nearby or watching, light is too weak to signal, BC does not work, DS does not work and still trying to swim up still holding that darn camera (feel free to sub catch bag or good find). The diver does not even think about dropping the weights due to panicing to get a breathe or reach the surface. Now the diver begains to kick like heck, using those bigger muscles and starts to burn oxygen more and the diver blackouts and dies. Nothing that just happened had anything to do with the need to add air to the darn DS.

Now if we could change things around. Diver trying out his/her DS post training, shallow depth, not adding additional gear, buddy is there to watch and assist and both are watching their SPGs. The divers are getting low on gas and they end the dive and have a good post dive discussion of the good and bad of the dive. Ever wonder why the only two courses that PADI (unless something changed) requires a pool session for are OW and DS suit courses?

Having well over 300 DS dives, DS certified and with 5 different suits (shell and neo), I have only had one case where I wish I could have added more air to it. That one case was a total flood with a used suit I was trying out. My buddy was aware of the new suit so we planned a very easy and shallow dive. By the time I hit about 25 feet I gave the thumbs up. At that point it was as if I was wearing waders. Adding air would not have helped in that case either but it would have felt better that the 45 degree water. Most problems with dry suits is trying to get the air out while going up. Ever try venting in the caves? Easy with Neo suits but bag suits are harder IMHO.

So back to the main problem. Watch that darn SPG. That BC and drysuit are like adding two more lungs using more air than usual. "If you got air you don't have a problem but an inconvenience." Not my quote but it has been in diving for a long time and I like it.

 

[MalibuJerry]

Tony you made my point. If this happens, as in your first scenario, there is no way you are going to try to figure out how to inflate your drysuit as in this thread. You are already a CF, totally task loaded, not trained nor prepared for this, and a gnat's eyelash from panic. And somehow you are going to take your buddies octo, open your wrist seal, add air so you can have enough buoyancy to ascend? This is totally ludicrous.

 

[Tigerman]

...
Most of all: when the rottweilers hit the fan, STOP, THINK, ACT

With a rottweiler pissed off after hitting a fan coming after me, STOP wont be my first action

 

[lindenbruce]

They used to have these built into the old horse collar BCs when they first came out but at depth, even if you had two of them built in, the gas from the cartridge was not enough to make much difference. All you would get from them would be a small bubble of air in the back of your neck.

LMFAO!!!!!

 

[dive_turkey]

Went ahead and tested this over the weekend. At 30ft, with a normal breath, I swam up my empty BC and my empty DS. I was at 35bar (for safety) in a public pool with a secure rope to the surface. Turns out that when weighted properly, maybe even a couple lbs heavy, still a little unsure, I can swim up my completely empty rig on a single breath without dropping weight.

Also, it became very easy after the first 5 ft as my suit expanded from the residual air I was unable to purge, which loosened up my suit allowing less kick effort and increased my buoyancy enough that venting was required to control the ascent. With one hand on holding my computer so I could watch ascent rate (until my BT arrives) and the other ready to ditch weight, I had zero issues moving towards the light.

There was absolutely no need for a redundant source of DS gas once I made the decision to abort my dive. When I reached the surface I orally inflated my BC. I still had all 24lbs of ditchable weight on me, a camera (GoPro) and flashlight.

 

[Johanan]

For me this makes the summary of the thread:

The whole idea of breaking a seal for any reason is absurd -- to get to my wrist seals, I'd have to undo my dry gloves and then try to pick the seal open; to get to my neck seal, I have to pull my hood out of the suit and then fumble, with gloves fingers, to even FEEL the seal. I've seen this recommended as a solution for a non-venting dry suit as well, and thought that equally impractical for the environments where dry suits are typically used.

Being in an OOA situation is a serious indictment of a diver's lack of skills and situational awareness. Do any of us really believe that this person will suddenly throw a switch marked "Turn on superior skills" and become capable of filling his suit by purging a regulator into a wrist seal or orally inflating? .. If we are serious..., let's focus on basics and restate the lessons already there for us to learn and follow.

Seems to me a far more logical solution in that case isn't to add air to the suit, but to ditch some weight or swim yourself upward to better utilize the buoyancy of whatever air is already in there. Once you begin the ascent, the problem becomes self-correcting...

Thanks!

 

[AfterDark]

For me this makes the summary of the thread:











Thanks!

IMO the only reason to have a practical ability to orally inflate a dry suit is your own warm breath. It is comfortable and warm and a nice option to have once you've experienced it.

In the case of the early jet suit the hose was also used to deflate the suit, the location caused the diver to have to do a roll and head angle up to move the bubble to the hose. It wasn't something most divers wanted to do and it did allow a small amount of water in at times and all things considered was a PITA. However having a short flex hose with an oral inflator on the chest only for inflation would seem to be a practical way to get it done. Venting would still be done by the suits original valve.

I may consider doing this when I install my p-valve. As long as I'm making one hole why not two?