Rescue of DIR style Diver

[g1138]

I was talking to a friend a while back about DIR gear set-ups and such. I remember him telling me that divers would put their weight belt under their crotch strap, the idea being you shouldn't have to dump weight and losing your weightbelt at depth could be dangerous etc etc.

I was wondering how that would pan out in a rescue situation. All likeliness aside, if you have to rescue an unconsious diver with his/her weight belt set under the crotch strap and harness, is it easy to take it off.
Assume the unconscious diver is kitted with bullet weights and weight keepers on his belt so that the weights sit at his hips. This would leave a gap on his back side which could easily drape and hook across the crotch strap if dumped.
How would you go about taking that belt off at
- at depth? (and at what orientation for the victim)
- at the surface?
- And what about your own assuming the same weight belt? On the surface would you undo your crotch strap then dump your belt?

I only ask because the way I was taught rescue was to dump the victim's weights at depth (recreational depths). I assume that if I were to bring a diver fully kitted up to the surface it would be safer to take the weights off first before the BC.

Any thoughts?

 

[Superlyte27]

What's a weight belt?

 

[*dave*]

Some would say the question should not be "How?", but "Why?".

Horizontal and face down is the best and easiest way I've found to strip a weight belt. If I were in a hurry, I'd probably just cut the crotch strap and let the belt drop.

 

[DevonDiver]

snip, snip, snip.

 

[lamont]

- don't ditch weights at depth

do a controlled ascent with all the divers gear. a workable procedure of how to go about doing this takes more than a short internet post, but ditching their weights at depth is definitely going to be unworkable.

- cut them out of their harness at the surface.

they should have some kind of cutting device at their waist, and you should have a cutting device as well. take the drysuit inflator off, take the backup reg off, unbuckle both the harness waist strap and the weight belt, cut the harness at the shoulders and everything should fall away cleanly (we actually did this, sacrificing one divers webbing that she wanted to replace anyway, in my rescue course -- it works as well as anything else).

and before you start to overthink the gear config -- keep in mind that a "rescue" is most often a misnomer, you probably have a dead diver on your hands that you just need to get to the authorities in order to make it official. if i'm the diver in question, i'm not too worried about how you're going to 'rescue' me, and i'm more concerned with what my gear is going to do for me while i'm alive, and i'm going to configure it optimizing for the latter case.

 

[TSandM]

To drop weight at the surface, you can unhook the waist strap, pull it through the crotch strap loop, and then unhook the weight belt. If the diver is vertical, the weight belt will easily fall off, and it should be the same if the diver is on his back. In the alternative, you can cut the harness and belt webbing.

One quick thought about removing a backplate, from someone who has been there . . . assess where the patient is before you do it. If you are on broken ground where finding a solid platform for CPR is going to be very difficult, consider cutting the cambands and simply removing the tank. The backplate makes an excellent board against which to do compressions. This may not be possible in doubles, but then again, doubles are much easier to use as a stable platform.

 

[g1138]

Thanks for the fast response everyone.

Some would say the question should not be "How?", but "Why?".

Reason Why: As my instructor put it, they're probably dead anyways so the important thing is to get them to the surface.
You can flare or let go if need be.

- don't ditch weights at depth

do a controlled ascent with all the divers gear. a workable procedure of how to go about doing this takes more than a short internet post, but ditching their weights at depth is definitely going to be unworkable.

Assuming the diver is overweighted or just too heavy to swim up. Would it be better to ditch their weights and get them up OR put some air input into their rig (orally or power inflate).
Does the answer change at all if you're say above 50ft?

 

[aquaregia]

On the surface it's not a problem. The only trouble I've ever had is with the crotchstrap getting caught on the buckle itself, and if the weightbelt is pulling on it, that'll undo it for you.

If you need to ditch their weights to get them off the bottom and they aren't overweighted, they'll end up flying to the surface as they gain all that in lift. It won't be a rescue at that point anymore.

The only time I can see needing to ditch weight is doing a negative entry with my tank valve switched off, which in my opinion is a buddy check/situational awareness problem, not a 'where to I keep my weight' problem.

 

[aquaregia]

Assuming the diver is overweighted or just too heavy to swim up. Would it be better to ditch their weights and get them up OR put some air input into their rig (orally or power inflate).
Does the answer change at all if you're say above 50ft?

Well, if we're talking about a DIR diver, that means that they're completely out of gas(es) or suffered both wing and suit failures. If we're talking grossly overweighted people dressing like coolguys, sure, it's a problem, but it's a different problem.

If wouldn't think there'd be much difference. You can vent the wing later if you have the opportunity, but you can't un-ditch a weight belt. On the other hand, you can't accidentally ditch more than all of their weight. If the wing is compromised then perhaps it's not the best option, or maybe it's just 'auto-venting'.

Above 50' this is probably less of a problem due to less wetsuit compression and a much greater pressure differential per-foot.

 

[LouieLouie]

Open the harness buckle, then the weight belt buckle, and weights are gone. Takes approximately 2 seconds.