Slightly out of Trim

[Rechno]

So, sharing a litte story that happend on my last trip.

Was diving with BP/W and STA, since it was a vacation in Thailand. All throughout the dive, my usual feeling of my position in the water was slightly "off". After a while I decided to wiggle a little bit and felt, that there was more movement then there should be.

I wanted to take off the rig and check it, but even after signaling, that i´m fine, as soon as I started to take it off, the full group of divers was buzzing around me, looking, checking, asking me if everything is ok... and all over again.
My regular buddy also checked and for a while it seemed to be fine.

Then, during a tighter swimthrough I touched the ceiling and suddenly it felt weird again.
So now I decided, that I have to check myself. I signaled everyone to stay away, took of my rig in midwater and saw, that the buttefly nuit, which I use to fix the STA and wing to the backplate had come off. (I wondered how this happend, since I never had the screw come loose during a dive before, but I guess somewhere I must have messed up)

Luckily I had a backpad and the nut was stuck between it and the backplate, otherwise it would have fallen off somewhere in the Adaman sea. I decided to not try to fix it underwater, and risking to let it slip out of my hand, since we were beginning our safety stop anyway. So I just tucked everything under my arm and went on.

Lessons learned:

a) Bring spare nuts. (Since I never considered it to be likely to loose it, I did not think about bringing one, that could have messed up the LOB-trip

b) A BFK might have helped against the swarm of "helpful" divers and I could have checked the issue myself in the first place. ( They were not afraid of the linecutter ;-) )

c) The guys with the cameras have fun, if you look kind of stupid.

d) It is good to practice taking your rig off and putting it back on and keeping your buoyancy.

 

[Alastor]

Nice to know that you were able to recover the nut and reassemble the STA.
Anyway, when traveling and using STA, I replaced the butterfly wingnut with lock nut. The ones with a plastic ring inside. Because there is no need to dissassemble the STA as when diving doubles. I know there are also lock butterfly wingnut, but I was not able to find them, and after all, the standard locking nut are more convenient when you tight them wint a spanner.

 

[rongoodman]

The nuts on my STA loosen from time to time but so far I've always felt the movement of the tank on the BP before the nut actually came off.

 

[Rechno]

It was the first time, that it came loose. I check them before I dive and so far have never experienced any "loosening" to talk of, neither with doubles nor the singles. So it came as a slight surprise.

Anyhow, I guess had I done what I wanted and checked it myself the first time, it would not have come off. Touching the ceiling was then, what gave it the rest.

 

[Landau]

How is this possible? I've read many, many, posts here on how BP/W eliminates all the points of failure in a BCD

I guess that still could be correct as my BCD does not have any wing nuts to be a point of failure.

 

[scbaNE2179]

Are you using a crotch strap with your rig? I've used a BPW rig w/o one so maybe this additional piece of equipment would minimize your BP from shifting around? And why the backpad since the plate sits on your back against a wetsuit? I guess I like the cold-hard plate against my back with my rig-never even thought about a backpad.

 

[PfcAJ]

I use lockwashers with my backplate, singles, doubles, whatever, always a lockwasher.

 

[Rechno]

I dont know how this was possible. I think I must have messed up when fastening the screw and did not notice it when I checked everything.

I do use a crotch strap exactly for the reason that there is not too much shifting.

 

[w3dge]

I use lockwashers with my backplate, singles, doubles, whatever, always a lockwasher.

Me too - its the only way to be sure!

 

[Alastor]

But lockwashers are not stainless ... or you got stainless ?