What Happens when you Take your BCD off at Depth

[IncreaseMyT]

I'd much rather have a regulator in my mouth during a shallow water blackout than nothing in my mouth, but I'm just weird like that.

Well then unfortunately you will probably die.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Not an expert by any means...but do a fair amount of freedive spearfishing and am constantly learning the sport. Remove the snorkel from your mouth when you dive. Mitigates some risk of flooding your lungs if you shallow water blackout. Read up on this. Plenty can be found via google

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From "Proper Use of Snorkel in Free Diving"

I teach all my students to ditch the snorkel upon descent. When you are freediving underwater with the snorkel in your mouth, the only thing stopping the water rushing into your lungs is your tongue which actively blocks the water from coming in your mouth. Were you to blackout underwater, your tongue would no longer perform that function and you would be introducing water into your airway.

Most free diving training agencies that I'm aware of teach student to ditch their snorkel on descent as its a drowning hazard.

 

[caruso]

Well then unfortunately you will probably die.

You are saying that a diver has a better chance of surviving a shallow water blackout with no regulator in their mouth as opposed to having an air delivering regulator in their mouth?

And you base this on 2 articles that specifically refer to a snorkel?

Is that right??

 

[Dan]

If I don't ditch the BCD and I pass out I will most surely end up face down, especially if I had a wing.

So 50/50 is better than no chance. Also with things broken, if your passed out your BCD or tank could fill up, and take you down. Just like it did Rob Stewart.

Rob Stewart case is different. He was using rebreather. So when he got hypoxia and passed out, his rebreather mouth piece fell out of his mouth and resulted in flooding up his rebreather counter lung. This won't happen to open circuit (OC) scuba system.

For me, if I got OOA from my OC scuba system, I just fin up to the surface and when I get to the surface then I dump my weight pouches to insure that I'll float.

 

[MichaelMc]

There are so many things wrong here.
* under water, snorkels connect to water, regs to air or nothing
* tanks do not just flood rapidly, or at all if they have any preasure
* something just happened so let’s shed all our gear is a weird plan

 

[IncreaseMyT]

There are so many things wrong here.
* under water, snorkels connect to water, regs to air or nothing
* tanks do not just flood rapidly, or at all if they have any preasure

Do we have pressure? I thought we were out of air? I am glad you are so confident.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

You are saying that a diver has a better chance of surviving a shallow water blackout with no regulator in their mouth as opposed to having an air delivering regulator in their mouth?

And you base this on 2 articles that specifically refer to a snorkel?

Is that right??

I thought we are out of air? Do we have air? If we do I still have my BCD and am doing a controlled ascent.

 

[caruso]

I thought we are out of air? Do we have air? If we do I still have my BCD and am doing a controlled ascent.

Ok let's assume we are out of air. I'd STILL be better off with a regulator in my mouth than nothing, should I black out.

And the studies you posted do not refute that.

 

[IncreaseMyT]

Rob Stewart case is different..

I understand what happened to him exactly, I have read about it a lot of the last 2 years.

My point is, you don't know what can happen. What if your out of air because your BCD inflator hose was severed, and a now it's taking on water.

The point is there is no good reason to have your BCD on an ascent if it isn't delivering air, thats the 1 thing I need it to do. I can do everything else without it, and am better off for it.

 

[caruso]

What if your out of air because your BCD inflator hose was severed, and a now it's taking on water..

That's impossible. Think about it.