When do you put the weight belt on?

[Rich Keller]

More on dive fatalities and weight belt dropping...

According to DAN's annual reports, cardiac events average over 40% of fatalities annually. DAN and PADI did a joint analysis of fatalities a couple of years ago and determined that the number one training-related cause of fatalities was the sequence of drowning preceded by air embolism preceded by rapid, panicked ascent preceded by out of air emergency. In those cases, the victims succumbed at or near the surface. It should be noted that in those cases, the divers generally do reach the surface. I most cases, the bodies are found floating on the surface. Prompted by that study, PADI made a number of changes to its OW instruction, including more focus on the buddy system, more emphasis on gas management, and dropping weights while at the surface so that it is easier to stay there once the surface is reached.

These problems can also be attributed to panic. The first rule of diving as far as I am concerned is "If you panic, you die". Like the divers found dead on the bottom we will never know what really happened without an autopsy. The people found dead on the surface may also not have been out of air when they died even though they were found later with no air. Panic could also have caused the heart attack that your study is assuming was the original problem. My point is simple, I would rather take short odds of survival on the surface then no odds of survival on the bottom.

I read a bunch of posts about your friend but not the whole thread and I was shocked at the solutions people were coming up with like deploying a lift bag. I would be on the surface before someone else unclips the bag and rolls it open so they are ready to put air into it that they may not even have! Most if not all of the solutions involved adding more and more equipment to solve a problem that can be done faster and easier with the release of one buckle. For a new diver all this extra equipment could be adding to their stress from the start while causing confusion and delay in an emergency. Even an experienced diver could easily waist time they do not have working on a more complicated solution to an emergency.

I am not sure how I can learn from the DAN reports if they no longer publish them but what I would really like is to see just the raw data from these accidents and come to my own conclusions rather then being told by DAN and PADI what to think.

 

[KevinG58]

SSI taught and practiced ditching weights at depth of about 20 feet, and the very buoyant ascent that followed, when I did my OWD in '95.

 

[boulderjohn]

SSI taught and practiced ditching weights at depth of about 20 feet, and the very buoyant ascent that followed, when I did my OWD in '95.

Really?

I am going to guess that was not SSI in general but rather your particular instructor. That is the buoyant emergency ascent, which is taught in the academic portion of the course as a last resort option. It is normally not included in the physical instruction because of the danger. I cannot say what the SSI standards were in '95, but I can say that I am surprised.

 

[Tennisbuff]

I carry about 18 lbs in my BC and 19 lbs on my weight belt (Dry suit w/fleece). Weight belt goes on before my BC (Zeagle). I can ditch either one easily and it's so much easier to put on the belt before the BC.