My daughter and I were diving off a boat at Jupiter Beach, Florida. It was a stormy day with high swells and intermittent heavy showers. We did the first dive with no problems, but during our surface interval, the swells picked up again to the point that my daughter wasn’t feeling well.
When the time arrived for the second dive, we skipped most of the safety checks, only checking that our air was on, so she could get off the boat and into the water.
During the dive briefing, the Divemaster said that the group would be entering the water negatively buoyant to quickly get below the swells and into calmer water.
As we neared the top of the reef, I put a few bursts of air into my BCD, but my descent didn’t slow. Uh-oh, I thought. After two more unsuccessful tries I realised that the worst that could happen would be to land on the bottom at 24m.
I got my daughter’s attention, signalled to her that I was having a problem, and then alerted the Divemaster. My daughter swam up behind me, and I could feel her adjusting my gear.
After about 30 seconds, the Divemaster signalled for me to try my inflator hose, and this time the air I put in my BCD stayed there. We continued the dive without further incident.
Back on the boat we critiqued the situation. When my daughter swam over to investigate, she saw bubbles coming from my regulator but went to double check that my tank was fully open. Once she was behind me, she could see that the cover of the shoulder dump was off, so the BCD could not hold air.
Luckily, the valve’s design kept all the parts together, so all was well after my daughter screwed the cover back on. I came away with the following lessons:
• Inspect your gear. Never skip your predive safety checks. My daughter and I regularly dive together, so we were complacent about conducting thorough predive safety checks and in a rush to get off the boat and into the water.
• Always dive with a buddy. While my Rescue Diver training prepared me to remove my BCD underwater to look at it if needed, it is much better to have someone examine my equipment while it’s still on me. Staying close is an important part of buddy diving.
• Don’t panic. Our training prevented us from panicking. I knew the worst thing that could happen was landing on the bottom and taking off the BCD to more thoroughly check things if needed.
• Listen to the dive briefing. The Divemaster told us that the maximum depth was about 24m. Since it was dark due to the cloud cover, and depth is not easy for me to discern with my corrective lenses, I might have panicked had I not known that the bottom was close.
A thorough safety check, having a plan with your buddy and being attentive to the briefing will lower your risk once you get in the water.
As divers, we have basic safety principles for a reason. This incident could have been much worse if we were diving a wall and there was no bottom nearby; I am glad that my daughter and I had been thoroughly trained to address the situation.
Taking the extra time for both yourself and your buddy before getting in the water is important for every diver on every dive.
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This article was originally published in Scuba Diver ANZ #60.
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I had a similar event recently that I missed on my pre di e check as it wasn’t immediately apparent until I was in the water.
In between dive trips I had completed a BCD rinse and clean I had removed a dump valve to release water.
Despite replacing it I had unknowingly cross threaded it and on my first dive of the next trip it very slowly released air during the dive making buoyancy very difficult.
After 5-10 mins of the dive I knew something wasn’t right. I thought I was overweighted but the continuous need for air in my BCD suggested otherwise.
I remembered the valve removal and as it was my shoulder one reached it myself and gave it a tighten.
It snapped through the cross thread and I felt it seal properley.
Problem solved. Buoyancy rectified. Dive enjoyed.