When i went onto twinset diving, I thought long and hard about which wing to go for. I am aware that a significant number of incidents happen in relation to the difficulty in establishing postive buoyancy at the surface and took this into account when making my decision. I acted on advice and bought a dual bladder wing (Diverite Superwing 2). I have to say that i really liked it.
I went off to the dive show, and found the Frog Bargain. i had read about my drysuit supposedly providing redundant buoyancy, so i should be OK with a single bladder wing. Other advice was that a single bladder wing was the right thing to have. For me, the cost was worth 'giving it a go'.
I got the wing in February, i think it was and dived with it on several occasions. Nothing special, but no complaints either. Then I went to Swanage. I sat out of one of the boat dives, to accompany a nervous diver under the pier. He had had a bad experience on the Kyarra that morning, and needed a bit of confidence building. I wouldn't normally do a 4m dive with the twins, but hey ho, in for a penny!
We got in, swam out to the start of the pier and descended. Within a minute or so, I lost him (yes, the viz was that bad!) and surfaced (he was there!). I tried to fill the wing, ony to find that my low pressure inflator stuck open and was fizzing air out all over the place, and I couldn't get buoyant. I have no idea why, but i couldn't orally inflate the wing either at that point. No problem, i thought... shove air into the dry suit - that'll keep you afloat. I shoved air in but before I could relax and stop finning, the neck seal vented - Drysuit full.
OK,.... I am in about 4m of water under Swanage pier, and I can't stay afloat. Marvellous (but not really life threatening). So we descended again and remained under to navigate our way back to a position where i could stand, problem over. Luckily, i had shedloads of air and i was in shallow water. If the wing had failed that morning, I would have been in 30m of water and not so easy a situation to resolve.
I learned that day that my drysuit is not sufficient redundant buoyancy for a 12l twinset, SS backplate and no other kit in a situation where my wing fails.
I had the inflator looked at, and it is perfectly fine now- an o ring had failed. However, i won't dive with that wing again - back to the dual bladder Diverite.
