Pre dive equipment checks

[Sakara Drinker]

A few years ago I was staying at the Marsa Shagra Eco Villiage near Marsa Alam. This site is the nearest bit of shore to Elphinstone reef which we dived a lot that week. This day we kitted up as usual, I checked everything worked and loaded it all onto the RIB. Half an hour of being bounced about and we were there. The guide told us it would be a negative entry so I spoke to my buddy and we said we would meet up at 5m. Over the back we go. As the water is crystal clear we spotted each other immediately and she gave me the thumbs down signal. Fine by me so down we went. We had planned to level out at 40m so at about 35m I went to put air in my BCD. Slight problem here, the button seems to have fallen off. Ok, right then, time for oral inflation, not a problem, I can do this. Well actually it was a bit of a problem as everytime I blew into the mouthpiece the air rushed into the hole where the inflater button used to be. I now ended up with my thumb over the hole, my finger on the deflate button and me breathing into the mouthpiece. Luckily my thumb proved to be an adequate seal and I levelled off about 45m which I didn't think was too bad given the circumstances.

Once I knew how to do this I wasn't worried so I carried on the dive. I was quite confident in my ability to get air into the jacket should I need it.

The main thing this taught me was that just because your equipment is in full working order when you load your kit, it doesn't necessarily work after it has been bounced about in a RIB for 30 mins. I should have checked it then. Oh well, if you are lucky, you live and learn.