Always check your kit!

[Helen F H]

Ok, so i am big enough and ugly enough to know what i did wrong here, but thought i would share it with you too.

First dive this year for me was on the Brummer, once i managed to assemble all my kit, hunt out all the relevant bits and get the regs serviced etc. I dive with a Halcyon 40lb wing, and it has been known for the inflator to bleed gas into the wing itself very slowly (a good clean sorts it out). I was worried about this, so inflated the wing to almost totally full and left it for 10 minutes. Coming back to it, it was exactly the same as when i had left - so no problems there.

Stepping off the side of the boat and swimming to the shotline I feel the unpleasant rush of water into my mask. I pull the skirt flatter against my face and begin my descent but it really has no effect, water is still pouring in. Once I start to sink I add a little gas to the wing to slow me down, but it seems to make no difference (although the French guys who jumped just before me sank like stones). I press the button for longer, hearing the hiss of the gas as it leaves the inflator.
The wreck looms from the green below and I still seem to be adding gas to slow the descent, but it is making no difference. I end up having to use the suit to make any odds, not just a quick squirt to take the squeeze off. All a little task loaded, a flooding mask and then a mysterious buoyancy failure there is no way I am leaving the top of the wreck to explore the deck.

Surely I don’t need a lot less lead? Nothing has changed in a big way. Hmmm. I try adding more gas and then I hear it - the sound of bubbles behind my head. Not the gushing freeflowing o-ring blown sphincter tightening type bubbles, more the kind of “you have got a hole in your wing you f*cking muppet” type bubbles. Oh fannies. I mooch around on the top of the Brummer for 20 minutes getting to the bow and then making my way back again.
I follow the line of the deck back to the bridge deciding to can the dive before I get anywhere near a deco stop. No point in that when you are not sure about your kit and you are solo. I find the pale line of the shot next to the bridge and head back up. On de-kitting I find that the legacy of the rather quick descent is a fine set of dry suit hickies all down my shoulder, a perfect imprint of my bra strap in bruise. Lurvely. Wing dropped into Ben at Scapa Scuba and patched, so all fixed now.

I also dived yesterday (solo again) on the Dresden and then on the Doyle (one of the blockships in Burra Sound). I had my regs serviced last week and they are pretty much perfect, so i wasnt really expecting to find this....



following my second dive. Because i did some GUE training i had removed the hose protectors from my regs and now i see why i did it. This is on the 2nd stage end of the hose - the first time i had seen one go at that end. A hose protector would have obscured this from view, meaning it could have all ended in tears one dive soon. Not something a service would have picked up on, as i am 100% sure it wasnt there before the second dive and the hose looked in good condition too.

Moral of the story - just because your kit has had one problem once, doesnt mean something totally different wont come along too. Servicing doesnt stop problems from happening either. Oh yeah, and a solo dive is possibly not a good idea too.

[Digger]

I'd have gone back up the shot. Well, I would if it had been the Koln or the Karlsruhe, but maybe not the Brummer Every day's a school day in Scapa!

And to think you reckoned I used technique to solve equipment problems!

Digs.

[Buoyant Babe]

Glad you are okay Helen

I have already removed most of my hose protectors - but the rest are on their way after reading this

Loev Hxxx

[GLOC]

Good post Helen. I was very surprised when I saw which end of the hose had gone. Most of the time this sort of thing happens at the other (1st stage) end.

[Scubee]

oooerr! glad you are OK... i think i would have been on the way up if I couldn't sort the mask, let alone the bouyancy. I too am converted... hose protectors (the ones that are left) are to be sent to the 101 box

[MartyC]

Good post Helen, thanks for sharing.
Note to self - make sure you check ALL items of kit before jumping in!
I don't often look at the hoses, sounds dumb but I suppose the "familiarity breeds contempt" and complacency factors do creep in quite a bit

[Lou]

Actually, to be controversial, i would say the reason the hose looks like that is *because* you removed the hose protectors and, presumably, routed the hoses crossed behind you head. I had never seen it before I did that either.....

[GLOC]

Originally Posted by Lou

Actually, to be controversial, i would say the reason the hose looks like that is *because* you removed the hose protectors and, presumably, routed the hoses crossed behind you head. I had never seen it before I did that either.....

Lou, how would this effect the 2nd stage end of the hose? I can understand the 1st stage end getting more bent because of the routing, but the 2nd stage end?

[Digger]

See, gob in gear before brain had processed information. Not like Lou at all. I was about to try and come up with a convincing argument, but yours has negated all of them!

Digs.

[Lou]

LOL! OK, so I scanned it and didn't reister the second stage hose. Blame getting whinged at if I spend too long on here these days. Still my second stage long hose has done that too, but only at the first stage end.

Confused why hose protectors mentioned now.

Can I blame tying on boltsnaps instead