One thing leads to another.....

[stuartr]

A few weeks back my bc inflator (not the hose) needed replacing..see earlier thread.
Diveshop in S Croydon tells me they will order the part and I say I will collect it next week or the week after.
I leave it to the Friday to collect, and the numpty hasn't ordered it. Feck. I'm doing dive leader training the next day.
shop insists on taking my bc and apologises. offers a loan of a bc which I decline as I can use my spare.
Incident dive 1: Buddy check OK.
Inflator hose sticks at 6m. Up I go, though its only shallow and no real drama. Frees up when pressed again. Apply silicon spray on shore and it frees it up more.
Incident dive 3: All my clips are on my bc in the shop. Jump in holding reel, mask and DV, pony reg in pocket, Occy hanging loose. massive free flow round the back of my tank, I'm not sure which, buddy sorts it, start the dive with 150 bar. Down to do mask clear, CBL and OOA training in cold mucky stuff.
last lift of four I start up on 90 bar. After doing the lift my instructor comes over and stuffs his Occy in my face?!?
Odd what's going on... as I sort my bouyancy out I look at my gauge it reads 5 bar.
Well it would be rude to refuse I think... The next OOA ascent is for real, but again no drama. (I did still have my pony but that would not have inflated my bc if out of air.)
So where did I screw up?
Don't leave it until the day before the dive to check your kit. Particularly if relying on others.
Don't use spare kit that hasn't been used for a while without servicing it- even though its only a "shallow" dive.
Ensure you have the same kit configuration as always and don't cut corners. eg not replacing/adding clips when I should.
Recognise that heavy task loading can be distracting and lead to small things getting much worse.
Why didn't I notice the final freeflow? I don't know maybe I was distracted or maybe the 7mm hood made it difficult to hear.

Any other thoughts....
Stuart

[GLOC]

Good post showing how the circle gets tighter when things start going wrong.

Good on your buddy for giving you the reg before you had to take it.

I think you pointed out all the issues - what happened to incident 2?

[nickb]

Originally Posted by stuartr

Any other thoughts....

Yes, do you think you're ready for Dive Leader training?

I wouldn't want to be lead on a dive with somebody who's ready to dive with such crap kit.

[stuartr]

Originally Posted by nickb

Yes, do you think you're ready for Dive Leader training?

I wouldn't want to be lead on a dive with somebody who's ready to dive with such crap kit.

Feel free to cast the first stone...

However apart from the replacement bc which in retrospect I should have not used because a)It was not in service and b) because I hadn't bought a clip for the occy. The other stuff was fine.
I guess I used it because it was familiar kit and I wanted to dive and didn't want to let other people down, which is again another thing to think about.
Therefore:Fair comment. I have learned from the experience.

The original Maveric bc (alas, in the diveshop)and Apex regs (used)were bought new in 2002 and have been serviced every year and they do not normally free flow. Sometimes even good kit, regularly serviced- fails/misbehaves. If you don't know this consider yourself lucky.

PS how often do you service your bc and drysuit?
Safe diving.
Stuart

[stuartr]

Originally Posted by GLOC

Good post showing how the circle gets tighter when things start going wrong.

Good on your buddy for giving you the reg before you had to take it.

I think you pointed out all the issues - what happened to incident 2?

Nothing....I mean't dive three..OOps

[nickb]

Originally Posted by stuartr

Feel free to cast the first stone...

You asked for our thoughts; frankly I struggled to restrain myself to my earlier comment.

Originally Posted by stuartr

However apart from the replacement bc which in retrospect I should have not used because a)It was not in service and b) because I hadn't bought a clip for the occy. The other stuff was fine.

In which case you ought to ask yourself how it all managed to go so horribly wrong. Hint - user error

Originally Posted by stuartr

Incident dive 3: All my clips are on my bc in the shop. Jump in holding reel, mask and DV, pony reg in pocket, Occy hanging loose. massive free flow round the back of my tank, I'm not sure which, buddy sorts it...

Contrary to your previous suggestion, the other stuff was far from fine. Good job you had a decent buddy who was quick to react, however that would be unlikely in the event that you were leading a novice diver on his/her first proper dive. BTW how quickly can you get that pony reg out of your pocket? You might want to rethink that strategy.

Originally Posted by stuartr

The original Maveric bc (alas, in the diveshop)and Apex regs (used)were bought new in 2002 and have been serviced every year and they do not normally free flow. Sometimes even good kit, regularly serviced- fails/misbehaves. If you don't know this consider yourself lucky.

PS how often do you service your bc and drysuit?

I know very well that kit can malfunction regardless of some arbitrary service schedule it may be subject to. I, however, take responsibility for my own kit and don't accept that just because it's been regularly serviced, it'll be 'alright on the night'.

I'll ask my earlier question again - do you really think you're ready for Dive Leader training?

[jimbob]

It would be a shame if people stopped posting less than perfect experiences for fear of being shredded, I'd rather learn from other people's mistakes.

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by nickb

I'll ask my earlier question again - do you really think you're ready for Dive Leader training?

I think Stuart has responded. I am sure he thought about your questin the first time, I don't think it appropriate to rub it in. We all learn from our mistakes, and I am sure he will have. The very fact that he has posted the incident on here seems to indicate that he has probably learned from the error of his ways. Does one day of incidents really mean he shouldn't progress? I doubt it - it is more about what he learned.

Trouble is, we don't always know that kit is likely to fail until it happens.

[GLOC]

Nick, Your posts are somewhat against the spirit of this sub-forum. I understand your comments but they needn't be put on this thread.

Stuart has highlighted what went wrong with his day and therefore I think that he has learned his lesson, as can others if they read this. As Jim has already said, it would be a shame to lose this medium for people to learn from other's mistakes if they were afraid to post because of comments like yours.

Therefore can I please ask you to remove the slating bits and leave the constructive criticism.

Regards

[wilbo]

Originally Posted by GLOC

Nick, Your posts are somewhat against the spirit of this sub-forum. I understand your comments but they needn't be put on this thread.

Stuart has highlighted what went wrong with his day and therefore I think that he has learned his lesson, as can others if they read this. As Jim has already said, it would be a shame to lose this medium for people to learn from other's mistakes if they were afraid to post because of comments like yours.

Therefore can I please ask you to remove the slating bits and leave the constructive criticism.

Regards

I am torn between two camps here.

Yes Nick was a little enthusiastic with his comments (I am sure he meant them constructively) and yes - the spirit of this sub-forum is to encourage people to speak up - however (in)experienced they are..

However I also believe that we should encourage discussion (and maybe a little constructive criticism) in this sub-forum. Otherwise we could get into the situation where people submit an incident, say they've learnt from it and expect no feedback - when actually they may have missed something important from their resolution: for instance a better way of checking their kit or a simple phone call or phoning the chamber sooner etc.

Learning is after all is a continual process.