Know your kit and practice with it

[PeeBee]

Just spent a great day out of Eastbourne on Our W diving the Playing Field, but one of the guys had an incident that shouldn't have happened. He's a reasonably experienced diver with 200 plus dives. This dive for many of the guys on the boat was going to be their 1st proper dive of the year and at 30m max may have been a bit deep in the circumstances. But the incident which occurred was clearly a mixture of rusty skills, new kit and depth. It turned out that the new drysuit which he was diving for the 1st time, came with an auto shoulder dump replacing a cuff dump on his old suit, lack of familiarity with it's use led to an uncontrolled ascent from 20m and last night/this morning, following some mild symptoms, a precautionary potting.
Seems to me that the 3 main lessons to be learned are;
Early dives after a break should be cautious and shallow
New kit should be practised in pools/shallow lakes or even retrained etc till familiar.
It's important to accept that skills get rusty and often need reinforcing.

[Houseplant]

a good point well made. i try to keep my kit as consistent as possible. obviously there is a need to change exposure protection, but the rest is the same, regardless of where i'm diving.

i've seen people flip from twinsets to singles, drysuits to wetsuits, change regulators, change fins etc over the course of a weekend. each to their own of course, but it's not going to help when something goes wrong.

[PeeBee]

a good point well made. i try to keep my kit as consistent as possible. obviously there is a need to change exposure protection, but the rest is the same, regardless of where i'm diving.

i've seen people flip from twinsets to singles, drysuits to wetsuits, change regulators, change fins etc over the course of a weekend. each to their own of course, but it's not going to help when something goes wrong.

I've made a few changes to my kit (new back plate, new wing, slightly different hose routing) in the last few months but I have made sure that
A. I only make 1 change at a time
B. I practice in a lake or pool with the new configuration before getting it salty/deep
C. I don't take extra task loading kit such as goody bags or cameras on "proper" dives with new config until I am completely comfortable with the changes.

[incapete]

I've made a few changes to my kit (new back plate, new wing, slightly different hose routing) in the last few months but I have made sure that
A. I only make 1 change at a time
B. I practice in a lake or pool with the new configuration before getting it salty/deep
C. I don't take extra task loading kit such as goody bags or cameras on "proper" dives with new config until I am completely comfortable with the changes.

Ditto - plenty of changes made but swapping a wing for a different type etc is an easy one to get used to quickly and I'd still practice in a pool/lake before going on a 'real' dive.
Currently playing with a new stage bottle so it's been in the pool and will be with me at Wrayspuddle this weekend - going to keep it out of the salty stuff until I'm happy that it won't give me anything else to worry about.

[ratcliffe]

Good points, especially when talking about the first dives of the year if you haven't been diving over the winter... a couple of guys on the shuttle I was on yesterday had rapid ascents, and although they showed no signs, obviously both will be keeping an anxious eye on themselves for the next 24 hours...

[DMD]

30m on a first dive on new kit with new features is chancing it a bit, but if he's ok himself and others have learned from it then at least some good has come out of the incident.

Even after doing such routine things as have regs serviced etc we always have a couple shallow dips somewhere to make sure everything is spot on.

D