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General Diving Forum Anything which is diving related but not covered by the other forums. Want to make an announcement, found a cool diving video, need to blow of steam, whatever - it's open to you.
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October 14th, 2006, 03:12 PM
| #1 (permalink) |
| "Like a diver... only shorter"  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Scapa Flow, Orkney
Posts: 101
   | Kit Failures - my observations Ok, for someone who has dived briefly in a DIR stylee I thought it might be of interest to some of you the kit failures I have seen over the season and the implications these have had for the divers involved. I have just spent my first season working on board a charter vessel in Scapa Flow, Orkney where the German Fleet lie in anything from 18m to 43m. Divers come from all over the world to view these wrecks, and i think i have learned a heck of a lot. Take what you like from this little collection of calamity. These failures can be divided into two categories - the equipment itself failing or improper use due to insufficient or incorrect training/practice. I have listed both here. Of course there will be many more failures than those listed here, but these are the ones we got to know about or required action on our behalf. The divers in question are from all over the world, diving every sort of configuration imaginable. By far the most common failure is a reel during SMB deployment. I count on at least one a week, regardless of the groups experience, make, model, type of reel or SMB. I can virtually guarantee we will have to pick up a stray one at some point. Now this kind of failure - simply jamming it as it is going up and letting it go is rarely any sort of problem as almost every diver carries an SMB and reel, and a buddy pair can simply use the other persons to try again. Many of the cheaper SMB’s, which do not seal will lose gas in rough weather and lie low in the water or even sink. The delayed aid model became detached from the line itself after deployment due to part of the plastic snapping. The small ones (around 2 ft tall and filled orally - used by DIR divers) were pretty unsuitable for diving up here where you can get big swells very quickly and divers very spread out if they have differing run times (not a problem if it is an all DIR group as the run times will be very similar making the divers easier to track by the boat). I guess this is one time that size does matter chaps, Scapa Flow is a big chunk of sea. Moz getting comfortable with his weener blob   I managed to get the teardrop from the metal boltsnap on the bottom of the halcyon SMB caught in the elastic strap of my glove while deploying. I was dragged up around 3m before I detached it (this was in Burra sound in a fierce current - a less than perfect deployment by me, but the first in many months!). Twice we have had minor stress when a buddy pair didn’t send up another blob after losing the first deployed and we were in Hoxa sound, close to a shipping lane. Always good fun. The other kind of problem is a loss of buoyancy control while deploying an SMB, but this is far rarer, having seen only one or two of these and the diver can seldom recall what caused the actual loss of control. Next on the list is probably buoyancy control. Although this can’t be pinned down to a specific bit of kit, it tends to be one of two things, a BCD/Wing or a drysuit. By far the most common of the two is air not being dumped sufficiently quick from a drysuit, having seen at least five rapid ascents because of this. Many people will tend to bulk up their undersuits to combat the cold water of Scapa and not realise the implications this has with the ability of air to migrate to the dump valve and escape. Other problems with drysuits - numerous leaks leaving divers cold and miserable. Neckseals rolling down to create a garrotte at depth. Very poor placement of valves (being too far under the divers arm meaning it was impossible for them to dump any gas in the top portion of the shoulder.). Divers placing equipment straps (in this case a knife) on either side of a cuff dump. Divers being economic with the truth about their drysuit experience. Loss of weightbelts - I have only seen on the surface and the belt was recovered without issue. Divers being underweighted caused many problems, but all easily rectified providing they had the sense to notice they were struggling to descend and ask for more lead. Hoses - I have seen one high pressure hose burst at depth, but luckily for the diver it was only at 6m and they ascended without issue. The hose had shown no signs of wear and the burst was within one inch of the end closest to the first stage. One wing had catastrophic failure due to a very large number of holes (we are talking double figures here, the guy who repaired it questioned if the diver had just dumped his girlfriend…), some right through both sides of the bladder itself. The wing was a bungeed 100lb wing and appeared to be in good condition. On closer inspection some of the holes in the outer bag were noticeable but only when the bungee was stretched out, otherwise they were hidden in the folds of material. Another failure occurred when the corrugated inflator hose became detached from the inflator assembly resulting in loss of buoyancy at the surface. My own inflator jammed on but this was sorted out by cleaning the inflator after the dive. At no point did I see a clip or buckle fail. However, some people would forget to clip up the many buckles found on some BCD’s leaving up to three unclipped (I ponder task loading for this one) or really struggle to undo shoulder buckles when de-kitting as the harness had been pulled tight underwater once the diver had descended. One person lost a mouthpiece from their main reg causing a minor panic and going onto their buddies alternate air source. This was due to the loss of the cable tie from around the rubber section. Several people ran very low on gas and ascended on their buddies supply. The neoprene mask slap straps seem to make it easy to lose your mask when entering the water. Maybe something to check on the surface, as they ride up over the neoprene of the hood. One person was unfortunate enough to flood his rebreather and therefore render it unusable for the rest of the week (hope you got it sorted mate). One contents gauge leaked so much that it had to be replaced with my own to save the dive. Two drysuit hoses leaked enough to cause problems, one freeflowing when it was connected to the suit which didn’t cause to much of an issue and was replaced by my own, the other having an uncontrolled freeflow on the boat losing the diver over 50bar of gas. One diver reported getting line stuck in the spring of a spring strap, but it was one of the kind that has a partially uncovered section of metal spring that will allow for trapping if flexed. One interesting trend has been that we seem to have had more incidents requiring some sort of action on our behalf near the end of the season than the start. Also all of the DCI incidents we have seen have been skin bends, but then I do know what a skin bend looks like and might be better at spotting them! One diver missed 4 minutes of stops simply because everyone else’s computers had cleared and he thought he should go up too. I now know what every single computer on the market looks like when it is bent. 
__________________ You can dive any way you want to. Just don't expect me to be down there with you.... Last edited by Helen; October 14th, 2006 at 03:14 PM. |
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October 14th, 2006, 03:45 PM
| #2 (permalink) |
| Moderator  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Fleet, Hants
Posts: 1,963
| Nice report Helen. I am glad you survived the season and are now very happy up there in chilly jocko land (and soon to be much chillier!). Good luck over the quiet winter. Take care and dive safe!
__________________ Gareth Images of Life Photography DIR Team Foxturd Travels Underwater and Further Afar If you don't have the time to do something right, where are you going to find the time to fix it? - Stephen King |
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October 14th, 2006, 08:11 PM
| #4 (permalink) |
| New Member  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Southern California
Posts: 566
| Quote: (Originally Posted by Helen)  Moz getting comfortable with his weener blob Nice write up, great photo, I might have to pinch that for the website.Tobin
__________________ http://www.deepseasupply.com |
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October 14th, 2006, 09:22 PM
| #6 (permalink) |
| Haemoglobin on the bus...  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Barnsley, UK
Posts: 1,900
| Nice report Helen, interesting stuff! As well as Moz's SPG leak (as you said, sorted by borrowing yours!) I had a mouthpiece fall apart mid-dive. Sorted by switching to my backup and replacing it back on the boat. Quote: (Originally Posted by TobinGeorge) Nice write up, great photo, I might have to pinch that for the website. We did have some fun with those SMBs in Scapa Tobin - thanks  Quote: (Originally Posted by StephenT) I don't actually recall small smbs being DIR approved ? :> i think its just moz :p We had good conditions up there with no swell to speak of, so they were just the ticket. We also used a small one up the same line as the main SMB to indicate 2 of us underneath (and we did talk to Helen and Hazel about this so they knew!). |
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October 14th, 2006, 10:03 PM
| #7 (permalink) |
| New Member  Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Middlesex
Posts: 76
| Quote: (Originally Posted by Helen) <snip> Hi Helen,One person was unfortunate enough to flood his rebreather and therefore render it unusable for the rest of the week (hope you got it sorted mate). </snip> I took the unit back to the factory on my return from Scapa, first dive after I got it back it flooded again! I now have a number of replacement parts fitted and will be testing it again tomorrow, fingers crossed. Ian |
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