BCD Failure

Every so often we get the reminder that diving is in fact still dangerous and we risk our lives every time we submerge. But for many of us, that is what attracts us to it. The idea that we are cheating science and evolution, that we are going where humans don’t belong.

Recently, I had an equipment failure and I thought some of you might find some value in hearing about what happened.

I just got a new wing. My old buoyancy compensating wing finally wore out after 20 years. It was an old Halcyon Explorer 55# wing, but what I really cherished about it was the old logo Halcyon Patch that bore the old slogan, “The ‘Doing It Right’ Equipment Company.

It’s a horseshoe style wing, which  I actually still prefer. Nothing against the new donut style wings but I really like the feel of the horseshoe when diving doubles and carrying extra bottles for stage and deco. I’m probably one of only 10 people out there still diving a horseshoe style wing,  but what can I say? I’m old school.

Now truth be told, I didn’t get a brand new wing. An old buddy of mine who bought a bunch of gear for diving doubles a few years after I started was getting out of diving and he asked if I wanted any of his gear. His wing was only used a handful of times, maybe 5 or 6 dives. It was in beautiful shape and looked like it was new. Most importantly, it also had the old logo with the old slogan on it. I was stoked to get my hands on it.

Well, a few weeks ago, my dump valve on my old wing with thousands of dives on it finally gave away. It ripped away from the outer shell material and it was time to part ways with my old faithful wing. Lucky for me I didn’t have to go shopping, I had a new one sitting and waiting.

The next week, I was headed down to the Florida Keys to teach a class, we would be wearing doubles down there and I grabbed my “new” wing for the trip. Down in the basement with all of my extra gear down in my diving locker. I opened up a plastic storage box and there she was. My new girl. But I didn’t really do any inspection of it other than blow it up and make sure the inflator worked, that it was holding gas, and that the dump valve fired.

The first few days of the class went well. The students were working hard and learning a lot. We were diving everyday, despite a small hurricane trying to disrupt our plans for a week of dive training in Key Largo.

Later in the week, we were diving on the Spiegel Grove.

Hurricane Nicole broke up on the coast north of us and the seas had calmed down except for some moderate winds and a tolerable chop. Much better than a few days before.

I entered the water with a splash. A giant stride from the back of the boat with double 80’s on my back. The waves were choppy and the current was present but manageable, especially with the tag line floating off the back of the boat. I was resting on the surface and holding onto the line while I waited and watched for the other divers to enter.

Visibility seemed good and the current would be easier to address underwater rather than on the surface. I signaled my team mate to submerge here and swim the short distance to the mooring line instead of getting beaten up by the surface conditions.

As I lifted the head of the inflator and depressed the dump button, the gas started escaping and then the whole inflator came off in my hand. The corrugated hose separated from the inflator and all of the gas started to leave my wing. I quickly became negatively buoyant as I looked at my buddy who was directly in front of me with an expression on his face that clearly stated, “you have got to be kidding me!”

This is the absolute worst time for a bcd failure. At the beginning of the dive, all of your bottles are the heaviest because they are full of gas, and now you lose your primary source of surface buoyancy. This is where years of experience and a trust in my diving philosophy came to my defense.

Although the water was warm down there, I was diving in my Drysuit. For years I’ve taught the concept of weighting yourself for a balanced rig. Meaning you are never too light when all your gas has been used to hold your shallowest stops on the ascent, but also when your are at the beginning of a dive and everything is full of gas and you are at your heaviest, you can still swim your gear up. The Drysuit adds the benefit of being able to add gas, becoming backup buoyancy, without the need to have  a redundant BCD/Wing.

Back at the surface my buddy asked me what happened and if we needed to abort the dive. As I looked at the inflator I noticed that the plastic zip tie that holds the hose on to the inflator had broken off. It was old and sitting around for 15 years or so and when I lifted it up through the bungee to deflate it, it caught and snapped and then separated from the corrugated hose. I stuck it back inside the hose but could tell that it was very loose and would easily come right back out. I looked at my buddy and said, “No, give me a second.”

I yelled up to the Divemaster on the boat who was standing there on the port side watching us, “Hey, do you have any tie wraps on the boat?”

“Yes, I think so,” he shouted back. “Let me check.”

A few seconds later he returned with a zip tie, “Yes, here you go. Do you want it now?”

“Yes, I said.”

He handed it over the side of the boat and I wrapped it around the hose and the inflator, inserted it through the small opening on the zip tie and then pulled tightly to secure it. SNAP!!!

It broke in half.

“Shit! Hey, do you have another one? This one just broke too.”

A moment later he brought me a second one. I put it on a little more carefully and didn’t tighten it up so hard for fear of breaking another one.

By now, I was confident that this quick repair job would do. Despite having the tail of the tie wrap dangling outward… a real Rule 6 violation I must say, considering my usually absurd adherence to being clean and tidy underwater.

We did the dive and made it home safe and secure. Back at the house, I swapped the old, sun-beaten zip tie wrap for a fresh new one that was tightly secured and ready for the next day. It was a great talking point with the class. Failures do happen and they rarely send you an email to let you know when and where they are going to occur.

BCD’s are full of potential failure points. The inflator alone has many more besides what I delt with. O-rings that seal off the dump button, the spring that controls it, the inflator itself sticking open while adding gas. Not to mention many divers have an easy-pull dump up at the shoulder, which is truly in the worst possible position for a failure when you are your heaviest. Retaining pins, cable assemblies, valve cores, gaskets, springs, o-rings… the more advanced the design, the more potential you will have for problems.

Regular service of your equipment will help prevent a lot of these possible problems, but the potential for failures underwater will always exist. Diving is a dangerous activity and there is always a chance of things going wrong. For many of us, that was part of the attraction. It’s what got us excited to do it. To test ourselves against nature and defy what we knew of our own human physiology.

Good equipment helps, but staying active and building a broad and extensive base of experience is what will really keep you aware and safe when things do go bad. Good training should include critical failures to get you ready for problems in the real world. Just practicing disconnecting and reconnecting an inflator hose underwater is the very elementary basics of knowledge. The next step is an educational model that introduces failures to you in a way that makes you think on the fly, solving your problems underwater, and learning how you react to these problems in real time.

Of course, first you need mastery of the Essentials. Buoyancy, balance, trim, body mechanics, propulsion, awareness, and a deeper understanding of how your equipment works. Then you can start to train how “you” work. Learning yourself. Relaxing your mind so you can build confidence underwater.

What do think? Have you had any scary moments with equipment breaking on a dive? Have you had any situations like this you want to share?

Feel free to email me here or let me know if you want to set up a free live chat over zoom to discuss any questions or concerns you may have with your confidence underwater.

James Mott
[email protected]