Lost buoyancy incident
Thought I would relay an incident that happened to me last Thursday in the event it may help someone else not make the same mistake that I made.
I had the chance to make a solo dive recently (my first) at JB and it was one of my best dives ever. So, on a trip to the Florida Panhandle last week, I decided to make another solo dive at JB. My plan was to go straight down the gold line to thirds and then have a relaxing float back.
Normally, I dive dry but my dry suit is a back zip and I cannot zip it without assistance. So, I dove with my wetsuit. As a result, I did not have any buoyancy back up. (see where this is going?) To add to this, I recently started diving side mount. When I bought my SM wing, I switched the location of the dump valve and the inflator so that that the dump valve is on my shoulder. The cord to the dump valve had been lengthened, threaded thru a flexible plastic tube which is zip tied to the inside of one of the Velcro flaps on the left shoulder. Recently, I replaced the cord with a longer piece to make it a little easier to reach. However, as I was gearing up when I noticed had forgotten to finish the repair. I had not yet threaded the cord thru the tubing and re-attached the knob. No problem I thought. The cord was long enough for me to loop around the flap and tie it which I did. In the water, I tested the inflator and then pulled the dump cord to let air out. I checked my air, regs, lights, etc. Everything worked fine. My 80 stage had 2800 and my 95s had 3500 each. My plan was to dive the stage to ½ plus 200 and the main bottles to 2400 or 2500.
I tied my reel at the entrance, dropped an O2 bottle in the cavern, and then ran my reel to the main line. I breathed on the stage to somewhere before the first breakdown before switching to my right bottle. Close to the second breakdown, I switched to my left bottle. At the second breakdown, I dropped my stage on the main line. I then started to swim up and over the breakdown. At the top of the breakdown, I seemed a little light so I grabbed the dump line and let some air out of my wing. Shortly afterwards, I began to hear air which seemed strange. I knew it was not my tanks since they were on my side. I thought maybe it was my exhaust on the ceiling which was right above me.
I kept going and started my descent down the back of the breakdown. I was descending fast and started added air to my wing but I kept sinking. I now realized the air I heard was air escaping from my wing’s dump valve. I reached up and tugged at the cord thinking that something was caught in the dump valve but to no avail. I realized after the dive that my cord probably got caught in the Velcro when I tugged on it and would not allow the valve to close. At this time, I had a sinking feeling as I realized I would be exiting with two steel tanks which no air in my wing. I would basically be crawling on the floor. I climbed up, over, and down the second breakdown using a combination pull and glide and a frog kick.
When I reached my stage, I tried to add air again but it immediately went out the dump valve. When I saw the stage, my immediate thought was will the stage be more trouble than it is worth? I quickly decide more air was probably a good thing and grabbed my stage. From the second to the first breakdown, it was easy to pull and glide on the floor but I was exerting myself and trying to control my breathing. While only several hundred feet, the first breakdown was a welcomed sight the first breakdown, I check my gauges. I cannot remember how much air was in my left bottle but I still had 3000 in my right tank and 1600 in my stage. At this time I knew I had more than enough air to get back.
From the first breakdown to the chimney, there were spots with not a lot of limestone so I did my best to bounce and swim from hard spot to hard spot until I got to the chimney. At the chimney, I was breathing hard so I stopped for a minute or so to catch my breath. At this time I think I checked my gauge again and saw 2000 in my bottle and switched to my right bottle. I then pulled and kicked my way to the top. At the top of the chimney, I moved to the center of the cave when I saw natural light as it provided a more level exit. Thinking that I would be back on Sunday with a buddy, I left my reel. At the bottom of the cavern entrance, I tried again to inflate my wing and it held – go figure. At this time, I looked back at my line and did not like the way it looked so I retrieved it from the permanent line. Anticipating a return in three days, I tied it off on a rock at about 35 feet. I completed my dive with a safety stop.
I learned several valuable lessons. I had redundancy for gas, lights, safety reels, cutting device but not for buoyancy. This was certainly part of my training but I had allowed myself to be lax in this area especially diving with steel tanks. The lesson learned is to dive dry or get a dual bladder. The second thing I did wrong was to not properly repair the dump cord which allowed the cord to get caught. The lesson learned is not to rig any repairs. It needs to be completed properly.
I was really thankful to have this happen in JB where most of the floor is hard and relatively silt free. It could have been a lot worse if I had been in Twin or Hole in the Wall. Also, I was fortunate to have had the issue at 800 feet rather than at 1500 feet. When I exited the water, I still had a lot of air – 2000 and 2100 in my 95s and 1600 in the stage. My air consumption rate was about 15% higher than normal which would be about 30% higher on the return. Had I exited from 1000 or 1500, I am sure I would have exceeded that.
If anyone has any questions, I will be glad to answer them. Or if anyone has comments related to anything different that could have been done when realizing there was a problem, let me know.
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Originally Posted by Richard Pyle
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