15 replies to this topic

[Dive_Girl]

OK, I've had a number of gear failures, who doesn't? Whenever I have equipment failures on training weekends I turn those failures and finding and executing a solution to them into learning lessons. For example, o-ring failures, hose failures, first stage failures, leaky second stages...etc.

But this past Sunday was a whole other story...

Problem: After the last of my dives on Saturday I blew out my dry suit neck seal taking my suit off. Just a *pop-zip* and that was it. So dive_addict and I hopped in the vehicle and drove like crazy to the local area trusty dive shop. Caught them 20 minutes past closing and begged for mercy. Although a bit damp (the TLS350 does dry quickly, but not completely), we worked the drysuit to replace the neck seal and I left it at the dive shop all night to dry. I picked it up Sunday morning and started my dives.

Dive 1 was nice and uneventful. However on Dive 2 about 5 minutes into the dive I moved my arm to point at a critter and in doing so, the neck seal glue failed and the seal just unpeeled from the suit! Instant and continuous water intake because I had no more neck seal! I couldn't call the dive as we had just made it to depth; so after a 35 minute dive, we surfaced. Then the students had to complete surface skills and finally I was able to exit the water, the 45 degree water. I didn't feel the cold, just sheer and utter pain. My suit was so full I had to get help taking it off and dumping the water.

Solution: I was luckily working with another instructor who had come up to work with my students, so I was able to check myself out for the rest of the day. The suit had just been too damp and not enough time had passed for the seal to dry.

Although that wasn't manageable, some drysuit repairs are.

Solutions for manageable drysuit problems: I do carry extra seal latex and aquaseal with accelerant. This past weekend I fixed a number of tiny leaks on drysuits in a matter of hours. Luckily the leaks were identifiable by sight so we turned the suit inside and dried it. I then softened the aquaseal with a hairdryer and put some in the a water bottle cap. I added a bit of accelerant to the aquaseal and mixed it with a small brush. I applied the mixture to the holes/tears. This worked on both leaks inside the suit and on some latex seals. Good stuff that aquaseal and accelerant! A tip I learned from our trusty dive shop, is to store your unused aquaseal in your freezer, then warm it with a hairdyer or place the tube on a coffee pot heat pad to soften for use - it lasts longer and reacts better.

So what are some of your failures and solutions?

[cmt489]

All I can say is BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WreckWench]

I duct taped a fin together once. It worked fine and saved the dive trip!

[Trimix2dive]

I once had my HP hose blow under water - that is what we'll call exciting. It sure was exciting for me and the students in the class. It seems like your loosing tons of air. We got the tank turned off, I got slightly positive on the platform breathing off anothers regulator. Then made a massive 28 foot controlled swimming assent to the surface.

All and all, an exciting few minutes.

[gcbryan]

I'm numb just reading about the neck seal failure. I've had a very bad drysuit flood before but I can't say it would compare with the neck seal coming off.

I've found that you can dive with just one fin (it isn't fun) and the technique isn't as I would have throught (put both legs together for a dolphin kick) rather I found it better to frog kick as usual. One leg just doesn't have a fin on it. It is exhausting however.

I've had slow drysuit inflator valve sticking in the open position where it was slowly inflating my suit. Just disconnect the hose of course. A buddy had the same problem with a BC inflator hose. Same solution.

I guess I would have to say that you've had the one failure that I would most not like to have.

Edited by gcbryan, 27 February 2006 - 04:54 PM.

[Latitude Adjustment]

I've never had any big failures but a beach dive I did in November was headed that way. Got to the site and the tailgate latch wouldn't release. Set the gear up to find my pony had drained, switched over my 2nd to my primary tank, the weight release pocket wouldn't zip closed, fixed that and entered the water, no viz, not even one foot!!
I was diving with the guy who wrote the book on NJ beach diving and we couldn't find the wreck, got back to the beach and found there was so much sand in my fin buckles they wouldn't release. Got home and had to use a water pik to get all of the sand out of the buckles, camera latch and the 2nd.
If I or someone else had needed that 2nd we would have had a real problem.

[Hipshot]

Back in 1979, I bought a Dacor Pacer 900 regulator when they first came out. After a few dives, it appeared to have a free-flowing problem.

I brought it back to the shop where I bought it, and the owner took it apart. He said that he couldn't find anything wrong, so he re-assembled it, and the free-flowing stopped.

On my next dive, a shore dive, it began free-flowing again, this time more severely, although I could still use it. However, my air was being depleted RAPIDLY. The solution was that I immediately alerted my dive buddy, and we went back to shore along the surface. At one point, the tank went dry and I had to use my snorkel.

This time, when I brought it back to the store, the owner took the regulator from me and replaced it with a new Pacer 900. Since the model had only recently been released, the owner said that Dacor probably should have this regulator returned to them, as a quality assurance problem.

I used it until 1986, when it was stolen from my gear bag in Cozumel.

Rick

[Vessper]

Well I didn't have a gear failure but I damn near had a very bad situation happen and I almost paniced which is very rare for me.

On Feb 26th we did a deep dive in lake Travis at windy point. For anyone who has been to Travis, they know the vis is well pretty bad to say the least. Well we dropped down to 84 ft and could barely see to the end of our arms. I was wearing a new wet suit set up. 7mm Bare Supra John and a 7mm Bare Supra Jacket. Since there was so much neoprene, I had to wear a lot more weight than what I am used to. It took 24 lbs for me to be able to descend. Well at 80 ft down the neoprene compresses a lot and at that depth I was very over weighted. Once the dive was over and we began to ascend, I was having some serious probelms. I could see the other 4 divers kicking up and they were getting away from me. They would kick once and I would kick like 6 or 7 times and couldn't keep up. It felt like I wasn't moving at all. At one point I honestly thought I was actually descending which kicked me into over drive. So now, I am in a cold dark place that I am not familiar with using new equipment. It took everything I had to remain calm enough to think through my problem. I kicked like hell for 60 feet and couldn't even keep up with my bubbles little lone pass them. The other 4 divers stopped at 20 feet for the safety stop but I kept going to the surface. We were only down for 20 mins so I didn't see the need for the stop.

Needless to say, I learned a few lessons with this dive. It was the first time ever that I was actually scared underwater. It was the first time my nerve was actually tested. Obviously I got through it but man did it mess with my head for the time it took me to get to the surface. Once on the surface I inflated my BCD and layed back on it for about 10 mins to rest.

[6Gill]

Dive 1 was nice and uneventful. However on Dive 2 about 5 minutes into the dive I moved my arm to point at a critter and in doing so, the neck seal glue failed and the seal just unpeeled from the suit! Instant and continuous water intake because I had no more neck seal! I couldn't call the dive as we had just made it to depth; so after a 35 minute dive, we surfaced. Then the students had to complete surface skills and finally I was able to exit the water, the 45 degree water. I didn't feel the cold, just sheer and utter pain. My suit was so full I had to get help taking it off and dumping the water.

[Solutions for manageable drysuit problems: I do carry extra seal latex and aquaseal with accelerant. This past weekend I fixed a number of tiny leaks on drysuits in a matter of hours. Luckily the leaks were identifiable by sight so we turned the suit inside and dried it. I then softened the aquaseal with a hairdryer and put some in the a water bottle cap. I added a bit of accelerant to the aquaseal and mixed it with a small brush. I applied the mixture to the holes/tears. This worked on both leaks inside the suit and on some latex seals. Good stuff that aquaseal and accelerant! A tip I learned from our trusty dive shop, is to store your unused aquaseal in your freezer, then warm it with a hairdyer or place the tube on a coffee pot heat pad to soften for use - it lasts longer and reacts better.

So what are some of your failures and solutions?

Of course I'll never be able to whine about a wet dry glove ever again....

www.airspeedpress.com has a great book on drysuit/wetsuit repairs.Also we've have used an HID light inside the suit in a dark garage shows pinhole leaks..
Worst I've ever had is leaky wrist seal and a blown HP hose.This is one if the reasons I like my neoprene neck seal very east to field fix

Eric

[Rob underwater]

I had one of those swivel doo-hickeys mounted on my 2nd and the o-ring decided to shoot out the side on a deep dive. My buddy (relatively new to the sport) Who had never seen a major malfunction like that...his eyes were the size of saucers. He was quick to offer his 2nd and we made a safe ascent.

Another time, I managed to catch and cut my HP hose while wreck diving. I was an idiot, instead of looking to see what I was stuck on I jerk my gauges towards me.. You can pretty well imagine the rest. Thank god for CESA. I'm sure my eyes were the size of dinner plates.

I had a neck seal failure while diving in Lake rawlings......Brrrr...Like a jagged icy spear right down my back. then of course the whole thing flooded.Took me a bit to catch my breath.That scared the crap out of me.

[mantarraya]

At the Flower Gardens, had 2 computers go out - one brand new nitrox one was clearly defective, the other one (my daughter's nitrox computer) just with a bad battery that I was able to replace before the next dive. Luckily, I had a 3rd air one on my console - not a very good one, but at least it did the job of telling me what to do on air.

I also blew an HP hose once in Belize using rental gear (one reason I hate to rent gear). As noted below, that one is kind of freaky to deal with due to all the bubbles. My buddy was there and we managed to slowly surface somehow, me using her octo. Definitely the number one thing is to stay calm.

Edited by lgrahamtx, 27 February 2006 - 10:47 PM.

[drbill]

A very appropriate topic for today (unfortunately). We went out with a storm brewing and it was raining (in sunny southern California?) by the time we found a protected dive site for our first dive. The instructor on board was doing a deep dive with his class so I wanted to descend the anchor line to ~130 before they dropped down.

When I got to depth (actually 140) there were lots of old squid eggs and a few other things to film, so I stayed at depth long enough to incur a deco obligation (no big deal). However, while in deco my Uwatek Alladin Pro suddenly flashed an "Err" message and stopped displaying any information. Add to that the fact the bat rays had been hammering the silty bottom and the vis at that depth had turned bad quickly.

I took a compass bearing in towards shore and slowly rose from 140 to 80, 60, 40 and then 20 (based on my backup analog depth gauge). I stayed at 15-20 ft fort about 15 min to ensure the deco obligation was fulfilled.

What did I learn from this? It is time to buy a backup computer! Diving primarily solo I need that extra redundancy. Option #2: find an intelligent and beautiful dive buddy of the female persuasion to serve as my "backup." May have a candidate in mind (sigh, don't I always?).

Fortunately I've dived long enough that I felt OK doing a second dive at the site. I did borrow the instructor's spare computer just so I could track my depth and time. Turned out the numbers were so small I could barely read them. I noticed the depth registered 176 ft, but I was quite sure I was in about 55 ft (based on judgment and the analog depth gauge). As it turned out, the computer was set to the metric system and had a decimal point in it so I was at 17.6 meters).

I've had a first stage fail in Thailand at 100 ft near Chumphon Pinnacle, o-rings fail (back when I dove yoke), etc., but the dive computer failure was more bothersome than those events since they were easily fixed (by returning to the boat to get replacements). I still don't know what happened, what my profile was, etc.

Edited by drbill, 27 February 2006 - 11:00 PM.

[gcbryan]

Well I didn't have a gear failure but I damn near had a very bad situation happen and I almost paniced which is very rare for me.

On Feb 26th we did a deep dive in lake Travis at windy point. For anyone who has been to Travis, they know the vis is well pretty bad to say the least. Well we dropped down to 84 ft and could barely see to the end of our arms. I was wearing a new wet suit set up. 7mm Bare Supra John and a 7mm Bare Supra Jacket. Since there was so much neoprene, I had to wear a lot more weight than what I am used to. It took 24 lbs for me to be able to descend. Well at 80 ft down the neoprene compresses a lot and at that depth I was very over weighted. Once the dive was over and we began to ascend, I was having some serious probelms. I could see the other 4 divers kicking up and they were getting away from me. They would kick once and I would kick like 6 or 7 times and couldn't keep up. It felt like I wasn't moving at all. At one point I honestly thought I was actually descending which kicked me into over drive. So now, I am in a cold dark place that I am not familiar with using new equipment. It took everything I had to remain calm enough to think through my problem. I kicked like hell for 60 feet and couldn't even keep up with my bubbles little lone pass them. The other 4 divers stopped at 20 feet for the safety stop but I kept going to the surface. We were only down for 20 mins so I didn't see the need for the stop.

Needless to say, I learned a few lessons with this dive. It was the first time ever that I was actually scared underwater. It was the first time my nerve was actually tested. Obviously I got through it but man did it mess with my head for the time it took me to get to the surface. Once on the surface I inflated my BCD and layed back on it for about 10 mins to rest.

Were you too weighted for your BC? I'm not sure I understand the problem other than you had on too much weight. Instead of swimming so hard for the surface couldn't you have just added a little more air to your BC?

[JeepDiver]

The first dive after buying a set of new regs (which had been checked out in the pool), we were diving in Destin, FL. Went off the boat to the barge deck at 80 ft and noticed a few bubbles and started trying to figure out the problem when bubbles started going everywhere.

Luckily I had also just bought a 13 cu ft pony, so I grabbed my buddy told him I was going up to team up with the other guys. I used my octo, until I hit 300 lbs at about 20 feet, switched to the pony and turned off the air on my tank to keep from draining it underwater.

So while it wasn't a fun situation it wasn't a big deal. The next week another buddy had a HP hose fail at 80 feet, it drained his tank and left a nice mark on his neck for a while.

After those two incidents so close to each other, I don't dive without my pony now. It's a pain in the rear to travel with, but well worth it IMHO. Especially since my buddies in FL were usually hunting, and I was running around with my camera and we weren't that close to each other, the same body of water = buddy right?

[ScubaDadMiami]

Gee, I don't think I have so many good war stories to tell. I did have the inlet on a wing start to leak while ascending from a deep dive. I just turned off that regulator. No biggie.

The most dangerous thing was when I had a blocked exhaust drysuit valve while ascending from 250 feet. I posted about that previously. That one was pretty scarey.