BSAC Talk - Shed the Lead
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SAFETY TALK - MAY 2006
SHED THE LEAD
 One of the concerns I have in the day to day management of the UK's most popular inland diving facility is the apparent excessive amount of lead carried by many divers. This becomes evident when an incident occurs and divers have real difficulties in getting to and staying at the surface. Some of the serious incidents including fatalities we have witnessed at Stoney Cove could, I believe, have had significantly better outcomes had weight belts, or integral weights been ditched. In Our view it is better to come to the surface even if it is a fast ascent and stay there. If an injury or decompression illness is the result, treatment is at hand. Margaret Baldwin, Operations Manager Stoney Cove & BSAC NDC member |
Two factors this month, both relating to weight that all divers carry, can significantly enhance or detract from your diving experience.
Emergency Action
One factor that has clearly been implicated in the past from the annual Diving Incidents Report and in addition highlighted by a number of Coroners Inquests and the diving Press is that a very simple action could have resulted in the saving off a life.
North West Wales coroner Dewi Pritchard Jones said he was concerned at the number of divers dying in lakes and the sea who were recovered with their weight belts still in place. Recording a verdict of accidental death he said: "This has become a common characteristic in recent deaths and is causing some concern. Why are divers reluctant to dump their weight belts to allow them to surface when they get into difficulties?" "If Mr Dean had dumped his weight belt at the shallow depth when he got into difficulties he might have survived." From the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo |
Simply ditching the weight belt can secure a person on the surface whilst waiting for further assistance (see picture below for an illustration). Underwater is a little more of a judgment call but it is a fact that ditching a weight belt will ensure a return to the surface were further rescue assistance can be provided and many people would still be alive today if they had followed this simple action.
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Eight (of the fatality) cases involve divers who were or who became negatively buoyant and sank. In a number of cases divers were at the surface, in difficulties, but were unable to remain at the surface. In other cases divers were in difficulties and ascending, when they started to sink back down. These divers were all close to safety but buoyancy issues took them away from the surface and they lost their lives. The average of such instances over the previous six years is 2 per year, and hence this year's events represent a substantial increase. This is an area that we need to emphasize in our training programme's. Divers must be able to make themselves positively buoyant easily and quickly, so that their automatic response as soon as a problem of this nature starts to develop is to inflate a buoyancy device and/or dump weights. If they are underwater at the time, the resultant ascent may cause its own problems but it is likely to be far less serious than the alternative. Brian Cumming, BSAC Incidents Advisor |
"I highlighted this very point in the summary of the fatalities in the 2004 report; the text was as follows" :-The skill however, does require some practice to ensure that the weights are released clear of the body so all divers could benefit from occasional practice in controlled conditions in shallow (no more than chest depth) water.
The picture above shows the diver on the left having ditched his weight belt being significantly higher in the water than his buddy.
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Normal weighting |
Partial weight release |
Complete weight removal |
- The sequence of pictures above shows the same diver on the left with normal weighting and slightly inflated suit at the end of a dive.
- The second picture shows the effect of removing part of his weight by releasing his weight belt that contained approximately half the weight carried.
- The final picture is taken after removal of the remaining weight contained in pouches in the weight integrated BC and shows the diver significantly higher in the water than at the start.
Correct Weighting
Do you find you always have a sore back after diving, use much more gas than your buddy or than you used to, find air escaping from your neckseal or even find that whenever you stop finning you immediately sink to the bottom?
All these are signs that you may well be over weighted. Many divers admit to knowing that they are over weighted and use it as an excuse to hold more air in their suits to give them more insulation. Many others have simply not recognised it to be a problem and the change often creeps up on them unnoticed due to accumulation of additional equipment as their experience increases. Sometimes this can be the result of a sequence of changes from sea to fresh water and back again as divers forget to remove the extra weight required for seawater and then get used to the extra feel of excess weight and so 'feel' under weighted when going to the sea again and so add more unnecessary weight.
As a quick check "do you sink like a stone" once you start to dump air on a dive? If so this is a clear sign that you should check your weighting.
Overweighting is a phenomenon often identified by Instructors when students progress to more advanced courses such as Advanced Nitrox or Extended Range where good buoyancy control is essential for safe conduct of decompression in mid water, (the record so far is 17lb of excess lead removed from one student on an Adv. Nitrox Course who subsequently admitted this was the first time he had understood what buoyancy control was all about!).
Proper weighting not only makes your diving safer but also more comfortable and relaxed and therefore enjoyable. Please check your weighting regularly and especially when you change equipment.
Think SAFE - Dive SAFE
Any suggestions for further items for inclusion would be welcome and can be made to divesafe@bsac.com
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Any suggestions for further items for inclusion would be welcome and can be made to divesafe@bsac.com
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Register for Updates
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Page last modified: 31st Jan 2008 - 15:24:41