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safety measures when diving
Anonymous - 1/24/2008 7:10 PM
Category: Anonymous
Replies: 5

Do you do any type of failsafe (other than plan your dive and dive your plan) when you dive,in case of emergencies? The guys I dive with drop a tank over the side and hang it about 20feet down as an emergency backup, in case someone comes up a little short of air after spearfishing,or if someone has equipment problems. This is besides the spare air and emergency sausages we carry.
Anonymous - 1/25/2008 5:47 AM
Here are a few things I do to make sure I`m diving ...especially if I`ve never been diving with someone before. Do the check...BWRAF -- (Belts, weights, releases, air, final check) Ask them (if a total stranger you`ve been buddied up with what level they are how many dives/and what kind go over hand signals/location of where you will be (I like to dive on my buddy`s left side around their shoulder) The extra tank at the safety stop zone is always good. Some will put a strobe on the anchor line or some sort of identifier Some will put a weighted sausage on the bottom below where the boat is. Have fun and blow bubbles
Anonymous - 1/25/2008 9:30 PM
We deploy a hang tank when diving the rigs offshore.

Ditch the spare air and get a real pony.
Anonymous - 1/28/2008 3:26 PM
I learned how to emergency breathe the air in my BCD. The January 2008 edition of Undercurrent has an article entitled: "Out of Air? Try Your BCD" plus a desciption of how to learn this skill. Hopefully I`ll never have to use this skill, but it`s there if I need it! It just gives you another option which adds to peace of mind while diving.
Anonymous - 2/12/2008 8:35 AM
Breathing air form you BC..hmmmmm.If ther is one area of dive gear that gets neglected the most, I would say its the inside of the BC...ESPECIALLY if its a rental unit. I had this picture painted for me. A BC gets used in all sorts of diving conditions. depending on your skill level and dive profile you might be constantly adjusting your BC. As your doing this your letting in water ladden with all sorts of bacteria and stuff in it. its likely that the BC will be used in more than one site, so there are different types of bacteria being introduced all the time. sediment water, stagnant water. fresh water mixed with salt water. all sorts of stuff. then you do a rinse of your gear and put it away. if its a rental, it might get a splash before its hung up to dry. then it sits there. the water getting stagnant inside the BC. the bacteria multiplying. the stuff is growing. then you take your next dive, have an OOA emergency and breath it all in. ick. not sure if this medically backed up, our instructors told us about it and warned us not to do it. it would suck to survive an OOA emergency only to die from an unknown lung disease.
Anonymous - 2/12/2008 8:39 AM
some guys dive off of private boats. and a lot of times they dive, leaving the boat unattended. I would highly recomend using two anchors tied about 45 degrees apart. depending on the bottom features, you need to follow at least one of them and tie it on. stories abound of divers returning to the anchor to only find a line in the sand pointing to their drifting boat. in a shallow water, one hour dive, a boat can drift VERY far.one could also argue to just not leave the boat unattended.