Twelve years ago while diving at Little River with Chris Lampson,  he
had a
total BC failure. He was wearing double 104's and a wet suit.  At the
"three
way split"  the seam of his bladder failed with a total loss of
buoyancy.
Fortunately, Chris was a very strong swimmer and had XL jet fins.  He
leap-frogged wall to wall/rock to rock all the way to table rock.  Then
pulled his way up and out.  A memorable dive for both of us.<Lee>

Jim Cobb wrote:

> Conrad.
>
> I have personally never seen any BC fail. I have seen a couple of LP
> inflator hoses fail, invariably right as the tank valve is opened. I have
> heard of inflator valves sticking open, the couple I have heard were on
> rental gear or they were frozen (ice diving). I heard one story of the
> inflator hose popping off the BC.In other words they were maintenance
> issues.
>
> I might mention that I have seen BC's so worn and ratty, it is a miracle
> that they held air at all, but they did.
>
> Lets face it, a BC is not rocket science. When you look at your gear
> overall I think that the weakest link you will see is the operator, and
> why make that situation worse by presenting multiple inflators/hoses and
> other issues into the mix?
>
>    Jim
>
> Sender: Conrad Daubanton  Date: 3/18/98 2:00 PM
>
> >Jim, Chuck:
> >
> >Does anyone know which part of a Wings/BC unit tends to fail more often?
> >
> >Can anyone provide statistics?  (Perhaps some shop owner that has seen
> >just about everything).
> >
> >Then we would know what kind of thing to prepare for.
> >
> >I've had no recent problems with the gear, but many years ago my first
> >BC (Horse-collar) had bladder problems, and having changed the bladder,
> >it developped overpressure/dump valve problems.  Tired of repairing it,
> > I just bought another (stronger) horse-collar BC.  This one also
> >required a bladder change, but is now perfectly operational, though I
> >no longer use it now.  With a Jacket type BC which I seldom use now,
> >and with Wings which is what I use most, I've yet to have problems,
> >they have never needed any repairs.
> >
> >Either gear is stronger now, or I give it less abuse than before.
> >
> >Conrad Daubanton
>
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