BOV Ever Used in Anger?

finbar.taylor

I would still keep the BOV as it certainly made it easier to switch to OC once my head was sorted out. what I would like to stress is it is no replacment for skills. You still need to have learnt and practiced other skill to get you home saftly. My hit although I recognised I had a problem after the faff on the surface I decided to sort it out on the bottom. (yep I know the surface is always better especialy as I was only at 10m when first recognised) by 35m (and a fast decent) I can only decribe it as feeling fussy I knew I'd made the wrong choice and started to think about coming back up and stopped my decent. I was still in a current so had to maintain contact with shot and then just had this feeling of being completely helpless(no commments on how did I tell the diference) I paused for what felt like hours trying to get my free hand to turn the knob but it was not going to happen and then rembered open loop. A few cycles of this and was better but very glad of being able to go OC with out removing the reg from my mouth (and even more happy to have offboard connecters to my stages to get me back to the surface.

My analysis of the fault was to dive it as was, I just put it in it's storage box and then took out and dived again, and it was fine. From this I concluded the source of the hit was fighting against the current sorting out a problem with my buddy on the surface and letting the PO2 drop dangerously low and also overbreathing the scrubber by working too hard.


Hope this helps

Fin

divelermentov

I agree it is important to have a setup you are comfortable with, however I think it is important not to be too complacent. I have heard and know one case of CO2 breakthrough personally.
Obviously packing the scrubber and correct assembly is a major part in avoiding a CO2 hit, however even in cases where all this was done correctly there is still the chance of a CO2 hit due to e.g. hard work at depth or similar. If you cant bring yourself to remove the loop and go oc because of severe shortness of breath all the oc gas in the world will not help you.
A bov seemed so far the way out of this, however will you be able to turn the knob ?
I know this seems to be such an easy task.

Therefor if anyone has first hand experience this would be very much appreciated.

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Mdemon

Fin, could this be your body retaining CO2 faster than you could get it out, rather than over-breathing the scrubber?

Perhaps if we used the BOV during periods of very high exertion, we would prevent hits building up in the first place? Relies on decent amounts of gas being carried, and people not being anal about "staying on the loop".

Just a thought for debate.

PaulTG2

Hello,

I have read about the inability some have had swapping the DSV for the bailout. I don't get the impression that this is a physical thing as much as a mental problem of taking your air source, as bad as that air may be, out of your mouth. The BOV seems like one possible solution.

I believe the better solution is the practice changing air sources on EVERY dive so that you are always comfortable with the procedure. This imbeds the actions and response into your mental repertoire. This is particularly important on a CO2 hit where you may have to rely on trained reflex instead of full mental abilities. Training without ongoing practice for proficiency is dangerous.

I made a decision while diving OC that I would use every regulator on every dive. This keep me in practice and proves to me that my regulators worked at depth, not just on the surface.

When I wanted to go to a full face mask (FFM) I selected a dual chamber so that, among other reasons, I could continue to practice this... with or without a BOV.

--p

nigelh

This thread is going the way they usually do.

The people who have had CO2 hits think BOVs are manna sent from God.

Those that haven't can't see the point. "Just swap regs. It's easy isn't it?"

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nigelh

PaulTG2

Oh, to be clear on my post. I do have bought a BOV and intend to use and practice with it. It seems like an excellent addition to the rig for fast sanity breaths. I'll know when I next dive.

--p

Ivon

Your right, unless you have experienced one you can't really say "Just swap regs". You physically can't hold your breath long enough to remove the loop and replace with a reg when you want to.

I did it in less than 2 seconds, one of those seconds I took an mouth full of water, the other second I breathed the water out of my reg and the third second I got good gas from the reg. this was after a mix of dil flushes and open loop. I could not get off when I wanted to without this mix of skills.

lof

I never thought I would be using the BOV. I try to keep my rigs lean and mean. But after I put one on I would not want to go back.
I never had a CO2 hit at depth (short of the self-inflicted ones during equipment testing ), but I use BOV on almost every dive. After, or during, every period of high exertion (hard swim into heavy current, woking, lifting) I flip the lever and take 5-10 OC breaths, just to purge my system of excess CO2, then go back to the loop. I try to PREVENT the CO2 buildup by flushing my lungs. This is one-handed operation, so I can keep doing what I am doing. I would never do this with a bailout, as restowing the reg is PITA. So, for me, the sheer convenience of OC access outweighs the added bulk of the BOV.

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Jakub
Golem Gear ShopKeeper
www.golemgear.com

kevin stone

Hi all
Having had a Co incident (heavy workload) I would never go without a BOV,if something feels wrong then flip and take a few sanity breaths and sort out the problems then go back to the loop or bailout to your stage.
just my two cents
Kevin
Ps: I saw the Golem BOV at BTS and boy it's sweet!!!

divelermentov

hi one question
I do not have a bov, but thinking about fitting the golem bov.
However it seems rather large piece of kit attached to your dsv.
How do you guys feel about your set-ups with regards to a compromised field of vision and weight ?

any comments would be appreciated

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