Scuba Sport Magazine is the only scuba magazine that offers diving news, dive travel, scuba gear, diving destinations and underwater photography that caters to the recreational diver.
its purpose is to help them maintain one of the most important skills in diving, to be able to maintain neutral buoyancy at any depth. It is also responsible for helping the diver to control their ascent rate as they return to the surface.
Most of the BCDs that we service have FRUURVLRQ RQ WKH LQÁDWRU DVVHPEO\ ZKLFK FRXOG FDXVH DQ LQÁDWRU WR VWLFN LQ WKH open position during the pre-dive check, or worse, when it is in use under water. This could cause a runaway ascent, which as we all know is a bad thing.
Salt water left unattended inside a BCD will ultimately evaporate. Over time,
that you might should have tested the equipment in a pool before having to rely on it 40, 60, or 100 feet under water?
By far, the most commonly neglected piece of diving equipment is the BCD.
Many divers enter my shop with only
their regulator in hand and ask to have it serviced. As a reminder, I will ask that person: "Do you own a BCD"? Which is usually followed by the question " Don't you want to have that serviced as well?" The most common response is "No, it doesn't need it."
Let's think about this for a second, a BCD is responsible for holding the diver on the surface so they can rest. Under water,
the remaining salt will form into large crystals. The photo of salt crystals you see is actually from the inside of a BCD. These large, hard crystals will tear at the inside of the bladder until the bladder ruptures. At that point, the BCD will no longer hold air. Which again, we all know is not a good thing. This occurs more rapidly with travelling divers, who will tightly pack their BCD into their luggage. Because divers can't see inside their BCDs, they don't understand what could have happened until it is too late.
These problems are easily avoidable. First off, properly clean both the outside AND inside of your BCD after diving. If you did QRW ÀOO \RXU %&' ZLWK IUHVK ZDWHU RU ZDWHU with BCD cleaner) and slosh it around, then dump it, the BCD hasn't been properly cleaned. If you see white streaks on the outside of the BCD, it is most likely
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Salt from inside BCD
Clean Inflator
Dirty Inflator