Scuba Diving Gone Wrong: Weight Belt Accident

If at least one person finds this video useful and benefits from my mistake, I will have achieved my goal. I hope you will take this as a lesson and avoid similar situation in your own dives. Losing your belt on a dive is a very common occurrence. I have gotten feedback from quite a few people including my friends that it has happened to them as well. As you go deeper into your dive, the pressure will reduce your waist line so you will need to be conscientious about tightening your belt. This video was recorded in Cozumel Mexico during a deep dive 100 feet below the surface for a PADI Advance Open Water certification. The weight belt with plastic buckle became loose and dropped to the bottom of the ocean. Uncontrollable ascent ensued. The student did not panic and managed to get the instructor's attention. Had the instructor not come the the rescue, the student will most certainly have lost control and gotten Decompression Sickness (Bends).

[mowthatlawn]

get that camera out of your hand and you can deflate your bc all by yourself...

[foffo]

You should learn proper buoyancy control before you start using a camera man :)

[ChetzNation]

100 feet hard current dives should not be attempted by someone that can't even deflate their own BCD through the emergency valves or retain spatial awareness.

[bgajdos]

I'm a rescue diver, let me share what I think, and might be also a good lesson for many : 1st of all, I also prefer metal buckles, but plastic ones should be fine too.. they go through many tests, believe me.. so don't try to blame it on it, it was clearly your attitude and lack of experience or learning, which resulted in this little incident.. the main problem that you might not put up your belt tight, and it started to loosen as long as you flipped to the water (old rule: one hand on the mask and regulator, the other hand fixes the belt buckle when you jump).. but off course, you couldn't focus on that, because you were carefully holding your camera with both hands.. (WTF!!?) this is what took your full attention.. ppl should keep checking and fixing their equipment during the dive, i keep fastening my belt, or fin buckles.. so my advice, pls learn to dive first, and when you feel it really natural, then start filming under water..

[DIVETALK]

So many things to unpack here...we will be reacting to this incident in our channel on the next CAVE DIVER REACTS video

[Lukediver]

perfect video to show "this is not the way to dive"!

[fabianadavien]

Common sense would be:
(1) to stop filming and tackle the issue, such as
(2) deflating the BCD by venting the air out
(3) properly checking the fit of your belt before jumping in and even in the water (we all know the water impact can get things dislodged). You can feel the loosening of the belt underwater as the position of the leads remained stationary due to gravity pull - even when you move around. The friction will also give a clue.

Every scuba divers should have the primary practice that they are responsible for their own safety - not the DM, guide, instructor or buddy. You kept on hanging on to your selfie stick even when the ascent started.

Maybe ditching the camera until you have better buoyancy skills?

[DivingDeveloper]

"This video was recorded in Cozumel Mexico during a deep dive 100 feet below the surface for a PADI Advance Open Water certification"

You're using a camera on a training dive? No man, just no.

[keithguitar]

That's one great thing about learning how to dive, seems people like to film their own death so some us can learn from the mistakes made.

[ep]

Carrying an emergency air backup tank will rarely help someone who can't figure out that a BCD must be purged immediately when an uncontrolled ascent begins.

[masterpassword]

It's incredible how every competent comment says the problem is your attitude and choosing camera over your own life, yet you will cowardly refuse to update the info box to mention this simple truth. Learn to dive first, only then bring the camera with you!

[mekanwoke]

Almost 4 years later, I am here to say that the weight belt did not fall of because it had a plastic buckle. It fell off due to basic lack of awareness and focus on a camera (when you clearly do not have great buoyancy control or trim, and are constantly hand finning). I don't want to be overly critical of you, because I hope/am sure you are a significantly better diver 4 years later. While I know this video is for "educational purposes, " it is still very cringy to watch because of the negligence and absence of awareness.

[muellermaxwell]

You completely freaked out.. good thing your instructor knew what she was doing and we prepaired for this kind of thing

[curt]

If you held onto the weights as good as your camera you’d be golden

[mdemarco]

NO. CAMERAS. DURING. CLASSES. Especially with a selfie stick! Most instructors ask that you leave them behind . I understand that when you panicked, you probably gripped everything even more tightly and then didn't let go of the selfie stick. And yes, you most definitely panicked. On land if you needed to do something with both hands, you would have tucked the selfie stick between your legs and done what needed doing. Your hand definitely should have gone straight for the purge valve.

That being said, you definitely sound like you've learned a lot from the experience, and thank you for being humble enough to put it on the web. Kudos to your instructor, and I'm sure that she has dealt with this thing before. I imagine dive instructors must seem everything. You made her job much easier by not freaking out while she was putting weights in your pockets.

The good thing is that now you know how you react when something goes south underwater. You might not have done everything 100% right, but you were calm when the instructor helped you and that's big. I haven't had a close call underwater yet, so I don't know how I'll react when the shit hits the fan. I've no doubt it's just a matter of time.

(PS... pretty sure the plastic buckle isn't the problem. All the buckles on your BCD are plastic, and they test that stuff way beyond 10 pounds or what you were wearing...

[wulanrussell]

Too busy with the camera. People nowdays 😂

[windh]

1. Learn to dive (I guess)

2. Learn about audio levels in video production.

[gonace]

I don't trust divers with 15-16 dives to go down to 100 feet, and you've proven me right!

[oceanicamergulho]

Thanks for sharing your bad experience! Holding the camera pod was far more crucial than using hands to replace the belt and fasten the buckle.
My regards to the blue fins buddy, she did a perfect "moonwalk" underwater.
And finally, my full respect to the Scuba Instructor for a great job done!

[Foumenj]

My instructor told me I shouldn’t even consider using cam/go pros until I hit my 200dives, since then I never used a cam/go pro