By FCD Andy Berame
A near fatal incident occurred when we were diving sidemount inside HERUC (Hinatuan Enchanted River Underwater Cave), when a small fragment of debris jammed Docboy Amores’ dump valve causing his BCD to free flow. Doc had to crawl his way out of the cave and do a wall climbing routine during our ascent and gradual decompression procedure.
For convenience, we sport our Hollis SMS100 inflator hose on a bottom to top configuration where the pull-to-dump valve is positioned over the left shoulder of the BCD. On this configuration, when diving in an overhead environment, the dump valve is exposed and vulnerable to specks of debris and loose particles dislodged from the ceiling by air bubbles in open circuit diving. With the valve exposed and unshielded, debris may find its way in and jam the valve lid, as it did in the case of Doc’s BCD at HERUC.
Finding the bottom to top inflator hose configuration more convenient, I had to stick to it, so I devised this D-I-Y (do-it-yourself) method to shield my BCD’s dump valve from debris.
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Filipino Cave Divers 