Had a drysuit inflator valve seize up on me 30 feet down in a muddy river last Tuesday

I was doing a bridge inspection near Portland and my suit started getting stiff. Realized the inflator valve was stuck shut and I couldn't add air to level out. Had to finish the job fighting the squeeze and breathing heavy the whole time. Popped up with a headache and bruised ribs from the suit compression. Anyone else had a valve fail mid shift and how did you handle it without panicking?

3 comments

3 Comments

sammartinez6d ago

Wait, didn't a guy from my old shop pop a rib that way last winter?

simon_carr6d ago

Yikes, I gotta gently push back on that @sammartinez. Pop a rib is pretty rare from just a regular bench press. More likely he strained an intercostal muscle or maybe tore some cartilage around the sternum. I've seen a couple guys get that sharp pain in the middle of the chest after a heavy set, and they always swear it's a rib but it's usually just muscle or connective tissue. The real rib pops I've seen happened from a sudden twist or a loaded fall during a deadlift, not a push movement.

walker.julia6d ago

Yeah but didn't you feel that same pop doing dips once? I swear mine was a rib too.