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Sat 30 feet down with a busted lift bag for 45 minutes
Lift bag zipper failed on a salvage job in Norfolk harbor. Took me 45 minutes to wrestle it to the surface without losing the load. Anyone else have gear fail at the worst possible moment?
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williamhenderson4mo ago
Forty five minutes with a busted bag? That's insane. I've had gear fail before but nothing that turned a normal job into a full on nightmare like that. Zippers are usually pretty reliable too, so having one go out that bad must have been some real bad luck. Glad you got it up without losing the load, that could have been a lot worse.
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mason_reed474mo ago
Funny you mention zippers @williamhenderson, because I had a backpack once where the zipper pull just snapped clean off on a hiking trip. Not even the teeth, just the little metal tab. Had to use a carabiner to yank it open and closed the whole weekend. It worked but felt like I was fighting the bag every time I needed a snack. Your story reminds me of how stupid little failures can turn into big headaches. At least you didn't have to deal with it wet and cold like I did, that would have been a real mess.
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elliot_roberts2mo ago
Forty five minutes sounds like a normal Tuesday for most divers.
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abby_morgan184mo ago
So you're saying 45 minutes is a long time for a zipper fail? That seems about average for any underwater salvage job I've heard about. Zippers aren't exactly designed to hold up against pressure and saltwater, so maybe the real issue is expecting them to work perfectly down there in the first place. A carabiner trick sounds handy for a backpack, but on a lift bag it probably would've just made things worse or popped off under tension. Honestly, if the worst part was the time it took and not losing the load, that sounds like a pretty good day underwater to me.
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