Splash... No fins :(

[victorzamora]

The only time I ever had the valve actually turned off was by my instructor during OW pool work. And no, he wasn't testing me. Taught me very early on to always take a few breaths watching gauge just before splash.

One guide in Roatan helped "stabilize" me before my giant stride and managed to "help" me without me realizing. I had already done my checks. I chewed him out after surfacing, and he tried giving me the "quarter turn off" speech which i promptly stopped.

In sm, though, the valves are tucked and out of reach of "helpful" hands.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Yeah I had that happen to me too and AFTER I told the guy my tank was on! He managed to move in behind me and turn it off with a quarter turn on I let the crew know clearly to keep hands off my gear! IMHO it is adequate to ASK the diver if their air is turned on!

How does someone turn a tank off by turning the valve 90 degrees (1/4 turn).. I'm confused?

I check other people's valves, but it is only a CHECK. I return the valve to the position i found it in. If I think it is off or barely on or something, I will TELL them of my concern- saying something like: "I think your valve is off, do you want to check it or have me open it for you?" I don't see a whole lot of potential for problems if we follow this procedure.

 

[victorzamora]

How does someone turn a tank off by turning the valve 90 degrees (1/4 turn).. I'm confused?

I check other people's valves, but it is only a CHECK. I return the valve to the position i found it in. If I think it is off or barely on or something, I will TELL them of my concern- saying something like: "I think your valve is off, do you want to check it or have me open it for you?" I don't see a whole lot of potential for problems if we follow this procedure.

I think that meant instead of full on and backing off a quarter turn, she meant full off plus a quarter on.

 

[BugHunterNY]

I think that meant instead of full on and backing off a quarter turn, she meant full off plus a quarter on.

Maybe they partial pressure filled and were trying to reduce gas usage to cut costs?

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I think that meant instead of full on and backing off a quarter turn, she meant full off plus a quarter on.

Exactly I had it on then backed off a 1/4 turn. While I was getting my fins on as above he stabilized me and turned it all the way off then back on a 1/4 turn. Not going to get into the discussion on that but yes I took a couple breaths off my reg. It breathed adequately at the bottom on the entry point as it was shallow. As I got deeper the problem became apparent!

I prefer your approach Dumpsterdiver... ask! I had already told this guy my tank was turned on when I saw him reach to check it before I went to the back of the boat for the stride in.

 

[videofly]

I started to dive once with only one fin on. Surprisingly enough, it took a few seconds to figure out what was wrong. And of course, there are the times when I have descended with my snorkel in my mouth, instead of my regulator.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

A friend of ours was teaching a course and found a fin.. picked it up... one of his shop's. Went on a little ways before he stopped the class and waved the fin at them. He wasn't sure what was worse... that the ENTIRE class checked to see if it was theirs or that the diver it belonged to had not noticed the difference in his kick

 

[Bandaid6]

I have seen divers descend more than once with their tank only a 1/4 turn "on" only to discover the problem at depth when it gets hard to breathe and panic is setting in. I think the 1/4 turn thing was necessary with older valve designs but can't see its usefulness anymore. Why are we still teaching it? The techies I've spoke with couldn't provide any mechanical benefit to this practice either, they just stated that's how they were taught. I have switched to all on or all the way off.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Yeah I have heard lots of arguments both ways. I am still required to teach all on back a quarter turn on the O2 courses at work We've been around that block often enough in other threads. I'll avoid hijacking this on on that topic

I have forgotten to turn on my computer back on before I splashed. Unfortunately it was one that had to be turned on at the surface :doh: I caught the error at 23M when I did my usual equipment check at the bottom before starting off on the dive Not good when you are air integrated!

 

[Iralub]

It's actually amazing how many divers forget to turn their tanks on. I was watching on these boats recently, and the good crew literally walk up and down the gearing up divers very subtly and check each and every tank valve.

Did that recently. Checked my gear/air etc during surface interval and turned off the tank. Forgot I had done that by dive time. There was enough air in the system for me to inflate the bc and take a couple of breaths off the regulator during buddy checks. This was the one occasion when I didn't watch the gauge, so it wasn't about a minute later that I realised the gauge was showing much lower pressure. A bit embarassing then having to ask my buddy to turn my air back on