Search results

No, they are as safe as any other valve. A J valve is far safer than some electronic gizmo that may or may not work. I used Jvalves for many years, never a problem. They let you know when you are down to about 600 PSI. Professional divers in murky near zero visibility conditions use them still.

Very conservative divers do not do three dives a day for six days straight. They also do not come anywhere close to the computer's max no decomp limit. That's asking for trouble.

It's a J valve that has the lever, not a k valve, which is a standard valve. It's not an emergency feature. It was there to be used in every dive as an indicator of when the pressure dropped to about 600 psi. When it did air was slowly cut off until you pointed it down with an actuator rod. This...

Driving is pleasurable, not a waste of time. I suspect that most speeders waste time when the get to their sorry destination 3 minutes sooner, farting around, watching some plebian game, swilling beer.

Only a miserable fool passes on the right like that and then touches their brakes. I never touch my brakes while having fun with tailgaters. I flick on my lights, and the tail lights are mistaken for brake lights by some tailgating idiots. These punks come zooming up to me expecting to force me...

Is Krypton sublimated Kryptonite? Superman beware.

I try to stay around 65mph on our major highways, right lane. I understand drivers going much faster if they are late for work, so I avoid morning rush hour when possible, but people driving at high speed and switching lanes hazardously because they get frustrated are a major pain in the ass and...

When scuba diving I carry a folding snorkel in my BC pocket. A snorkel came in handy when a Jamaican friend and I surfaced low on air and found his boat with a sleeping kid had drifted about a quarter mile away from where we surfaced. I always bring a custom snorkel with me on trips to the...

Thirty Euros! I'm amazed. I have 5 or 6 new original SP diaphragms in a couple of colors sitting in my parts bin, the result of my neurotic tendency in the past to buy spare parts for everything I own whenever possible. I have two or three unused new as manufactured SP109 second stages with...

There is an enormous amount of fishing line at all NJ dive sites. I carry a trilobite cutter, a paring knife in a small nylon sheath, the tip cut off and ground smooth, and a small dive knife, serrated with a line cutter. All three attached to strategically reachable points on my BC. Both knives...

I don't calculate surface air consumption rates. At 79 my breathing efficiency is not what it once was, but on head boats I'm always forced to surface with about eight hundred pounds when most of the others are down to five or six. I'm known for being still, moving very slowly during a dive...

I'm not fat, and I much prefer diving in warm tropical water. I grit my teeth when I hit cold water, but the discomfort quickly passes. Feeling the cool water on my skin is a treat. I must add that the idea of diving 4 or 5 times in a day is disturbing, at least in an area where there are things...

I suppose it depends where you are diving. In the tropics, with water temps above 80F, zero mm nylon skins, the kind that ball up to the size of your fist, are all that I've ever needed, protection from scrapes and the sun, but no thermal protection at all needed. Temps in the high 70sF will...

I always bring a snorkel with me on Caribbean trips. Spending hours on end floating in clear warm water, totally unencumbered by tanks or weights, slipping easily through the water, just a mask, snorkel, and fins, a small bright light for night snorkels, is as good as it gets. Thin nylon skins...

I certified myself, typing out a certification statement on an index card. After all, I've been diving solo longer than most instructors have been alive. So far no one has accepted it, but I dive solo anyway off head boats by simply refusing to be paired with anyone and going off on my own. Too...

I started out diving 50 years ago by diving solo, often at night with a big Allen light. No training other than a book. As a result I was intensely self-aware, acutely aware of the situation, and that mindset has persisted. I think learning to dive that way was extremely effective. Everything...

I sleep, on average, from about 1AM to 7 AM, with an interruption around half-way that lasts perhaps for an half hour. I feel an urge to nap about two hours after I awaken at 7AM but only if I'm stuck indoors, and I usually fight it off and the urge disappears after an hour or two. I feel no...

I'm 79, and have for the past two years noticed a similar pattern: up till after midnight, awake at three or four, a tendency to fall asleep again while watching cartoons while slumped into the sofa with my cat around eight. I usually fight off this morning urge to sleep, and the fatigue passes...

It can go away. My tinnitus came on suddenly, no connection with diving, though I had been subject to very loud noise during my time in service. I woke up one morning thinking cicadas had occupied my window sill. It was distressingly loud, so much so that I had to wear ear noise maskers on some...

Night diving solo can be a wonderful experience, enhancing the pleasures of solitude that accompany all solo dives. One of the things I enjoy most about diving is that solitude, the feeling of being deep in the moment in a different world. I do almost all of my dives solo, except when I have no...