breath off the free flow and ascend, right?
Can you reach your tank knob to turn it on?
- Thread starter pilot fish
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
I'm thinking shut it down, share air for a minute, crank it back on. Problem is, if you can't shut it down in time, you won't have enough gas to do a safe ascent. That means ASAP and waiting for your buddy to do it for you may take longer than you have.
In my 5 and 3 yes. In the drysuit it's harder but doable. I also cock the valve towards my head and raise the tank a bit. I had a rotator cuff injury and it made these necessary. I can reach with my fight but I still need to push the arm back with the left in the dry suit. That is with singles. I'll be setting up doubles later this summer and it will be one of my main considerations. The side valves shoud be no problem, the isolator may require me to get one of those OMS type valve extensions. Unless I can get it with the left hand.
Oh, I don't know. If your buddy isn't there, you can't shut it down yet anyway, cause you'll need his air. Once he's there, he could shut you down if you needed.dherbman:
I'm with you, on the access your own valve "side". Just don't see this as a compelling case.
On saying that, I was told by one diver that he had a reg free flow in cold conditions. He claims to have shut the valve down, and waited for a minute (holding breath) then turned the air back on. This "rest" had cleared the first stage of its cold water freeze-up and the reg breathed again.
Not only do I doubt this actually occurred, it seems stupid as hell, unless his buddy was right there was an extra reg outstretched in case the air didn't "restart".
ChillyWaters
Contributor
dherbman:
Okay, but I said I don't see a reason that reaching your valves is necessary. Sure, there is that VERY odd chance that it MIGHT be useful, but generally, I don't buy it.
To the others that have replied to the thread, specifically stating that turning on the valve of a single tank is useful: Why is it so imperative to reach the valve?
- ChillyWaters
It's your AIR supply. Most experienced divers I know and have trained with have simply come to accept that you should have access and control over an asset that valuable.ChillyWaters:
It's like a foreign oil field...
If you go through Devil's throat and scrape up you tank and roll off your valve to the off position and can't turn your air back on, you are screwed! How's that one?
I was trying to avoid posting here, but in a single tank the valve would be on the right hand side, so it would roll on.TheRedHead:
In doubles, the valves roll on/off in opposite directions, so as long as you have two 1st stages on different posts, they won't both roll off at the same time.
And yes, to answer the original question, I can reach my valves- all of them in doubles, singles, drysuits.
ChillyWaters
Contributor
TheRedHead:
How do you "roll off your tank?" It has to be turned a few times, not just nudged.
Anyways, if by an odd chance you dive in an environment where this could actually happen, then you're probably diving with a pony too (or some redundant source).
- ChillyWaters
Oh, shucks. I've been worried senseless about that for nothing. What if I were upside down and scraped the bottom?
Similar threads
