Can you reach your tank knob to turn it on?

[gcbryan]

ChillyWaters, I'll give you my answer and by the way I can't reach my valve yet. I've tried a few times but I plan to try more techniques on my next dive.

If you jump off a boat and you have no air in your BC and your air is off you will potentially sink like a rock if the jump causes you to end up several feet underwater. Yes, this shouldn't happen but s##t happens.

Or...you have a low pressure inflator hose rupture while underwater and your buddy has suddenly wandered off. If you can turn the valve off quickly enough you can take a breath from the air that is in your regulator hose, start your ascent, turn the value back on for another breath, turn it back off, etc. until you reach the surface.

You have a freeflow and turning the valve off and then back on stops the freeflow.

Why would you not want to be able to control your own valve if it's possible to do so?

 

[whatdecostop?]

Yeah.

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

I am still practicing reaching my tank valve because I feel it is important to have control over my air source.

My transition to BP/Wing has highlighted quite a few shortcomings of my old BC setup - one of them being my inability to reach the tank valve due to my gear configuration. I dive with a 12l (232 Bar) dumpy, so getting the valve high enough results in the bottom cam band clashing with the tank boot. But I will get it right - eventually. I have turned the tank so that the valve faces about 30 degrees forward (from the plane parallel to my shoulders). This has helped to the point that I can touch the valve - but not grip it yet. I am going to try some of the techniques given in this (informative) thread.

However, before the tank goes on my back, I check that the valve is turned fully open. Once I have donned the BP, I ensure that the reg is not entangled anywhere and is easily accessible. It is far too easy to fall off a pitching RIB with rough surface conditions. When it comes to air, I only trust one person. I have seen too many well-meaning divers turning off the supplies on their and other divers' tanks to trust anyone else with this.

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[dkktsunami]

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.

If there is a buddy to "share air with" I would rather safely surface on his air, and then play with the valve.

 

[do it easy]

I would probably use a different adjective than 'friend' if this had happened to me.

Willie

too right. If someone did that to me i'd make damn sure that they never did it to anyone else.

I guess you had to be there- it was pretty funny! It took me a second to figure out what had happened, but once I did, I just reached back and turned it on. To her credit, she was standing off to the side and watching me.

 

[pilot fish]

Wet Willie, it isn't good to keep your air on if you have a long boat ride to dive site because it keeps too much pressure on diaphram. Not sure what the mechanics are but was told not to do that because it's bad for the reg.

 

[pilot fish]

Chilly, it's good to have that skill because poop happens and, of course, Murphy's Law. Two buddies descending in the water column are looking at their own gages, gear,getting down and might not have a keen eye on their buddy at that moment. It's just good to know that if needed you are able to do it. I can not do it, as yet. I've just begun trying it and after reading this thread I'm going to make sure I can do it.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Why is it so imperative to reach the valve?

There has been a significant shift in training philosophy and "what's important" over the years. When I took my original Scuba course, reaching the valve was taught on the very first pool session, and the instructor shut it down at least once during every training session. The reasoning behind this was that "sooner or later you'll need to reach that valve, whether to interrupt a freeflow or to turn the air on that you forgot to turn on before you jumped in, and the action needs to be an automatic reflex you can do without thinking."
In the ninety-odd (average) yearly scuba deaths, there is nearly always one and usually two or three from folks jumping in with their air either off or just barely turned on, subsequent breathing difficulty, panic and drowning or AGE with a full tank of gas.
For me, it's a no-brainer... reaching the valve(s) is an absolute requirement in my rig; turning the gas off in the event of a freeflow (and then back on slowly if it's a single reg setup), or turning the valve to full open in the event of breathing hardship - is easy, automatic and immediate.
You may never need it in your entire diving life, but it sure is a nice ability to have "in your back pocket."
Rick

 

[dannobee]

...You may never need it in your entire diving life, but it sure is a nice ability to have "in your back pocket."
Rick

Exactly. What's the downside of practicing the drill and being able to reach your valve?

 

[ChillyWaters]

Rick, thanks for a semi-useful reply. I still see lots of "its very useful," but the people can't tell me why.

Chilly, it's good to have that skill because poop happens and, of course, Murphy's Law. Two buddies descending in the water column are looking at their own gages, gear,getting down and might not have a keen eye on their buddy at that moment. It's just good to know that if needed you are able to do it.

Yes crap happens, but there has yet to be a good reason to reach your valves, that you can't solve with some other VERY useful skill we definitely should all know already.

If you jump off a boat and you have no air in your BC and your air is off you will potentially sink like a rock if the jump causes you to end up several feet underwater. Yes, this shouldn't happen but s##t happens.

Okay, then DUMP YOUR WEIGHTS! Now that's a skill that is worth practicing -- visually perhaps, thinking about different scenarios, etc. Consider how often you may need to dump your weights versus reaching your valves. Then, at the surface orally inflate your BCD. Hopefully EVERYONE remembers that from OW. Now, again, perhaps THAT is a MUCH more useful skill to have than reaching your valves.

The fact is - some people have actually died because they hit the water with their valve off and not enough air in their BCD. If they had been able to reach their valve it wouldn't have happened.

People die all sorts of ways. I'm saying that we have the necessary skills already, without adding these so-called valuable one-off odd skills to our bag of tricks. It's not necessary, and people should be focusing on a core set of skills to save them.

If I'm dropping like a rock (much faster than I can fin against), I think I'd rather drop my weights anyways, rather than fiddling around (while probably panicking) with my tank valve. KISS = Keep it simple stupid.

- ChillyWaters