cool_hardware52
Contributor
radinator:I will not get in the water without being able to reach my valves.
I think it's a fundamental skill - like being able to reach the brake pedal while driving.
Me too. Well put Rad.
Tobin
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radinator:I will not get in the water without being able to reach my valves.
I think it's a fundamental skill - like being able to reach the brake pedal while driving.
all4scuba05:Some folks can reach the valve but ask them to remove and replace the gear underwater...hmmmm
In addition to some of the reasons mentioned, thought I share a real experience that happened to me and a buddy 2 months ago. We were diving and my buddy (new drysuit diver) was having some trouble with his bouyancy. To help him we decided to ascend on a fixed line. The line was a rough braided-nylon type, and he was holding on tight. As we were going up the line was rubbing against his valve behind his head and he didn't realize it. I noticed it just as it shut the valve off. If he had been solo diving, or I hadn't been paying attention, looking the other way, taking a picture, etc. it might have been more difficult for him. Certainly not a life threatening event as he could have done a CESA if he stayed calm, but since he can reach his valve he can easily turn it back on, making it a non-event and being able to finish his safety stop.
Scubakris:We did a dive at the main spring on part of a tank and then down the devils eye. After a few feet he signaled, I looked at his gauge and it was fluctuating. I reached around and turned his air from 1/4 turn on to full on. Many a diver have died from this bad practice of turning air on and then 1/4 off. When we went into the second dive he automatically turned his air on and 1/4 off,.. so he thought. The air was on,.. he turned it off and 1/4 on. He could breath at the surface, not a few feet down.
It is a valve,.. it is either on or off!
1_T_Submariner:I know this has been disscussed many times and is off the sort of off the subject but here goes. The reason a valve is opened then 1/4 back is so you can verify it in the open direction. If the you tried to verify a valve that was stuck shut you might think that it was already open. This guy just sounds screwed up like he didn't understand the process.
Nemrod:A valve is either on of off, turn it on, leave it alone. If for some really weird reason like a pole shift and Planet X empinging the gravity field, I will either a) reach around and lift the tank a bit and then reach the valve or b) I will doff and don.
We keep hearing of all these "many" divers who jumped in with their air off or air got turned off underwater, I think this is mostly the typical exaggerated and antedotal told by a friend of a friend of a friend kind of stuff. "Many" divers have not died because they could not reach their single tank valve.
N