Do you check your pressure gauge BEFORE getting in the water?

[drbill]

Oh, that's right... I forgot we now use SPGs to ensure our tanks are filled! Oh for the good old days when there were none and we relied on J-valves... NOT!

Yes, I check mine before descending. On one of the rare occasions when I didn't, I ended up at 20 ft with no gas arriving at my mouthpiece. Yes, I had checked the SPG when I turned on the valve. I told the DM on board the boat in Tahiti NOT to touch my kit. I didn't look again when I put the kit on and giant strided over the edge. She had mistakenly turned my tank valve off.

I not only check the SPG before ascending, I take several breaths off my reg or partially fill my wing and watch the SPG for flutter indicating the valve is not completely open.

 

[Randy43068]

Doctor, don't you predate scuba and didn't you use a diving bell when you first started? <snickering>

 

[divin'dog]

On set up, I always check my air pressure. Always. And breathe off the reg (2 breaths) and inflate (check for bc leaks/o-ring) then deflate the BC (so that I have to inflate just before entering as a last check). I have to agree that breaking the routine is not good for equipment checks... esp on vacation trips to warm water when so much can be happening on the boat. I've been caught with air off once on a warm water dive as we're lining up to enter. I know I would have caught it before jumping in because my absolute last routine is breathing off the reg and inflating my BC.

+1 for never opening the valve partially as learned from experience!!! Now I like to leave the valve open because I can compare pressure during set up and then later before getting into my gear to make sure I don't have any leaks.

As for your DM, I'm wondering if he didn't think he needed another tank... I dove with some DM's who used the same tank for both dives. They're good on air but complacent with their routines.

 

[mdax]

I always look at my pressure gauge while breathing off my primary and back up regs before getting in the water...every single dive

 

[Peter_C]

As for your DM, I'm wondering if he didn't think he needed another tank... I dove with some DM's who used the same tank for both dives. They're good on air but complacent with their routines.

If the DM didn't change tanks then that would be double sinful. One for not changing the tank when low and two for running a tank that low! I am 92.375% sure his tank was changed out for an almost dead empty one.

As for a DM using the same tank on both dives, I would call that kind of reckless. The "what if" factor is ten times higher being a DM in the tropics with warm water twice a year divers, than it is diving with my buddies at home. Point being their chances of bringing someone else up on their air supply is very likely to happen, and therefore they should always start the dive with a full tank.

For those that mentioned being offended by someone looking at your pressure gauge or asking your pressure before you dive, in my training with GUE we were asked to verbally announce our gas mix and pressures as we ran through our buddy checks. I have no problem with someone running gear and pressure checks on me, after all that IS what team diving is all about.

 

[dpaustex]

This is a good first post. DM's are not, for the most part, "experts". They aren't instructors, either. Instructors do make mistakes, but as an autonomous diver, it is your responsibility to check that everything works - not only on your kit, but your buddy's kit, too.

I was leading a trip to the Flower Gardens, and had an "instant buddy". I assembled my gear, and watched this person assemble theirs from the other side of the boat. I watched them NOT check their regulator, not check their alternate, not check their inflator/deflator, etc. Not wanting to embarras him (but also seeing other dive teams be lax), I asked him if he'd checked everything. He said "why"? I then asked him to breath off his alternate - which he had secured under both BC straps. I loaned him a clip to clip to his BC for quick removal.

I then showed him where my weights released, and how my inflator was a lever (i3 BC), not a button.

On dive trips, I am amazed how lax people have gotten on all of the safety stuff, thinking "it will never happen to me". I have to disagree with this.

Most dive fatalities occur in the first dive sequence, regardless of dive experience. OOA situations are totally within the diver's control, and most fatalities are not gear failures (in fact, very, very few).

The number one thing people can do on the Buddy-checks is not only go over them at the surface, but remind each other to check the air supply while at depth.

It's a great sport, and the safety protocols are not that cumbersome. We all want to come back for that next dive......

 

[freeclimbmtb]

Theres a chance I pulled my bc on the other day when my buddy asked me if I wanted my first stage threaded into the tank valve. (second dive of the day after the boat topped off my tank, I got involved in conversation and neglected to put the first stage back on...) In retrospect I hold my gage and watch my AI computer as i take a few puffs religiously to verify the comp tracks and the gage doesnt chug down...so Id like to think I wouldnt have wound up in the water like that...but still, Im glad at least HE was paying attention. (DOH!!)

 

[TMHeimer]

On dive trips, I am amazed how lax people have gotten on all of the safety stuff, thinking "it will never happen to me". I have to disagree with this.

**********

How true. A while ago I brought up the fact that I have almost NEVER seen buddies do a THOROUGH buddy check. A quickie, yes--sometimes. Another old story of mine is when the DM (it was just the 2 of us) jumped in with an empty tank and grabbed my octo at depth. And in my opinion having watched him for days, he was a fine DM from whom I learned a lot.

 

[drbill]

Doctor, don't you predate scuba and didn't you use a diving bell when you first started? <snickering>

Why yes, I taught my old friend Jacques-Yves everything he knew! Didn't realize anyone else knew about my diving bell days though. Tee hee.

 

[dwhthediver]

I have developed a ritual, and since the last thing I do before I splash is breathe off of both regulators while watching on of the spgs(ai computer, redundant analog gauge) I have never splashed with the air off. During a dive, thanks to teaching, I check gauges frequently, and ask other divers their air pressure too.