Double Check Your Gear

[belairbrian]

My new worthingtons arrived today with the new XS SCUBA valves.

 

[Ayisha]

I'm not sure this new valve with a visual indicator will solve the issue of checking your valve before you splash. The same divers who can't or won't check their valve while they are wearing the kit will have similar difficulty seeing the colour differentiation on the valve BEHIND them while they're wearing their kit.

Any gear checking you do before you put it on is only of limited value since DM's have been known to touch gear/valves in between dives or quietly turn the valve without a diver noticing or thinking they're just checking it. I used to keep my valve fully open and I had it turned off twice by a DM but caught it with my own valve check myself. I was even told once that it was off and the DM turned it the other way, thinking he was turning it on. He was in fact turning it off, but I knew I had turned it on and checked and caught it. I always check my gear right before I splash including reaching back and making sure my valve is on and taking a couple of breaths while watching my gauge. I'm not sure that new valve will help much once the kit is on, and relying on your buddy to check is only part of the answer.

 

[hudson]

If right-left doesn't work for you (it's really less than ideal - you have to reference the top of the handle for that to make sense) think of it as a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion. If you know which way to rotate a screw to tighten/loosen it, it's the same with valves. You'll never be confused.

 

[knowone]

Keep a spare valve next to the keyboard next to the beer.
Every time you type a sentence or paragraph, It's word for me, or before you take a swig, grab the valve and fully turn the knob one way then blow on the dip tube. If your face goes purple the valve is closed.
Practice a few thousand times and the next time you go diving you will probably leave the valve righty, tighty, clockwise, rechts, wieonchone OFF deliberately.

 

[vladimir]

I'm not sure this new valve with a visual indicator will solve the issue of checking your valve before you splash. The same divers who can't or won't check their valve while they are wearing the kit will have similar difficulty seeing the colour differentiation on the valve BEHIND them while they're wearing their kit.

Any gear checking you do before you put it on is only of limited value since DM's have been known to touch gear/valves in between dives or quietly turn the valve without a diver noticing or thinking they're just checking it.

Those valves seem like a good idea to me. If nothing else, they'll provide another check, and if your divemaster isn't color-blind and insists on fiddling with your gear, it should deter him from turning an open valve to the closed position.

 

[aquaregia]

As silly as it might be, I just remember that if I were to hit the ceiling as I swam forward, it would turn it on further, so I put my hand on the top as if it was the ceiling and move it (the hand/ceiling) backwards.

 

[ndboi]

Thanks for all of the great comments...Now I only feel like 1/2 of a douche instead of a full douche...

Going this weekend in Key Largo...if you see me...hands off! LOL

 

[Thalassamania]

The color coded valve is cute ... but once again we are seeing an equipment solution to a training problem.

 

[Steve50]

My new worthingtons arrived today with the new XS SCUBA valves.

If you feel you need this product, you may want to reconsider scuba diving. Take up golf, and hit ball with flat side of club...

 

[tflaris]

If you feel you need this product, you may want to reconsider scuba diving. Take up golf, and hit ball with flat side of club...

Safety should never take a holiday.

I use them and find the second benefit is the larger knobs.

The first being the color coding for open and close states.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk