Double Check Your Gear

[Stoo]

Stoo, do you dive mostly in Tobermory? Now come on, that is not dark or scary! Many Toby sites are deep and extremely cold I'll give ya, but not dark unless you're doing a night dive. The viz is so clear they call Tobermory the Caribbean of the North!!

LOL... It was a metaphor. I do spend a lot of time up there. I've had a house there for 24 years. The water is more clear now than ever. Lately I have seen visibility of well over 100'. Swimming around on the Arabia on Sunday evening (about 6:00) I could see my boat up above... My guess is that it was about 180' away (I wasn't directly below it). I could just make out the shadow of it against the sun. The water was totally transparent.

I have said this before, but I heard that the Blue Heron boys are going to add the Arabia to their glass-bottom boat trip!

 

[Ayisha]

The valve can have all kinds of pretty colors, bells, whistles, and half the crew and passengers are free to twiddle the knob on my tank as I head for the water. When I step off the boat, though, it's up to me to be satisfied that I'm good to go; final responsibility rests with me.

I've had my valve turned off a couple of times by a well-meaning DM as well, but I caught it before I splashed. What it taught me to do was double check my gear again right before I splash. Even 1 or 2 minutes before as I'm seated or walking over to jump off may not always be sufficient when there are nimble fingers.

What I sometimes find people get caught up in is the "wait and then hurry up." You set your gear up, check everything, turn off the valve and purge the regs for the boat ride and relax. Then they say, "We're here. Go go go!!" or "Get off my boat!" You end up possibly rushing through the steps, especially if you don't like holding up people. I often ask for an ETA as we seem to be getting nearer so I have a head start to avoid that rushed feeling, and it helps to achieve that double-checked state.

Stoo, the Arabia would be beautiful for the glass bottom boat tourists to see. The Blue Heron people even let my friend and I take our gear on their big (non-diver only) zodiac to Flowerpot Island for a wall dive...

 

[jonathon50]

i read with interest NDBOI that your not used to anybody touching your kit? so, who do you do buddy checks with? your buddy checks that you have turned your air on! as for the "Fully open valve, or 1/4 turn back query. my take on it is this. say your valve gets jammed for what ever reason, by turning it fully on in the first palce, you only have one way to turn it to try and "unjam" it. by turning it 1/4 turn back, you have two ways to wiggle it. make sense?

 

[vicmac]

righty tighty .. and lefty is the other one

....Loosey

this is a very good thread, Ive always wondered about the quarter turn thing too.But next dive Im going to try reaching my tank valve, I think thats a really good skill to have.

 

[Ayisha]

..say your valve gets jammed for what ever reason, by turning it fully on in the first palce, you only have one way to turn it to try and "unjam" it. by turning it 1/4 turn back, you have two ways to wiggle it. make sense?

Except that if it is a quarter turned back, it wouldn't be jammed in the first place.

Until everyone is doing the same thing internationally, either fully on or a quarter turn back, the confusion and potential for issues will continue...

 

[Dave1981]

I always turn a quarter back, after a few times agreeing with instructors that it should be all the way open I've had them jam open.

Therfor if the valve moves it's open. If it doesn't move it's shut.

Also for boat customers doing giant stride of the back I would check your gas, put a squirt into your bc while telling you what I'm doing then say 'reg in your mouth, hand on the weightbelt, other over the mask and reg, look at the horrizon and take a big step'

Some people would get stroppy about it, but if it wasn't done you could be sure that there would be someone go in without their gas on. This was in the Caribbean, it's just common sense to do that for people that might only dive a couple of times every other year.

 

[Necklinsberg]

I had the opportunity to use the color coded valves on a boat dive down south recently.

As several have mentioned, they are of use only to those who may not know how to dive 'correctly' and should consider taking up golf instead.

On the other hand --- it did stop an instructor with 800 + dives from trying to remove his regulator from a tank with an open valve.

Yeah, a pretty useless toy, only of aid to the inexperienced.

 

[sawman4]

Great thread, kinda brought me to question those things you learn because "that's how it is." When i was doing my open water certification dives, before we rolled off the dock the instructor turned off my air without me knowing it. I went down, got to 15 feet, ran out of air, and popped up frantically (first lake dive ever). I now check the gauge while hitting the purge button before jumping in. I was mad at the instructor but i got over it

 

[Stu S.]

I like the red and green feature on that valve. If you can add safety to a product without increasing the price, then that's a good thing. Brains or otherwise, if it helps one person or saves one life, why not?

Example: On a boat dive a couple of years ago, rough seas made a woman sick. The divemaster told the woman to sit on the dive platform, with her gear on. That was so she would not vomit in the boat. When dive time came, she realized that her air was turned off. If the rough seas had bounced her off the platform, she could have gone straight to the bottom. If the valve had shown red, somebody on the boat might have noticed and turned it on.

Several small mistakes can lead to a bad accident. If we can build a little extra safety into a dive device (for free, too), why not?

 

[cdolphin]

Great thread, kinda brought me to question those things you learn because "that's how it is." When i was doing my open water certification dives, before we rolled off the dock the instructor turned off my air without me knowing it. I went down, got to 15 feet, ran out of air, and popped up frantically (first lake dive ever). I now check the gauge while hitting the purge button before jumping in. I was mad at the instructor but i got over it

That dive instructor should be pulled off the boat/dock permanently IMO. I don't see how endangering someone on their OW cert dives is a good learning tool.

Glad you were okay, but I would have reamed that instructior and made sure the shop knew about his/her teaching methods. Someone tell me if this is safe teaching standards?