Sifossifoco
Contributor
Just open gently. And if you are opening an oxygen cylinder, open VERY gently.
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Does your SPG have a blow out plug? Is that plug on the back of the SPG?My approach is to open the valve relatively slowly (to pressurize things gently) while NOT looking directly at the SPG (in case the SPG should blow out). Usually I will hold the SPG with its face against the tank as I slowly open the valve. This is what I was taught in my open water course in 1986, and I continue to use this approach.
ETA: My course used Scubapro and U.S. Divers regs. It's possible to open too slowly for some regs (e.g., Poseidon Odins).
rx7diver
Does your SPG have a blow out plug? Is that plug on the back of the SPG?
And I was taught it by a PADI Course Director who had been himself taught it by a PADI Course Director, but it is nowhere taught officially by PADI.I was taught this in the Rescue course by an instructor who now is a PADI Course Director.
When teaching students how to help each other gear up while standing beside the pool, which he scheduled right before the giant stride entry, he realized that if they put their fins on in the correct order (with the figure 4 technique holding onto the buddy's shoulder), they would end up facing the pool, ready for the giant stride.
Decades ago agencies wanted to teach students that inhaling made them more buoyant and exhaling made them less buoyant. They wondered how best to do that, and the fin pivot was born. That was its only purpose, because it is not something you ever actually do on a dive. Well, instructors all over the world made it an art form, with elaborate rules (knees locked, fin tips on the floor at ALL times, never touch the floor, arms folded, etc.). What was supposed to be a simple little learning exercise became the hardest skill in the OW class. That is why PADI eliminated it years ago--it had become the Frankenstein's monster of scuba instruction."