Identifying Stages By Feel

[PfcAJ]

Makes ya wonder why the course has stuff that's not grounded in real life. Weird.

 

[jgttrey]

Yes. I agree it's probably make-work. Like I said, the one scenario I can imagine is having to remove the bottles to get through a silty restriction and wanting to put them back in the right places so that if you have to bail before the vis clears, you know which one to grab. But, yes, I agree, pretty unlikely. But, also not hard to address.

 

[TrimixToo]

Well, if I'm shallow enough, I use an LP45 and an LP72. Not hard to tell apart...

But realistically, it's hard to imagine zero viz at the change depths that's persistent enough to matter. A lost gas plan will buy you lots of time here. I'm with PfcAJ on this one. We have real problems to worry about.

 

[jgttrey]

That's all true on OC. Again, here the scenario is bailing out from ccr, so you can't just stay on back gas and straighten it out later when the vis is better.

I get that it may be a silly scenario, a dumb standards thing and is not a challenge. It just got me thinking that there might be some "standard" practice I hadn't heard about. Guess not.

 

[Ryan Mcshane]

Makes ya wonder why the course has stuff that's not grounded in real life. Weird.

Agency doesn’t matter though, right?

 

[JohnnyC]

You want the best answer to safely bailout? Backgas bailout with your unit in a rack and actual gas volume. Then there’s no question what you’re bailing out to, and you don’t need to worry about issues like this. There’s no failure possible because the situation has been completely removed from existence.

Breathing from a tank you can’t Identify contents is a really bad thing to do. Switching to a tank without doing a proper gas switch is a bad thing to do. This removes both of those possibilities, and gives you time to identify your gas and make a proper switch.

 

[rongoodman]

Makes ya wonder why the course has stuff that's not grounded in real life. Weird.

TS&M used to call them "Little house on the prairie scenarios".

 

[W W Meixner]

Pretty much captured it in the title. IANTD standards for CCR TMX require removing, swimming away and replacing stages in the correct places by feel (i.e., no looking at the MOD markings) to simulate recovering a cylinder when vis is shot.

What are common/best practices for tactile identification of your stages?

JG...

Better than zip ties that may come off...or stickers that can't be read do to ''O'' vis situations...no-one has touched on different second stages that can be easily identified by feel...eg...Jetstream...Extreme...Cyklon...very easy to identify the difference in ''O'' vis...even with heavy gloves...also alphabetically...''C'' would come first...''E'' would come second...''J'' would come third...and a round ScubaPro second ''S'' would come fourth...

Also with different stages...first/second...you're eliminating any remote possibility of an inherent problem occurring twice...

Seems easy enough...

Warren...

 

[jale]

JG...

Better than zip ties that may come off...or stickers that can't be read do to ''O'' vis situations...no-one has touched on different second stages that can be easily identified by feel...eg...Jetstream...Extreme...Cyklon...very easy to identify the difference in ''O'' vis...even with heavy gloves...also alphabetically...''C'' would come first...''E'' would come second...''J'' would come third...and a round ScubaPro second ''S'' would come fourth...

Also with different stages...first/second...you're eliminating any remote possibility of an inherent problem occurring twice...

Seems easy enough...

Warren...

till the day, for some reasons, you switch a reg and your alphabet changes from latin to greek...
As said before, on a ccr, your BO gas is on your BOV or on a necklace. In BO situation, you don't want to second guest as you don't have that luxury...

 

[W W Meixner]

till the day, for some reasons, you switch a reg and your alphabet changes from latin to greek...
As said before, on a ccr, your BO gas is on your BOV or on a necklace. In BO situation, you don't want to second guest as you don't have that luxury...

J...

You may have off-board plugged into a necklace second...not all ribi divers dive with BOV's...English to Latin to Greek is not a fair response...and an identifiable by feel second stage is far better than a zip tie...that may no longer be there...or a tank sticker that cannot be read in a ''O'' vis situation...

My above note was a personal resolve...if the reg is changed in the future...the protocol is revised...

My resolve would work for me...

Tell us what you do...

W.