In class now and loving it!

[dive2deep]

Hey Chrispete,

Couple of pointers for you:

1. Since you have your own gear, you MUST customize it to fit YOU. What I mean by this is all the hoses on the first stage of the regulator can be detached and repositioned, all it takes is a wrench and a hex key. If you dont trust yourself go to the dive shop and they will do it for you. You then move the hoses so everything is in the place you want it, such as the octo under your arm, and the primary over your shoulder. Regulators tend to come set up really weird out-of-box, so you need to play with it and make it fit you. My old instructor once told me this "the most important thing about your gear is not the price or look, but if it is comfortable and fits."

You might have avoided this if your stuff was positioned in a comfortable place for you. Now everyone is different, and everyone has different places for stuff, just as long as you know where it all is. Image not being able to find your knife, while under 120ft of water, after tangling in fishing line inside a shipwreck, and having your regulator pulled out of your mouth while trying to find the knife. True story and a hell of a learning experience. At least you were in a pool with a instructor next to you.

Practice rolling on your side and reaching for your regulator while under water. This is a skill that I'm not sure is taught anymore. I can elaborate if need be, just PM me. I've found many situations where I've had a reg pulled out of my mouth, well many times it gets kicked out by a fin in near zero visibility. Hence you should be able to find it without thinking, or seeing.

Take care, dive safe, and I hope you're enjoying scuba, be prepared to go broke

 

[chrispete]

and making all of those changes is what got me in trouble, the rental 1st stage had "stacked" ports, one on top of the other, top hose was primary second, bottom hose was octo - my new 1st stage has them side-by-side, with the forward one going to the primary, and the back one going to the octo. Add to the mix that my new reg setup has a swivel on the 1st stage, plus I had mounted my tank much lower this time on the advice of the AI (I was much more comfortable, but it moved the 1st stage 6" lower than I had gotten used to with the setup that I had used to learn reg recovery with.) - and that I was unfamiliar with the nooks and crannys in my new BC that I could hang up my primary on.

On the "roll" recovery, no we weren't taught this method, I would assume that it would be to roll your body so that your right side is toward the bottom which would make your reg hang down, thus in easy reach? If so, that makes a lot of sense, I'll practice it a bit during next week's "play time." Thanks for the pointers!

I am enjoying it greatly, and I am already starting to go broke

Chris