I really appreciate the many comments and good ideas that have come from posters in this thread. A few additional thoughts:
drrich2:
This is a little troublesome because on setting up my gear, I often turn the valve on to check pressure, o-ring seal, etc..., then back off for the boat ride out. But now the reg. might give me a breath, even though the valve's off.
I think many divers do the same thing – set up gear and pressurize the system to check for problems, then turn the valve off. I do as well. But, if a proper Pre-Dive Safety Check is then performed, right before you are ready to splash – as should be the case - there shouldn’t be a problem. And, that was part of the point of my original post. The Pre-Dive Safety Check is a specific ‘skill’ taught in Open Water. And, it is one that should be regularly ‘practiced’ – in fact, practiced before every dive.
If it is performed, there is simply no reason for someone to go into the water with a cylinder valve turned off, or a low pressure inflator hopse not properly connected, etc.
dumpsterDiver:
It might waste a tiny bit of air, but if you purge the reg after doing the check, then the pressure will read zero and it will be harder to jump in with a pressurized regualtor and a tank off.
A very good point. And, a simple step that will help avoid possible problems later on.
gfaith:
I probably carry the oral inflation to a slight extreme. On most of my recent dives I add air only orally even though the inflater is working properly and has been checked on boat before diving.
I don’t think you are being extreme, rather you are doing something that is very reasonable – kudos to you. That is one of those personal opinions I mentioned – a diver should be able to do just that and, if they can’t, they should consider heading to the pool for some recurrent training. If you choose to do it on most of your dives, the probability of you ever coming to grief on a future dive, because you HAVE to do it, is quite low.
rainpilot:
Yeah pilots make very annoying partners in this sort of thing. Seems impossible to turn it off....
There are quite a few posts on SB that point out the similarities between flying and diving. And, I believe divers could benefit from adopting a number of the practices and procedures that have been developed in aviation, both commercial and recreational. The use of a written checklist, and the use of the verbal challenge / response method, is one example. Even if I am in the cockpit alone, I verbalize each step of each checklist, and then confirm what I have done with a verbal ‘Checked’, or ‘Set’, or whatever response is appropriate. Divers can, and should do that at the very least as part of the Pre-Dive Safety Check. If I am diving with a buddy, it is easy – we verbalize the steps, and check each other in the process. But, even if I am diving alone, I verbally complete the Safety Check.
As an aside, I know that I carry over other cockpit habits / procedures. Even when I am driving a vehicle on land, when I stop at the end of my driveway, or at the exit to a parking lot, etc., before moving onto a main road, not only do I look both ways before moving onto the road, I verbalize ‘Clear left, clear right, clear center’ as I check for traffic. My family is used to it; others who ride with me for the first time often look at me as if I had suddenly grown a second head.
But, I think I am significantly reducing the likelihood of ever pulling out into the path of an oncoming vehicle.
RyanT:
We practice buoyancy, air sharing, bailout deployment, etc in the water. We're working on developing a consistent checklist topside, and we play a lot of "what-if" scenarios. For two divers with different skill levels, it has become apparent that it's making us both safer divers.
YES! Good for you, and your dive buddy.
theodorthiele:
As soon as divers are aware of the fact that they are lacking skills or need to train to keep them they can do that by themselves, but if they aren't trained properly it's harder to know what to do.
So very true, and truly unfortunate.
A thought occurs to be after thinking about theodorthiele's comment. And, this is admittedly agency-specific in focus, but hopefully more broadly relevant. Several years ago, when PADI revised its Open Water Diver course, the agency came out with a new slate. On one side is a Skill Practice Slate, while on the other is a PADI Dive Planning Slate. When it first was introduced, there was (quite) a bit of 'discussion' about it. Some thought it was a bit hokey - the Skill Practice Slate side lists the skills OW students are expected to perform, and has 'smiley face' and frowning face' boxes next to each skill, that a student can mark, to indicate to the Instructor, underwater, how comfortable they are with each particular skill. Many shops and instructors even spent a lot of time (aka TOO MUCH) figuring out how to meet the new PADI standard of using the slate,
without requiring the student to actually buy it! - They could 'loan' slates to students, or have one slate available to 'pass around', or provide paper photocopies (which work really well underwater). Yet, it is - at worst - only an $11.20 item, not a lot of money for what could be a very useful tool. We seem almost 'hell-bent' on cutting costs, and cutting corners, in dive training ostensibly because of perceived market conditions. And, I am not sure that our 'customers' - our students - are at all well-served by doing so. And,
this is certainly not 'PADI-bashing' at all - that mentality easily crosses agency lines. But, in the case of this particular product (and other agencies probably have similar slates) - if every OW student came out of their certification course with this item, they would have both a written checklist for planning their dives (including gas planning, performing the Pre-Dive Safety Check, etc), AND they would have a slate that they could also use to practice skills - a written list to remind them of exactly what the 'skills' actually are! It is an item that divers could use on every subsequent dive.
