Ok, so it's time for me to post my Cozumel screw ups...

[CajunDiva]

Hey Don...

Instead of worrying about the perfect Spanish phrase to use with the divemasters, just practice a little sign language...it's simple and they'll get it

Glad you're OK...

 

[DandyDon]

Right, I'll search the net for "Righty tighty, Lefty loosey!" Somehow that sounds dangerous...!

 

[vladimir]

I never liked that mnemonic. How do you turn a cylinder to the left? Is the top moving to the left or the bottom? I go with "counter-clockwise to open." Make sure you are facing the valve when you decide which way counter-clockwise is.

 

[DandyDon]

I go with "counter-clockwise to open."

Will that work with the digital generation?

Hehe, I have a digital Roman Numeral clock on my desktop. Cute reminder of the olden days.

Make sure you are facing the valve when you decide which way counter-clockwise is.

Then there is that. My home dive bud who turns screw drivers for hours everyday (last quality sewing machine & vacuum cleaner sales & service for many miles) will never live down turning me all the way off once, but he did it on the boat, not at the 15 ft check we like to do on descent, and I knew right away.

 

[mikerault]

The only way righty-tighty doesn't work is if the tank is upside down...

 

[boscobc]

Don, maybe the wind change we had was providence. I'm still sorry we didn't get over there............

Bosco

 

[frapac]

Thanks so much for your input. We've all been there and it was a great review.

 

[Jo MG]

Hey Don, this is a good post. Maybe others are perfect, but I am not. I dive every week, and think I am getting better after an estimated 800 plus dives ( must confess I ceased logging years ago) However, every once in a (fortunately rare) while, I do something stupid like not recheck my air before diving in, or rolling in without my weights. I have never run out of air yet (my secret terror) but I have to constantly remind myself to check my gauge, and sometimes forget to do so for 20 minutes after the start of the dive. Air to blow your dive whistle: pretty important!

 

[TSandM]

Don, I was going to stay out of this one, but it keeps showing up in the "new Posts" list, which means other people are reading it, and that bothers me, because there's an underlying issue here that people are just being too kind, I think, to address.

In two days and three dives, you had three out of gas emergencies. You coped with all three, but something is HORRIBLY wrong with your procedures or your priorities, to have this happen three times. What I'm seeing is a frighteningly lackadaisical attitude toward verifying the amount and functional status of your gas supply before a dive. Perhaps that comes from diving habitually with an independent second supply, but if so, that's an awful outcome.

Every one of us should have built into our pre-dive procedures that we verify the amount of gas in our tank, sample that gas to make sure it smells and tastes OK, and to check the position of our valves -- and, if at all humanly possible, to locate the valve where the diver himself can reach and turn it. Having done a fair amount of diving off tropical boats with mixed groups of passengers, I know that seeing people do a thorough pre-dive check is rare, and I also know that DMs and captains in some places will rush divers off the boat, making it emotionally difficult to stand your ground and insist on the time to make sure things are working. But we simply have to do it -- otherwise, we find ourselves in the water with no breathing supply, and that's a drowning avoided, not a minor inconvenience.

We are all human, so mistakes and omissions will occur, but mistakes of this magnitude should be so rare that a diver could go his whole career without having it happen, or with getting the pants scared off him ONCE. I know this has happened to you before this trip, and it happened three times ON this trip, and with all due respect, I suggest that you should take a VERY long and hard look at your personal procedures, and consider a checklist or other memory aid if it's needed, to remember to verify your own gas supply before getting in the water.

 

[InTheDrink]

TSandM - I think your important point is the check list or other aide memoires for DD. He is clearly a conscientious diver, so there's an issue in the checklist methinks, and quite possibly over complication - e.g. multiple masks. However, I think what happened to DD (and this is more gut feel than anything else) was just a bad couple of days with some bad luck coupled with some sloppiness. Which most of us are guilty of but maybe don't admit to. And maybe they all don't come home to roost on one trip like they did this time with DD. I agree, a review of procedures is in order, but I'd be slow to read too much into this. I still think it was just a cursed few days luck-wise and a new environment to deal with.

Disclaimer: I've never run OOA nor not had my valves not opened appropriately - but I can see how both can happen. I think Don should be commended for having the courage to post what would obviously be an easy target and ppl need to be circumspect about discouraging people admitting errors. I've gone 20 mins easily without checking gauges when I've been shallow. Lots of people dive according to their buddies air consumption if they develop a reading fault (I normally breathe about the same as them and they're fine....) so whilst encouraging best practises is definitely desirable, there's a whole range of actualities out there a lot less conservative than on this board.

Whilst I generally agree that once is excusable, twice looks like carelessness, I think DD's situation was more down to unfamiliar environment etc. But this is a very common diver experience and the point should be - how do we address diving when a whole plethora of new variables are thrown into the millieu, rather than a wholesale condemnation of his practises. This is reality for a lot of vacation divers, where every op and buddy is different. It adds many additional factors to deal with.

Just my £0.02