when I was stationed in Japan, me and my friend got certified to scuba dive, soon after we were diving on our own. We headed out to the bay where there is really good snorkeling, only problem is that there is a REALLY big hill leading down to the beach with a narrow (2') gulley with jagged rocks in it to catch the debris flowing down it...
so there we are gear in our seabags on our back each with 2 tanks slung over our shoulders on our way to go scubamadiving, when (uh-oh) I slip as my sandal breaks on the way down this hill. I manage to hold onto one tank, but the other twisted out of my grip. down, down, down it rolls gathering speed as it goes, headed straight for jaws of that gulley, I'm staring wide-eyed at it, my buddy is still standing next to me, dropped jawed, just mumbling something about oh s#!t, holy s#!t, I'm gonna die, etc. The tank smacks the concrete blocks, bounces up and kinda pin-balls down this gulley some more, and stops. We look at each other and can't believe we're still alive, no exploding tank debris flying, no blown eardrums from the concussion of the expanding gas, nothing. We gingerly make our way down the hill, to inspect what must be a mangled, yet somehow air-tight tank. We get to the bottom to find a tank that looked exactly like it did when we picked it up at the shop 10 minutes earlier, no dents, no cracks, heck the valve wasn't even bent. We couldn't believe it, so after looking over it for another 5 minutes as we suited up, we couldn't find a thing wrong with it, so we went diving.
Moral of the story: those tanks are tough, a lot tougher than I would have ever thought. Not that I would go and try it again, I realize we were lucky that the valve didn't hit hard, but I found a new respect for the tank makers. Now I kinda laugh when people started screaming at each other because the other one set the tank down a little too hard or something minor.
My guess is your "present" is just fine. Go dive.
-Mike
