fisherdvm
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Well, to demonstrate some of the worst rental equipments in the USA, and why you should always check your gears, rental or not before a dive...
My nephew, a novice, rented BC and reg from a well known dive shop in key largo (they are allowed to feed the fishies there!).
He got the first BC - the dump valve string was cut off. I told him to get another one with a working dump valve. The guy at the shop said, all the dump valve on all the remaining rentals have the string cut off... But finally found one with a string on a dump valve.
Before we boarded, I told him to manually inflate his BC. It wouldn't inflate. Then we found a loose inflator hose elbow. Tightening it up, the BC inflated fine. Then we pull the butt dump valve, and the string was frayed, and had a ball of knot that keep it from closing. I pushed it back in with my finger nails, so it closed, and told my nephew not to use it. Now we know why all the strings on the remaining BC's were cut off!.
We check his reg cap to make sure they are tight. The octo cap was soooo looose, it required at least 3 complete turns to tighten. Might have caused a flooding if it were his primary....
Then we boarded the boat. Of the 5 divers in our boat, 3 encountered bad o rings on their tank (30% bad tank O ring). My nieces BC had such bad corrosion on the inflator hose valve, that it took 3 of us multiple tries to remove the inflator hose from it after the first dive.
When we dove, my nephew floated to the top toward the end of the dive. We couldn't figure why, as we did a check out dive the day before. He told us that the dive shop equipment guy refused to give him 20 lbs of weight, and insisting that he needed only 16! As a beginner, my nephew did not dare to question. I can see where a resort can insist on adding weight to a diver, but not to subtract it!!
We heard that other people had problem with the equipment guy to, my self included. He said that he did not have any weight belt in my size, but once I looked through a pile of disorganized belts on the ground, I found one within 1 minute...
He refused to find the exact weight my sister needed to balance her BC weight, insisting on larger ones that would have caused an imbalance.
The only other dive place I found with such bad rental gears was in Freeport, Bahamas. My same nephew was issued both a defective BC (major leaks), and a reg with ripped mouth piece. Fortunately, the dive master traded his BC and reg for him... It is still his fault (my nephew) for not checking it before we boarded.... But how many people actually do? I can expect bad rental gears in other countries, but not in the US.
The moral of the story - a predive check is absolutely essential on all dive gears, and you are responsible for your own proper weighting before a dive.... Even new gears have loose inflator elbows, dump valves.... And sand and vibration can cause regs to stick or come loose.
My nephew, a novice, rented BC and reg from a well known dive shop in key largo (they are allowed to feed the fishies there!).
He got the first BC - the dump valve string was cut off. I told him to get another one with a working dump valve. The guy at the shop said, all the dump valve on all the remaining rentals have the string cut off... But finally found one with a string on a dump valve.
Before we boarded, I told him to manually inflate his BC. It wouldn't inflate. Then we found a loose inflator hose elbow. Tightening it up, the BC inflated fine. Then we pull the butt dump valve, and the string was frayed, and had a ball of knot that keep it from closing. I pushed it back in with my finger nails, so it closed, and told my nephew not to use it. Now we know why all the strings on the remaining BC's were cut off!.
We check his reg cap to make sure they are tight. The octo cap was soooo looose, it required at least 3 complete turns to tighten. Might have caused a flooding if it were his primary....
Then we boarded the boat. Of the 5 divers in our boat, 3 encountered bad o rings on their tank (30% bad tank O ring). My nieces BC had such bad corrosion on the inflator hose valve, that it took 3 of us multiple tries to remove the inflator hose from it after the first dive.
When we dove, my nephew floated to the top toward the end of the dive. We couldn't figure why, as we did a check out dive the day before. He told us that the dive shop equipment guy refused to give him 20 lbs of weight, and insisting that he needed only 16! As a beginner, my nephew did not dare to question. I can see where a resort can insist on adding weight to a diver, but not to subtract it!!
We heard that other people had problem with the equipment guy to, my self included. He said that he did not have any weight belt in my size, but once I looked through a pile of disorganized belts on the ground, I found one within 1 minute...
He refused to find the exact weight my sister needed to balance her BC weight, insisting on larger ones that would have caused an imbalance.
The only other dive place I found with such bad rental gears was in Freeport, Bahamas. My same nephew was issued both a defective BC (major leaks), and a reg with ripped mouth piece. Fortunately, the dive master traded his BC and reg for him... It is still his fault (my nephew) for not checking it before we boarded.... But how many people actually do? I can expect bad rental gears in other countries, but not in the US.
The moral of the story - a predive check is absolutely essential on all dive gears, and you are responsible for your own proper weighting before a dive.... Even new gears have loose inflator elbows, dump valves.... And sand and vibration can cause regs to stick or come loose.