We moved away from our jacket-style BCDs this year and took up a back plate and wing configuration. After about 15 dives, I'm still struggling to find the pull strung on my dump valve. I can find the dump valve itself easily enough but moving from there to find the pull string seems impossible. It takes as much as fifteen seconds to find it and dump some air.
Anyone have tips for helping with this (beyond the obvious, "Just keep practicing,")?
For what it's worth, I'm wearing 5mm neoprene gloves and will eventually migrate to dry gloves.
I really need to make a video on how to do this.
Important points
Rule! do NOT pull on the line, don't grab the knob thing if it has one *doesn't need one, even in dry gloves*
Steps
1-Find the dump valve on the wing. Big plastic thing, pretty easy to find. Find it with your index finger and thumb, not your pinky. This should be pretty obvious/natural, but it's important for the next steps
2-Find the line on the dump valve. It's in the middle, and it's a string. Find it with a pinching motion, and aim to get the string between the pads of your index finger and thumb. You need to pinch it as close to the dump valve as possible. It is also the easiest way to find it, but important for next steps *see the trend?*
3-This is the important part. With a pinching motion, pull the string towards the palm of your hand, while simultaneously using your second knuckle on index finger and only knuckle on your thumb to push against the dump valve.
Step 3 is the part that most people don't think about. When you pull on the dump valve on a jacket bc, the valve is in an essentially fixed position on the jacket or it has a remote routing of the line for the shoulder dumps. When you pull on the line on a wing, it pulls the wing with it. When you follow the steps above, you are fixing the dump valve relative to your hand. This gives you positive control over how far you are opening the valve, but also minimizes risk of damage to the wing by creating stress between the bladder and the dump valve.
This is also the best way to get water out of the wings when you are rinsing them out or just draining them after diving. By maintaining positive control over the valve opening, you can allow the air pressure to push the water out without the air itself coming out too rapidly.
At some point I'll make a video showing how to do it, but I've been saying that for 5 years so there is that...