Neat Little Tricks Are Good to Know

[merxlin]

If you suck the water into your mouth it'll get replaced with air though, right?

No, it won't. If it is flooded and you inhale the water in the reg, where does that water go when you start inhaling air? It stays in your mouth. Not a good idea to ever inhale water.

It makes no sense that spitting water into a flooded second stage would clear it. You would be replacing water with water, wouldn't you? Perhaps he meant free-flowing?

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

I wonder if anybody knows a trick for loosening the knob on the yoke valve! Man, sometimes those puppies are TIGHT.

At the same time you are trying to unscrew the knob, grab the 1st stage by the body and rotate it in the opposite direction. It only takes just a little bit of movement to free the knob and get it to unscrew. This trick will work even when the yoke is so tight you would swear no one could get it off with anything less than a pipe wrench.

 

[Mike Boswell]

I get the impression sometimes that not all new divers are taught or encouraged to use their purge valves.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

60+ Y/O shoulders just don't want to reach back and get the knob on a single tank. My solution was to release my BP waist strap as I reach up and grab a hand full of hoses close to the 1st stage. A good pull up and over on the hoses and the valve is easy to reach. I don't use a STA so my single tank is about as close as it can get. But I don't have any problem hitting my head. The 60+ Y/O neck bones don't bend far enough back any more. Just one more advantage of maturity.

1+.

Release waist strap, pull up on shoulder straps, tank valve will be within reach. With a poodle jacket, you may need to loosen cummerbund and a quickrelease buckle, but on the other hand, the jacket-style BC's a often "sloppy" enough that you can simply use the procedure Mike described (left hand pushes up on bottom of tank, right hand reaches for valve).

Another "trick": Underwater doff or don of rig is often easier using "overhead" method, helps avoid getting "straight-jacketed" with both arms behind you....

Best wishes.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

IMHO the person who jumps in with their tank turned off has not done a proper pre-dive check.

So rather than labeling it a "pretty neat trick" I'd call it "Oh S##T! NOW what do I do?"

Hopefully, your in-water buddy can help rectify the problem. If not, I guess you need to practice this "not-as-easy-as-it-sounds trick".

I agree with you that a good pre-dive check should prevent the problem, but every year a diver or two drowns because they forgot to turn on their air, can't reach their valve, has an empty BC, were grossly overweighted, and sink.

Sometimes they did turn on their air, but have a too-helpful boat crew member forgot "righty-tighty, lefty-loosie" and turned it off as the diver stood on stern ready to splash... and they do not know how to reach their valve.

Knowing how to reach your valve is a must-learn safety skill. It used to be taught and practiced in basic OW.

Best wishes.

 

[spt29970]

Here is one of my favorite shore diving tricks. When swimming out or in let the surge do the work for you. Kick when the surge is pushing you in the direction you want to go and go still when it pushes you back. If you are over sand or rock you can modify this so that you don't need to any work at all. Simply push a finger into the sand when the surge pushes you back and release when it pushes you forward. Free tidal energy!

 

[hudson]

If you aren't sure what I mean, look at my avatar. That's really how I dive unless I am holding a spear/light/etc.

Doesn't your neck hurt after a while???

 

[Rhone Man]

My favourite tips for new divers?

• Always check the position of the sun when you reach the bottom of the downline - if you keep an eye on its relative position you will stay better oriented through the dive (warning: may not work north of the Tropic of Cancer or in caves).
• Also on navigation: ripples in the sand almost always run parallel to shore (warning: may not work in quarries)
• Never sit on the edge of the boat wearing a weight belt but no fins, especially when travelling through rough waves ("yes" is the answer to the question you were thinking)

 

[flots am]

I can't think of one gear problem that is easier to solve underwater than on dry land, let alone "most".

"Dry land" is different than "the surface"

flots.

 

[aquaregia]

No, it won't. If it is flooded and you inhale the water in the reg, where does that water go when you start inhaling air? It stays in your mouth.

Oh, yeah, no objection to that. But after the water's removed from the reg, the reg will fill with air. I wasn't necessarily suggesting this as a good option.