Here's everything that comes to mind. I'm not sure which of these helped, and which didn't, unfortunately I didn't have a chance to systematically keep changing one thing at a time... so take it with a grain of salt.
I had a bit tighter harness shoulder straps. I always followed the "fist" rule. I did the recommended test, and I could not touch my backplate with the tips of my fingers while wearing just the harness without the tanks. After tightening those straps just a bit, my harness felt quite uncomfortably tight out of the water, and was harder to don than before. If it got any tighter, I think I would not have been able to reach for the drysuit dump valve. Walking to the water, I felt pretty constricted around my chest, I was worried I had overdone it and will have to loosen the straps in the water. I had low expectations for the valve drill. ( I even seemed to struggle to clip things to my waist D-ring more that ever, although it may be just a random coincidence, a clumsy day perhaps. ) My buddy observed the tanks sit sort of low. The harness did not bother me later in the water after the pre-stretch, though, and I didn't have any constricted feeling later during the dive. Clearly, there must be something about donning that makes straps and fabric initially end up in all the wrong places.
I don't think any stretches done before donning the harness and entering the water made any difference, I tried these a few times before and they seemed to have little effect.
Maybe I had a less tight waist strap, not sure. I was recently told I'm pulling it much too tight. I don't remember how tight I made it yesterday, but if I did let it loose, I guess it would have made some sense: if it were too tight, it would presumably just try to keep the harness in the suboptimal position it probably always ends up in right after donning.
In the water, my helpful GUE buddy recommended to go all Michelin man, lay horizontal, and wiggle rapidly while making circles with my shoulders, while pushing my butt up. I had tried suit inflation and some in-water stretches before, but a more vigorous "wiggle" in a totally balooned-up suit this time seemed so much more effective. Looking at my buddy doing the wiggle, I think his valves moved good 1-2 inches and ended up somewhere around his jawline, above the shoulders rather than behind. When I did the same, and kept my body straightened horizontally in trim with my legs flat as instructed, it seemed to work for me, too. After the wiggle, on the surface, I was able to touch all my valves, although grabbing them enough to turn still required me to crawl fingers a bit along the manifold.
My buddy expected it might get harder in the water when the suit gets compressed... so, I tried to deliberately keep the suit more inflated than usual during the dive.
Once in the water, we did the valve reaching test in mid-water, it was at night, in a not so great viz, where I could not actually see the bottom, only a vertical chain hanging from a buoy. I am still not quite comfortable diving in mid-water at night without much of visual reference, so I was worried that this was going to make things more difficult. It might actually have made it easier. Without the bottom floor right in front of my face, and in a star formation where we were all facing each other, I had to stay in trim and keep my head up, rather that looking down and trying to get "creative" with trim (turning my head down would have left me rather disoriented). In some of my past attempts, my buddies pointed out that I keep arching my back a little, so maintaining good posture this time could have been a major contributing factor.
As a side note, the physiotherapist working on my shoulder injury also told me that due to my bad posture, the shoulder bone is pinching the rotator cuff. So, working on posture definitely seems to be the key for more than one reason. ( I do apparently have a full passive range of motion, though, so it's just a matter of some muscles being weakened, and others getting tense while reaching back. Fortunately, this sounds like an easy thing to fix through some strengthening exercises, whereas an actual joint issue might have been unfixable. I do not have a rotator cuff tear, just a small non-dislocating bone fracture, and some soft tissue bruising. )
Another thing that might have helped is the fact that ascending those 15 or whatever feet from the bottom would have inflated the drysuit even more, giving me that extra bit of mobility in the suit.
When I actually reached for the valves, I instinctively went for the "hold your hands where I can see them" position, rather than touching my nose with my elbow, but ended up grabbing the manifold, anyway... I would manipulate all the valves without going out of trim or pushing the tanks, which is great.
I may end up struggling again next time, but at least now I know I can do it, which makes all the difference
Thanks again to everyone for helpful hints, and kudos to my GUE buddy.
I had a bit tighter harness shoulder straps. I always followed the "fist" rule. I did the recommended test, and I could not touch my backplate with the tips of my fingers while wearing just the harness without the tanks. After tightening those straps just a bit, my harness felt quite uncomfortably tight out of the water, and was harder to don than before. If it got any tighter, I think I would not have been able to reach for the drysuit dump valve. Walking to the water, I felt pretty constricted around my chest, I was worried I had overdone it and will have to loosen the straps in the water. I had low expectations for the valve drill. ( I even seemed to struggle to clip things to my waist D-ring more that ever, although it may be just a random coincidence, a clumsy day perhaps. ) My buddy observed the tanks sit sort of low. The harness did not bother me later in the water after the pre-stretch, though, and I didn't have any constricted feeling later during the dive. Clearly, there must be something about donning that makes straps and fabric initially end up in all the wrong places.
I don't think any stretches done before donning the harness and entering the water made any difference, I tried these a few times before and they seemed to have little effect.
Maybe I had a less tight waist strap, not sure. I was recently told I'm pulling it much too tight. I don't remember how tight I made it yesterday, but if I did let it loose, I guess it would have made some sense: if it were too tight, it would presumably just try to keep the harness in the suboptimal position it probably always ends up in right after donning.
In the water, my helpful GUE buddy recommended to go all Michelin man, lay horizontal, and wiggle rapidly while making circles with my shoulders, while pushing my butt up. I had tried suit inflation and some in-water stretches before, but a more vigorous "wiggle" in a totally balooned-up suit this time seemed so much more effective. Looking at my buddy doing the wiggle, I think his valves moved good 1-2 inches and ended up somewhere around his jawline, above the shoulders rather than behind. When I did the same, and kept my body straightened horizontally in trim with my legs flat as instructed, it seemed to work for me, too. After the wiggle, on the surface, I was able to touch all my valves, although grabbing them enough to turn still required me to crawl fingers a bit along the manifold.
My buddy expected it might get harder in the water when the suit gets compressed... so, I tried to deliberately keep the suit more inflated than usual during the dive.
Once in the water, we did the valve reaching test in mid-water, it was at night, in a not so great viz, where I could not actually see the bottom, only a vertical chain hanging from a buoy. I am still not quite comfortable diving in mid-water at night without much of visual reference, so I was worried that this was going to make things more difficult. It might actually have made it easier. Without the bottom floor right in front of my face, and in a star formation where we were all facing each other, I had to stay in trim and keep my head up, rather that looking down and trying to get "creative" with trim (turning my head down would have left me rather disoriented). In some of my past attempts, my buddies pointed out that I keep arching my back a little, so maintaining good posture this time could have been a major contributing factor.
As a side note, the physiotherapist working on my shoulder injury also told me that due to my bad posture, the shoulder bone is pinching the rotator cuff. So, working on posture definitely seems to be the key for more than one reason. ( I do apparently have a full passive range of motion, though, so it's just a matter of some muscles being weakened, and others getting tense while reaching back. Fortunately, this sounds like an easy thing to fix through some strengthening exercises, whereas an actual joint issue might have been unfixable. I do not have a rotator cuff tear, just a small non-dislocating bone fracture, and some soft tissue bruising. )
Another thing that might have helped is the fact that ascending those 15 or whatever feet from the bottom would have inflated the drysuit even more, giving me that extra bit of mobility in the suit.
When I actually reached for the valves, I instinctively went for the "hold your hands where I can see them" position, rather than touching my nose with my elbow, but ended up grabbing the manifold, anyway... I would manipulate all the valves without going out of trim or pushing the tanks, which is great.
I may end up struggling again next time, but at least now I know I can do it, which makes all the difference
Thanks again to everyone for helpful hints, and kudos to my GUE buddy.
