Want to practice valve drills, but worried about water getting into regs and tanks

[rjack321]

I did a 'doubles familiarization' course with Mark Powell, when I first bought my kit. It was invaluable training...and help get me properly configured and prepared for my tech training.

rjack321... It wasn't a GUE course though... so maybe they weren't "proper valve drills".

Depends on the era. I can do both types but damned if I can keep the right one with the right buddies!

 

[AbyssalPlains]

You don't want to spend money learning to use equipment properly? Especially equipment like manifolded doubles, which can get you into deep do-do quickly...

Theory is nice, but practice makes perfect.

With all due respect for doubles, I don't believe it's rocket science. I am all for learning things the right way, but I wouldn't want to spend hundreds of $$ only for someone to teach me that my primary wont give me air when I turn off my right post and the same for the left post. Would you pay someone fifty bucks to show you how to tie your right and your left shoe?

I also never bothered to take a drysuit course. Reading about the challenge of righting yourself from an inverted position kind of freaked me out, but once i tried it in the pool, all i could think of was, Wait, that's all there is to it? Boy, am I glad I saved that money.

But of course I understand the benefits of an instructor or mentor. I actually know someone who might be able to tutor me in the beginning.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Learning to use manifolded doubles is far more than simple valve drills. If you're using manifolded doubles, you're clearly doing advanced diving. Either cold, deep, overhead, or all of the above. You need to know, instinctively (aka muscle memory), what to do with what valve based upon what you preceive the issue to be ... and how to then move onto other possible resolutions if that doesn't fix the problem.

Far more to it than what happens if you turn both sides off at the same time, or how to tie your shoes.

I'm in agreement with the others ... get training to use them properly or don't use them.

 

[TSandM]

Abyssal, try sending a PM to Aztek Diver -- He may know of a shop in Phoenix that would have some familiarity with technical kit. He used to teach tech diving there.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Abys, with over a thousand post, you'll be fine, You must be in a lake or some kind of confined water.

Solo diving in doubles is probably something you should start asking in the solo section, therefore no worry on beatin ya up doin twins solo.

I have been reluctant on practice myself, you can probably find a you tube of it somewhere I'm sure.



Happy Diving

 

[Divin'Papaw]

Abys, with over a thousand post, you'll be fine, You must be in a lake or some kind of confined water.

Solo diving in doubles is probably something you should start asking in the solo section, therefore no worry on beatin ya up doin twins solo.

I have been reluctant on practice myself, you can probably find a you tube of it somewhere I'm sure.



Happy Diving

Over 1000 posts so he must know his stuff? Watch a YouTube video? Seriously? Nothing beats learning to dive on the internet.

If you're moving to technical kit, get instruction in using it or don't move to it. Sorry, but IMO it's pretty black and white.

And last I checked, you can still kill yourself pretty easily in a lake. People seem to be pretty good at it here in the Midwest. It seems to happen 1-2 times a year.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

In an effort to turn this thread in an instructive direction, here's a great blog article about why just learning valve drills isn't enough. Thanks to Duane Johnson for the article!

Valve Drills: The Fin Pivot of Technical Diving ... Precision Diving

 

[Lobzilla]

nevermind

 

[Gombessa]

Over 1000 posts so he must know his stuff? Watch a YouTube video? Seriously? Nothing beats learning to dive on the internet.

I like to think VooDoo was just testing a corollary to Poe's Law.