Neat Little Tricks Are Good to Know

[Mike Boswell]

Don't wear shiny stuff where there are barracuda.

[Mike Boswell]

If you stick your hand in a hole and a Moray eel bites down on it, try to resist the urge to jerk your hand out. Wait until the Moray opens his mouth to get a better grip.

(Please note: This advice falls into the category of "Easier said than done!")

[parkerco]

Originally Posted by ptyx
>>In doubt, take a couple extra pounds. Underweight is no fun.<<

Could you please elaborate on that. I am under the impression that carrying too much lead will force you to use more air in your BC or suit and then you have to fight the compression/expansion of this extra volume in shallower depths. Actual experience: I found a 9 lbs weight pocket the other day on the bottom at 25', hooked it to my vest, and that (actually the air I had to blow in the BC to compensate) made buoyancy control worse. Meaning that I could hold less of a depth 'window' with breathing.

I believe his point was that in a pinch you at least can compensate for being over-weighted ... there's not much you can do if you are underweighted, however. Where that tends to bite divers in the ass is at the end of the dive when they've depleted their tank to the point that even with no air in their BC they are positively buoyant.

here is a trick.

The cheap SMB's can be inflated by inserting the oral valve into the "bell" of a dive alert.

That's awesome, can't wait to try that.

[ptyx]

Originally Posted by ptyx
>>In doubt, take a couple extra pounds. Underweight is no fun.<<

Could you please elaborate on that. I am under the impression that carrying too much lead will force you to use more air in your BC or suit and then you have to fight the compression/expansion of this extra volume in shallower depths. Actual experience: I found a 9 lbs weight pocket the other day on the bottom at 25', hooked it to my vest, and that (actually the air I had to blow in the BC to compensate) made buoyancy control worse. Meaning that I could hold less of a depth 'window' with breathing.

I'm talking about one or two pounds. Not 9. And I might be biased by too much cold water diving, with a lot of lead to sink the dry suit - a couple pounds is just a small percentage of your total weight.

If you're two pound overweight, you'll end up with a two pound bubble in your BC. Even if you forget to purge from 30ft to 10ft, you'll end up at +3lbs at 10 ft, which isn't enough (by far) to send you in an uncontrolled ascent, and can be fixed easily.

If you're two pound underweight, you'll have to do your whole safety stop at +2lbs. Which means constantly kicking or holding to an anchor line/kelp frond/rock. Not fun, and potentially dangerous if an earlier incident causes you to come back below 500psi or you're assisting another diver.

Grossly overweight is no fun either, but if I'm not sure about my exact weighting I'd rather shove one more pound in a pocket and ditch it for the next dive than risk struggling for the whole end of a dive.

[String]

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

It's called DIN

[aquaregia]

Don't wear shiny stuff where there are barracuda.

Barracuda always stare at my metal 2nds... at least that's the way it feels.

[vjanelle]

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

Only use three fingers (or less) to tighten it down. It doesn't need to be cranked down, just snug.

If you have one that's really locked down, make sure everything is depressurized (the flow restrictor in the HP hose might retain some air if you stop too soon and keep the first stage pressurized) and rotate the first stage right while turning the knob left. You might have to replace the o-ring after doing this (you do carry o-ring picks and spare o-rings, right?).

Or switch to din.

[--tom--]

If you need to change to o-ring on a yoke tank, put on the first stage, pressurize the lines and close the tank valve. Then using a purge button (& watching the SPG) bleed the lines back down to ~500 (35BAR). This should be low enough pressure to be able to loosen the yoke screw & high enough pressure to blow the o-ring out of its tank seat.

[Mike Boswell]

On your own boat, always check and reset the anchor at the start of every dive.

[Quero]

You can judge a current--either an isolated one or a generalized one--by observing fish behaviour. By doing this, you can anticipate and prepare for small eddies, localized downcurrents, or shifting currents, and you can make a rough assessment the rate of the current as well.

Care to elaborate on said fish behavior and what to look for specifically? I'm very new so most of this stuff I probably won't register until later, but looking at this kind of info really helps make things register sooner than they would otherwise.

• When there is little or no current, small fish like anthias and damselfish swim in random directions a good ways above their coral head.
• When the current gets to about .5 kn, and up to 1 kn, the anthias all face in one direction (into the current). Divers swimming against this current will have to work a little. Newer divers tend to think currents like this are strong and may use up their air more quickly, but more experienced divers don't have much difficulty with these mild currents.
• When the current picks up to reach "moderate current" rates, between 1 and 2 kn, you begin to notice that larger fish face into the current, but are not yet sheltering. Swimming against this kind of current is tiring and doing so for long periods should be avoided unless you specifically plan the dive like this for a particular purpose. Drift diving in the direction of the current is advised.
• In stronger currents faster than 2 kn, bigger fish face into the current and shelter behind rocks, in crannies, and in the lee of coral heads. Small fish are all hiding in the corals and are no longer seen. Divers who need to swim against a current of this magnitude may have to drag/pull themselves along by holding rocks. It is difficult to move against a strong current of this velocity and the dive should definitely be a drift.
• If even big fish disappear entirely, you are faced with a current that is extremely difficult to handle and which has the potential for mortal peril. In this case, abort your dive.