Neat Little Tricks Are Good to Know

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Mike Boswell

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Katy and I have a friend who is a Navy EOD diver. Katy got to chatting with him the other day about scuba, and she mentioned that she worries about jumping in with her tank turned off.

"Oh, that's easy," he said, "just reach back and turn it on."

"I can't reach the valve, at least not in a 7 mm wetsuit." she said.

"Well," he said, "you reach around with one hand and grab the bottom of the tank and pull it up and sideways. Then you reach over your shoulder with your other hand and you should be able to reach the knob."

I thought this was a pretty neat trick, and I wondered if anyone else has done it, or if anyone knows any other neat tricks.
 
It was taught in my PADI OW course.
It doesn't work with Doubles too good. Hehe
I too am interested in other tricks you guys might know.
 
It was taught in my PADI OW course.
It doesn't work with Doubles too good. Hehe
I too am interested in other tricks you guys might know.
A trick I use is: Turn my air on, test my reg, inflate my BC, watch my SPG on final reg check. Not really a trick, just a routine I adhere to, to assure I have air before entering the water. I also have my rig setup so I can reach my valve. :)
 
It's actually possible to position a single tank so you can reach the valve. I didn't believe it until we pulled it off (turning on your valve is required for a Fundies rec pass). I had to move the tank up a WHOLE lot further than I was accustomed to having it.
 
I'm sure other people do it differently, but we set our tanks as high as possible without restricting head movement. If I am hitting my head when I look forward, the tank is too high for my liking.
 
I'm sure other people do it differently, but we set our tanks as high as possible without restricting head movement. If I am hitting my head when I look forward, the tank is too high for my liking.

Nothing more annoying...
 
While we're on the subject of neat little tricks.

1- Cough up a good mucousy blob of flem, the more sound effects the better, and rub it around the inside of your mask and (when boat diving), leave it there until you jump in. Then rinse your mask once you're in the water. Waiting until after you're in the water almost eliminates the possibility of losing it over the side and most divers won't appreciate it if you rinse your muscous filled mask in the rinse bucket. If you have the proper blend of sputum it will work better than anything on the market and you've always got a supply "on hand". Once you've got the attention of everyone on board and a mask full of goopy phlegm, be a good diver and offer some to everyone else on the boat. You will find that some divers are reluctant to take advantage of your offer so take the initiative and spit in their masks anyway. They'll show you how appreciative they are.

2- When shore diving, rather than putting your rig on the old fashioned way by slipping your arms through it while it's behind you and feeling your way around, put your rig in front of you, so the tank is facing you and you're looking at the inside of the BCD. Bend over, reach through the arm holes, grab the tank and flip it onto your back and let it slide down. With practice it's really easy and fast and it's impressive to other divers and bystanders which is the main reason you do it. This is for shore diving ONLY! Most boat captains won't be happy about the procedure being done on their boat.

3- When diving in poor visibility use a 10 foot or so line that you can hook onto one buddy's BCD that has a loop on the other end for the other diver to hold onto. Keep it in your BCD pocket because you don't usually know the vis until you get down there. Having a line can make a nervous less experienced buddy feel less anxious (my girlfriend being the perfect example) and a buddy line avoids you having to constantly turn to check where your buddy is so you can enjoy the diving.
 
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It's actually possible to position a single tank so you can reach the valve. I didn't believe it until we pulled it off (turning on your valve is required for a Fundies rec pass). I had to move the tank up a WHOLE lot further than I was accustomed to having it.

Lynne,

Do you use a STA when you dive a single? I don’t and I find I have to move the tank farther DOWN than expected. In fact low enough to where the top of the upper tank band meets the point where the tanks shoulder begins. (The point where it curves up toward the neck) I know this sounds counterintuitive, but it must have something to do with arm section and joint geometry.

c
 
in navy dive school we dove crappy doubles with 1" safety release harnesses. We HAD to be able to reach our valves. From what i remember it wasn't that hard to reach and nobody had problems. Do you dive with your tanks straped super low?
 
Holding your depth while unstowing, rigging, and deploying a SMB.
... look at the particulate matter in the water to maintain your depth while rigging your SMB to deploy it , it gives you immediate and direct feedback on if your rising or dropping in the water column ... you can look at rigging it in your peripheral vision and only after getting it ready to go do you need to look at it and check over you to see if it's clear
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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