Reaching your valves?

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kathydee

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Scuba Instructor
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I've been helping a friend out for a recheck in Fundies. He's making great progress with other skills, but just touching his valves appears a struggle.

Pretty sure it's just flexibility as we've tried in street clothes and found the same issue. He's been doing the stretches suggested by his instructor 3X a week for a while but without much progress.

Wonder how many of you had this challenge, how you solved it and how long it took till you could do a V drill?

Thanks for the advice!
 
I had issues with my dry suit that caused me not to reach my valves. Had to finish the last day wet and it was so cold. With the new custom DUI I have zero issues.

Can they do it wet? Can they use the other hand to push back his arm? Maybe go to a thin undergarment?
 
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At the risk of sounding like the Geek Squad IT guy who might as if the computer is plugged in, is your friend keeping his head all the way back and does the manifold and isolator knob allow a full range of motion in the neck so his head can go all the way back? If not, you can move the tanks down.

The next suggestion that I have as a personal trainer is to stretch in a warm environment and use assisted stretching to help increase the range of motion. Don't forget that many muscles play a role in flexibility so just doing shoulder stretches may not be enough. A complete flexibility routine might be employed to enhance results.
 
In addition to keeping the head back, it was suggested to me to try it with the elbow pointed forward, rather than out to the side.
 
I had trouble until I got larger or better fitting undergarments. I figured this out when I realized I could touch my valves wearing no undergarment, but I could not do so wearing the ill fitting undergarment.
 
The critical thing for me was remembering to ALWAYS, WITH NO EXCEPTIONS, do the "fully inflate the suit and stretch" routine on the surface before dropping. If I don't do this, my undergarment and drysuit will bind me in subtle ways that make it MUCH more difficult to manipulate my valves. If I remember to do the inflate/stretch, it suddenly feels extraordinarily doable by comparison.
 
Two ways that work well are to reach back as far as you can, then with the free hand, push your elbow back. This will give you a few more inches of reach. The other method is to use your free hand to lift the bottom of the tanks.
 
The critical thing for me was remembering to ALWAYS, WITH NO EXCEPTIONS, do the "fully inflate the suit and stretch" routine on the surface before dropping. If I don't do this, my undergarment and drysuit will bind me in subtle ways that make it MUCH more difficult to manipulate my valves. If I remember to do the inflate/stretch, it suddenly feels extraordinarily doable by comparison.

Same here. A good fully inflated suit stretch on dry ground, then again proned out on top of the water seems to do the trick for me.
 
Same here. A good fully inflated suit stretch on dry ground, then again proned out on top of the water seems to do the trick for me.

Yeah, and just to emphasize the point, I mean WITHOUT FAIL. Even when the drysuit feels "loose" or like it should work, DO IT ANYWAY. I'm particularly bad at forgetting to do it on the surface before dive #2 on a multi-dive day, and I pay for it every time.

I had a lot of trouble initially with my valve drill. In the pool, where the suit compression wasn't the issue, it was keeping my head back and my arms oriented properly. When I was in the ocean, it was the suit compression that made it hard (which then made me forget to do the other stuff, which then...). Much like DIR in a general, it really is a holistic skill. If you do everything right, it's not that hard. If you do even one thing wrong, the difficulty ramps up REALLY fast (at least for me). :)

Of course, there is always the possibility of some actual physical limitation, be it a prior injury or poor fitting suit, that just plain makes it hard. I had to play with my plate placement a bit. I think my suit is just a tiny bit short in the torso, so I (on advice from Beto) don't clip my drysuit's crotch strap under my crotch anymore - I clip it going around the right side of my waist. This lets me use a bit of the extra length provided by the telescoping torso to help me when reaching my valves. Either that, or it just makes me feel better about it - yay for psychosomaticism! :D
 
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