Low hanging of tanks, is this a specific fashion, ignorance, or normal?

[Z Gear]

While it appears low, it works once in the water. Typically slung that low to avoid the back of your head hitting the valve/reg 1st stage while diving. And, NO, it is not the same as wearing jeans at your knees...

My wife likes wearing her tank pretty low, we had to get tank covers for extra grip because we did not want it slip off .

 

[eelnoraa]

While it appears low, it works once in the water. Typically slung that low to avoid the back of your head hitting the valve/reg 1st stage while diving. And, NO, it is not the same as wearing jeans at your knees...

I suspect the reason for this is the use of BC without a crotch strap. there is really no way one can cinch down the BC enough so avoid BC riding up in water. so what do they do, they lower the tank on the BC so that when BC ride up, the tank is at the right position. To me, this is a wrong solution to the problem. A crotch strap will fix the BC in the right position, so in out out of water, tank height can look more or less the same

 

[fdennis]

^^^^Yes, exactly that. And getting to the valve is no problem because you just push up on the bottom of the tank with one hand while reaching back to the valve over your shoulder with the other.

Assuming, of course, you have both hands free....


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[Itsacon]

My gf likes her tank quite low, as here legs are very buoyant, and with the tank up high, she's struggling to stay horizontal.

 

[Nemrod]

Assuming, of course, you have both hands free....


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Most people turn their air supply on before entering the water. And with a singles rig there is no further reason to need to manipulate the valve once turned on, usually before entering the water is preferred by experienced divers, we usually do a spg pressure check and watch the spg needle. If during the dive an O-ring blows, hose explodes, whatever reason you can invent, leave the valve open and continuing breathing as normal if possible. If not possible, better have a buddy or if solo an alternate supply and in any case the dive is over and you are going up.

N

 

[PfcAJ]

U ever seen an anchor line turn off a tank valve during descent?

yup.

 

[DKL]

I line my 1st stage with the collar/top of my BCD. I have not hit my head on it, I can easily reach the valve, and I can maintain a very nice horizontal position. That is the way my instructor taught me to do it. Maybe other instructors use a different style....I just don't think I would be comfortable with the tank down low.

 

[Nemrod]

U ever seen an anchor line turn off a tank valve during descent?

yup.

Nope, maybe get off the anchor line and look at your position relative to said anchor line. Untangling line, more likely, sorry, still no issue. See, there is this assumption that a tank that appears (too) low while standing on a boat deck will remain such once in the water and the second assumption is that the valve cannot be reached for whatever reason you wish to do so. The issue and problem is that both assumptions are incorrect and unfounded in actual practice therefore your arguments are, uh, without merit.

You guys can invent things until Hades freezes over. Maybe a passing squid could turn it off, who knows. In which case, just me, I will reach behind and turn it back on regardless of where the tank is "slung" and if need be to facilitate I will use however many hands I was born with, two I think it is. As to my many $ camera in such an invented occurrence, unlike neophytes, I am tethered during entry and exit at two places and never less than one heavy duty lanyard in between. So, I can drop it if needed and I have had to several times to assist another diver, by design and intention. But not with a valve turned off by a passing squid.

Many BCs and plate/packs had or have built in stops. Many of the current crop of BCs that have a retaining strap have instructions that the strap should be perpendicular to the valve when correctly positioned (AL Zuma for one). Many plates, particularly the bent doubles plates when adapted to single tank use, place the tank very high due to the position of the upper camband falling off the tank shoulder otherwise. I will not let equipment determine the position of my tank due to a design deficiency. That is the real reason so many of you have your singles rigs fitted with your tanks hiked up behind your heads. Not anything to do with this invented reaching the valve non problem.

N

 

[Redshift]

Nemrod, the same way people cannot assume that tanks will always be low in the water, you cannot defend it in absolute terms, because for some people they still are low in the water and still cause problems.

This one is so low it's past the butt and clearly pushing the diver hips down, which is not good for trim.



When the tank gets lighter, if only connected to the BCD at the top, it can have the opposite effect and act as a lever.



And yet, it's possible to have it not hitting the head and not going down past the butt in a more central position.



Of course that we don't know how these tanks look on the surface and maybe even for the third diver it could look as it it was too low. But this is to show that there are too low tanks even in the water. They may be because of trim, as some people mentioned, but I think there are better solutions, because of the person's dimensions (it's possible to get shorter 12 l steel cylinders) or because the divers don't know better. And I think it's relevant to discuss this and acknowledge that it's not always been done correctly. At least divers should question how they are setting up their cylinders and see if there are reasons or not, what are the implications on their trim, finning fining, comfort, etc, experiment a bit and see what's best for them.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

U ever seen an anchor line turn off a tank valve during descent?

yup.

Oh boy, this sounds like a total fish story to me.
That's really reaching, that's the first time I've heard that tale and I've heard quite a few.
Besides, *if* I ever follow a line down it's on my front side not my back side.