How to move double tanks around easily and safely---DIR needs to address this!

[danvolker]

There is a thread going on right now.. http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ad...8-lifting-doubles-into-truck.html#post5907741
In which a girl is trying hard to figure out how she can move her twin set up around without hurting herself.

This brings to mind some real issues I have with the direction we have taken, where we are promoting the use of doubles to pretty much EVERYONE who is doing 80 and 100 foot dives or deeper.

The result of this mindset, if we are persuasive, is that MANY divers will buy doubles....and they will do this PRIOR TO fundies--many may never do fundies, and prefer to just take alot of DIR advice ( this should be a large chunk of divers all by itself)....

I would say that the "majority" of American divers do NOT know how to pick up doubles from their garage, get them into their vehicle, to the dive shop and later to the boat, in a safe manner that will prevent injury to their backs, necks, arms or something....

I don't think they know the best way to "store" their doubles set ups in their garage, to make picking them up the next time, easier...Or how to create such a storage invention..

They don't know how to place the twinset in the car or truck, to make picking them up later, easy.

There needs to be a whole DIR development on the best ways to do all of this....particularly for the large group of people who will pursue DIR knowledge via the internet, long before they would ever take a Fundies class.
And even for long time GUE divers, there could probably be a huge bnenefit to a new Renaissance in transport and storage of twin tanks. A sharing of ideas, merging of solutions, better ways developed....

 

[LiteHedded]

i like to lock my knees and lift with my back in a jerking twisting motion

 

[danvolker]

i like to lock my knees and lift with my back in a jerking twisting motion

And don't you jump off the tailgate of the truck with the doubles on your back also--the fast way to move gear?

 

[danvolker]

One aspect of using doubles I would initiate discussion on, would be whether it might not be a good idea to have new doubles users who are not huge strong people, to "train" their muscless and coordination for walking with doubles.
Maybe they find a strong low table or stool they can always walk up to and be able to back over it, without having to have the doubles go downward significantly--so that it is easy to put them on and go for a short walk every 2 days....the idea being, like getting muscles stronger by weight lifting at the gym, 3 days per week of short walks with the doubles, getting gradually a bit longer, may make a huge difference in the difficulty and SAFETY for the diver when they have to walk around the boat ( in much more challenging conditions).
Part of this is coordination and neuromuscular in nature....you have to learn the correct posture to walk in, both for not damaging your back, and for optimal balance.....You have to get all of your core muscles to help with the constant balancing, which will only strain them more on the boat, if you dont strengthen them first.

A one hundred and ten pound woman might need to begin this with very short intervals of walking--maybe only 30 seconds or a minute long, and try to work up to 5 minutes over a few months.Real concentration on the perfect posture for walking like this, will mean it will be easier to do this properly on the boat, or at the dive shop.
Walking slowly and deliberately, never shocking your joints, and basic re-learning of walking for the doubles will help prevent injury to the people that do not have huge muscle mass and huge lifting workloads behind them.

Maybe some stretching before and after....maybe a warmup of some sort prior to the heavy lifting.

I do not believe the average diver I see on recreational charter boats, could just put on a pair of doubles one day out of the blue, and NOT be a candidate for a back injury or a nasty fall. I think if we are going to push this doubles direction, then we have a responsibility to give new people the tools to be able to evolve into this more safely...short of telling them to hit the gym for the next 3 years...

 

[danvolker]

Here is another idea.... in your garage, make up a version of a dive boat bench seat with tank holder behind it. On some boats this is not too far beyond a couple of milk crates with a plywood board over them...and then a surface behind them to sit the tanks on and bungie them to.... Make this, then to sit down, stand up exercise sets with the doubles on your back. Maybe with a short 15 second walk around the garage after each standing up effort.

 

[Randy43068]

Screw that, get an RB

 

[LiteHedded]

I do a lot of squats and deadlifts and upright rows. I find it helps.
the fitness bit of DIR is the one most often overlooked but I think it's one of the most important

 

[gsk3]

I have chronic low back pain. At 27. Yuck.

Did some PT for it; wasn't particularly diligent. Then I started diving doubles. I know how to lift loads properly, and have dive buddies who were great about helping me move tanks out of the car onto the prep tables. Even so, I'd have some back pain afterwards.

Then I started thinking I might want to carry an AL40 bottle semi-regularly. Added all the gear up and it came to over 80% of my body weight. So I paid for a few sessions with a trainer at the gym and focused on core exercises (mostly intensive mat work on a ball). I can't tell you how much of a difference it has made.

 

[Rhone Man]

This is why I had kids...

 

[LiteHedded]

me too gsk3. I have a lot of back problems. keeping the muscles in my back strong seems to help out a ton.
I stay mostly pain free at the dive site (and if my doctor saw what I was lifting he would be none too pleased)
although this recent stretch of dives is starting to take its toll...