Why close the valve 1/4 or 1/2 turn???

[DandyDon]

When I travel, 90% of people have their gear set up for them. I don't, I just tell them nicely that I want to set up my own stuff.

I think the 1/2 turn on problem happens just before the giant stride, mostly. :11: Sneaky.

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[lamont]

I agree that every diver should check his/her own air....but a lot of them don't. The ocean bottom here on Guam would be COVERED with dead divers if the guides didn't check their customers' air. Other guides who work in areas where many of the divers are infrequent, once or twice per year divers know what I'm talking about. I know some people don't want anyone to touch their gear...if that was the case with my customer, fine...except I'd need to personally watch them check their air. Normally a lot simpler just to check it myself. I have 6,270 dives as of yesterday, and most of the time when I'm about to do my entry, the deckhand will check my air. I already KNOW it's on, but it's not hurting anything and lets him be another "link" in the chain to increase diver safety, so I never ask them not to do that.

As guides, the customer's safety is the most important consideration, and some people need closer attention (sometimes LITERALLY...and I know the difference between literally & figuratively...having their hands held throughout the entire dive, because they are incapable of effectively moving through the water themselves.) For people who are really opposed to things like having their air checked, it is, of course, possible to dive unguided or solo, in which case your safety is your own concern, and there's no DM/guide who has to explain "I didn't check that person's air because they didn't want me to." Again, the guide doesn't have to "touch" the customers' gear, but one way or another must be SURE that the air is on.

If you check the OOA thread there's a whole bunch of divers there who had the experience of having someone on the boat turn their valve all the way off and 1/4 turn on (got it reversed) and had their air quick or nearly quit at ~60 fsw. In fact, if we're going to get hyperbolic about the bottom littered with divers who forgot to turn their air on, I would go so far as to say its a theme of the more experienced divers that they've had someone on the boat turn their air off for them...

 

[Dive-aholic]

I think the 1/2 turn on problem happens just before the giant stride, mostly. :11: Sneaky.

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That's why the first thing I'll do when I begin my descent is reach back and check the valve! I can be sneaky too.....

 

[WarrenZ]

I have seen a couple people specifically a divemanster and an instructor whom I trust and believe very competent check someone’s air which is full open and assume that since the valve didn’t move turn it all the way on the other direction and back 1/2 turn resulting in a valve that is only 1/2 turn open. This is caused I believe mainly to being slightly distracted at the time. A good habit to get into is to take a couple of quick breaths while looking at your pressure gauge making sure the needle doesn’t move if it moves your valve is probably closed or nearly so and reopen it (its probably time to look at the pranksters in the group who are probably grinning suspiciously).

 

[TxHockeyGuy]

A good habit to get into is to take a couple of quick breaths while looking at your pressure gauge making sure the needle doesn’t move if it moves your valve is probably closed or nearly so and reopen it (its probably time to look at the pranksters in the group who are probably grinning suspiciously).

While this certainly isn't a bad idea to do I do want to caution people that this does NOT always work. I tried this on my regulator and with the valve only 1/4 turned on and huffing on the reg I see no needle movement. Also if you're using an air integrated computer the polling interval for PSI may not display a change. I do understand this works on most regs but on one of mine it does not. It wouldn't be a bad idea to see how your particular reg behaves with this test.

 

[DandyDon]

While this certainly isn't a bad idea to do I do want to caution people that this does NOT always work. I tried this on my regulator and with the valve only 1/4 turned on and huffing on the reg I see no needle movement. Also if you're using an air integrated computer the polling interval for PSI may not display a change. I do understand this works on most regs but on one of mine it does not. It wouldn't be a bad idea to see how your particular reg behaves with this test.

Nope. Not dependable. Good idea to huff the regs, but won't confirm this.

Might be a good idea to start including valve-all-open on the 15 ft bubble checks.

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[fmw625]

How many have no idea if they can reach it or not?

I intentionally twist my tank slightly counter clockwise and put it on my BCD high enough that i can reach my valve comfortably. I do this because I once needed to reach my valve and couldn't. I had to get my dive buddy to help.

 

[wunat]

some times people do get confused (even though the famous Righty tighty lefty loosey exists in all our minds) but if your valve is either open all the way or closed all the way you might get confused! so a good way to clear that confusion is to have it a 1/4 closed, that way when you check your valve rotate it right rotate it left and if it stops rotating after a 1/4 rotation then its open, (that's why i do it).

This is something I thought of also. I think it is a good way for divers not being confused when making their predive safety check.

 

[beautybelow]

I would go so far as to say its a theme of the more experienced divers that they've had someone on the boat turn their air off for them...

If I had nothing but more experienced divers, I wouldn't make it an issue. I wonder how many of the divers who had the quarter turn on situation were on boats where there was even a divemaster, or if they were doing dives at home with only a buddy. We could cut it up a bunch of ways I suppose. I will continue to check, ask, check again. It's my job

 

[The Horn]

I cannot believe that someone would touch your tanks as you exit the boat to dive. I would be very specific that I was the one to set up and verify MY gear. Don't care who you are, cert level or what ever. My gear is my gear. If someone shut me off as I departed the boat they would certainly have a bag of ice on thier pony bottle for the rest of the trip! What a horrible, stupid practice. A simple "please verify your tank is on" would suffice.