If you want me to respond to point out how the end result would have been the same: me having to turn my air back full on regardless if the DM had turned my tank off or just the quarter turn open, that's not the point I am trying to make because although the end-end result is the same, I am thinking of the potential depth I reach before I notice the problem would be different.I'm missing your point. How did the quarter turn affect this experience one way or the other?
Sometimes people turn on their tanks and turn them back off (Why, I have no clue. I just leave mine on – I have no leaks and secure it properly.). The DM was trained with the quarter turn, so I am guessing when he reached my tank and it was turned fully open, he thought it was turned fully off. Should he have known which way to turn the valve? Yes, of course, but I see people forget all the time. Then by making a mistake and turning a tank on a quarter turn, I might not realize my tank is not fully turned on until I'm at depth because I can still breath off it fairly easily while not under a lot of pressure AND I did do a pre-dive check and did not know my gear was touched.
I'm willing to bet you are going to tell me the YMCA teaches their divers in-water valve shut off skills in OW class or at least you do, so this may not be an issue for your divers. However, I would be willing to believe that many divers, regardless of their training, could avoid a precarious situation at a deeper depth in these instances if there weren't this quarter turn practice out there.
These are my thoughts and no one has to agree with them. I just think arcane practices need to be discontinued when they serve no purpose other than paying homage to old divers who used to scuba dive with anything that held air…
Now back to our regularly scheduled forum topic...
Edited by Dive_Girl, 31 January 2005 - 06:08 PM.
