Reaching Valves - Performing shutdowns

[Johnny Boy]

At last! I've always struggled reaching my valves. Most days simply not being able to, but tonight was the night i spent one and a half hours seriously looking what was causing the problem.

No, i dont want to invert either.

As i'm intending on doing either advanced nitrox or advanced rec trimix, thought it best to get it sorted before any courses start!

It boiled down to a few things:

1. My OMS deluxe harness has quite wide and thick shoulder 'pads'. They are very inflexible and stiff as hard board! I removed them to leave only the 50mm webbing over the shoulders. Improved arm movement generally. Besides, they always got in the way when assembling backplate/harness onto wing.

2. Adjusted band positions. After a bit of playing around found the optimum position. I know people say to have the top band right at the point the cylinder curves away, but i've moved my top band down an inch. Works for me as it moves the cylinders higher.

3. Tried everything on with just T shirt. All ok and could reach valves stood up.

4. Put on drysuit with only T shirt under and I could reach the valves ok after a bit of adjusting and pushing cylinders up. Remember i'm stood up and not laying flat underwater. I'm in my garage sweating my ringer off here!

5. As above but with undersuit on (200g otter). Now, no matter what i did i couldn't reach to grab the valve enough to turn. Only just annoyingly touch it with finger tips. Maybe underwater I could, but no way stood up. So guess i'll only be wearing a thin top under my suit from now on!

Hope this helps or maybe makes people look more closely at their rig if it causes them any bother.

[Mal Bridgeman]

Well done Johnny .... just having the confidence of knowing that you can reach the valves is a big help, I found.

It is very different when you get in the water ..... It's much harder to reach your valves stood up, yet in the water it will be so much easier.

My recommendation would be to get in the water and test this out asap.

Let us know how it goes.
Mal

[DIVE BUDDHA]

well done johnny im well chuffed for ya mate !

although ive never really had any problems with shut downs i can see the

changes that you have made and glad that they have been benificial to the way

that you dive !

again well done !

best wishes leigh

[ardhill]

A new undersuit it is then.

You could get a new suit, or maybe go for some xerotherms. As they are 2 piece, you have a bigger range of movement.
.

[Mark Chase]

Don't get too excited about the under suit.

I have a MTM Santi under suit and it hasn't made any difference. My dry suit is an O3 Lycra and probably the most flexible and stretchy dry suit available.

I am starting to think the only thing thats going to make it a safe option for my diving is a front zip on my dry suit. At the moment I can reach all my valves and do shutdowns but its so painful and slow it would be useless in an real emergency situation. I wouldn't trust it as an emergency procedure until I could do it quickly and with ease. Screw this up in real life and it could kill you.

The stiff zip across my shoulders has to almost bend the wrong way to let my arms move back that extra 50mm so i am hopeing thats the prime culprit. The only thing I have found that makes it doable easily at the moment is a wet suit

ATB

Mark

[Scubee]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

Don't get too excited about the under suit.

I have a MTM Santi under suit and it hasn't made any difference. My dry suit is an O3 Lycra and probably the most flexible and stretchy dry suit available.

I am starting to think the only thing thats going to make it a safe option for my diving is a front zip on my dry suit. At the moment I can reach all my valves and do shutdowns but its so painful and slow it would be useless in an real emergency situation. I wouldn't trust it as an emergency procedure until I could do it quickly and with ease. Screw this up in real life and it could kill you.

The stiff zip across my shoulders has to almost bend the wrong way to let my arms move back that extra 50mm so i am hopeing thats the prime culprit. The only thing I have found that makes it doable easily at the moment is a wet suit

ATB

Mark

Mark - My suit is an O3, and I have a lighter weight zip which gives me a lot more flexibility than a heavyweight one - just a thought before you go getting a whole new suit!

[pauldiving]

once you can get to the valves all becomes clear

i managed to sort myself out quickly! luck or technque or config i dont know

i use a agir back plate and harness,othree pbb undersuit and 2\3 resin othree

suit, also i have long euro cylinders which are taller than fabers and standard
steels,
i did use usa galvanized sherwoods before that and i could still drill well,

hope it goes well for you mate, keep drilling and it will become second nature

[Glyn]

Find a Yoga teacher, get them to show you how to do Gomukha-asana, practice twice a day (you can do it at your desk) and within 3 months you should have several more inches movement. It worked for me anyway.

Glyn

[weazelz]

Originally Posted by Johnny Boy

4. Put on drysuit with only T shirt under and I could reach the valves ok after a bit of adjusting and pushing cylinders up. Remember i'm stood up and not laying flat underwater. I'm in my garage sweating my ringer off here!

5. As above but with undersuit on (200g otter). Now, no matter what i did i couldn't reach to grab the valve enough to turn. Only just annoyingly touch it with finger tips. Maybe underwater I could, but no way stood up. So guess i'll only be wearing a thin top under my suit from now on!

trying to reach your valves standing upright, out of the water, is missing the point a bit. I can barely graze the tops of my first stages like this, but flat in the water I can get to my valves easily. a better way to test out of the water is to lie face-down on a bench or a stool (ideally with empty tanks so you don't get too squashed) & try reaching your valves from this position - you mya be pleasntly suprised how easily you can get to them. especially if you keep your head back

[chris_t]

Hi,

I'm a new twinset diver, and 6 dives on the new twin set, and I can twiddle with the knobs all dive, without burying my head in silt.

Up until dive 5, I was miles off even touching my 1st stages. I was blaming my suit, my undersuit, by weight (17 stone) and my plate on my previously broken collarbone.

Turns out, its only the harness, it was way too tight. Its not a one piece harness, so I simply adjusted the overlap on the weight belt, and pulled through about 9 inches of webbing, and now it is so easy, I don't know what I was stressing about.

Hope you sort it without too much expense!

Chris