Precision Diving

Confessions of the Scuba Anti-Hero: Part 1

Duane Johnson — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:32:18 +0000

Your Scuba Anti-Hero

Many people haven’t been able to get to know the real me. Many have accused me of being egotistical and other nonsense. Unless you’ve been around me for quite some time, you may not know a few truths about my diving and views on diving. In this series, I want to give a few “confessions” to help people get to know me a little more better. Check back often for more of my confessions.

If You Aren’t Scared, You Shouldn’t Be Doing This

To be honest with you, I still get a little nervous right before I enter the water. Many times it’s like that butterfly, excitement feeling. On bigger dives, those butterflies really turn into small pangs of fear. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sitting on the boat crying my eyes out and having accidents in my dry suit. It’s a healthy fear such that, in my mind, I’m constantly going over as many “what if” type scenarios I can think of.

George Irvin once said that if you aren’t afraid of technical diving, then you shouldn’t be doing it. What he meant by that, is that you have to have a significant respect for the activity of technical diving. Once you fail to respect the situation you are putting yourself (and hopefully team) in, complacency will creep up. You fail to plan and train for the dives that can lead to significant injury or death.

My first dive below 200 feet almost didn’t happen. It was a dive on a turtled barge in 240 feet of water. It was my first three deco gas dive and first time I had ever used a travel gas. What if I fumble up the bottle move? What if I drop a deco bottle (again)? What if I have a free flow on a deco reg? A bunch of stuff went through my mind. The only thing that made me move forward with the dive, and not have an accident in my dry suit, was the ability to answer all of my own questions. I remembered my training and the dozens of practice dives I did in 20 feet of water with three bottles.

You must have a healthy respect for scuba diving. It enables you to properly prepare for the dives you wish to conduct. A little bit of paranoia wouldn’t hurt as well.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

If You Don’t Know, Admit It

Duane Johnson — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:02:49 +0000

Scuba Diving Anti-Stress Kit

A friend of mine sent me an email earlier. He had strayed from the safe haven of the Precision Diving ranch and took his tanks to a local dive store to get the annual visual inspection on them. When he picked up his tanks, the work order from the repair tech said that he could no longer use them for pre-mixed recreational Nitrox and were good for air only. As I read his email explaining the reason why his tanks were rejected for pre-mixed Nitrox, I just wanted to bang my head against hard objects.

Rejecting the Cylinders for Nitrox

By now you are probably asking, why would they reject a tank for recreational Nitrox? Here are the reasons that the kid behind the counter told my friend.

Hydrocarbons – Over time, hydrocarbons may build up and possibly contaminate their system. This reason was troublesome for me for a couple reasons. First, my friend’s tanks are only two years old. I doubt that there could be that much build up of hydrocarbons to worry about contamination, unless he was getting fills from a questionable source. Second, if a fill station is designed properly, there should be no worries about bank bottle contamination from destination tanks. There should be check valves in place to prevent gas from going into their system.
Losing O2 Cleaning – The repair “technician” had said that after a couple of years, tanks lose their O2 clean rating from the factory. Thus the tank needs to be O2 cleaned again to keep in order to fill with pre-mixed Nitrox. [Start Banging Head]

The 40% Rule

If you take a Nitrox class, you’ll learn that any Nitrox mixture with an oxygen content of 40% or less can be treated the same as air. This means that your tanks and valves do not need to be O2 cleaned if the Nitrox has been pre-blended prior to entering your tanks. So, if we keep this in mind when thinking about item #2 above, do we really need to O2 clean a cylinder for pre-mixed Nitrox? Not really. Let’s not forget that if you are going to O2 clean a tank, and want to keep it O2 cleaned, you should be doing it once a year at it’s visual inspection date.

The truth to all of the O2/Nitrox voodoo is that you do not need an O2 cleaned tank for pre-mixed, recreational Nitrox fills. Certainly it doesn’t hurt, but it isn’t required. If the dive shop in question has this policy just to be extra conservative, then fine. Just admit it and state that it is the store policy. Don’t lead customers to believe it is the industry standard when it’s not.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Going Above the Standards: The Fallacy

Duane Johnson — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:10:18 +0000

Like many people, I like to waste my non-diving time by going on various scuba on-line forums and reading scuba diving blogs. As I try to evolve as a scuba diving instructor, I like to read about what other instructors are doing. You never know, someone may have some good ideas about how to run specific drills or how to handle students in a particular way. When I read through a lot of this, much of what people advertise about their classes is that they go above and beyond what the training agency standards say. Heck, I’ve even said this about my own classes and I’m sure it’s written somewhere on my web site. As I’ve grown as an instructor, one thing has become obviously clear, going above the training standards just isn’t enough.

Become a Great Scuba Instructor

To many people, the phrase “going above the standards”, is a marketing phrase. Some people think that just because they add a new topic or skill to their scuba diving classes, that they are “going above the standards”. The truth is that just because something gets added to a scuba diving class, doesn’t mean that the student will turn out to be a better diver.

Let’s take a look at PADI’s open water class for example. With a few small exceptions, I do think that PADI’s class is pretty comprehensive. So why does PADI get a bad rap in regards to churning out sub-par divers? It really boils down to the instructor.

I have learned that it doesn’t matter what you add to the class that makes a great instructor. What makes a scuba instructor truly great is that he or she holds the students to a higher standard of performance. You can take PADI’s open water class and follow the standards to the letter. If you ask your students to perform at a higher level, you can still create solid scuba divers.

My Real Life Example

I use my experiences as a student to help drive how I run my classes. During my technical diving student classes, I was barely able to perform the skills asked of me. During my first technical diving class, I did two deco bottle dives. During my basic trimix class, I did three bottle dives. Both of these skills were not explicitly stated in the course standards, but the instructors added them to go above the standards. After those classes, I took GUE Fundamentals. During this course, the instructors brought me back down. They forced me to do basic skills with much more refinement than I ever had previously. Even though I was already trimix certified, I didn’t earn my technical pass on the class (due to a back injury, it took me a year and a half to finally get my GUE-F tech pass). I still remember what my instructor told me during my final course assessment, “You have no business doing trimix dives at your current level of performance.” He was right.

Now, this isn’t an advertisement for GUE. Most GUE instructors are some of the best. However, you don’t have to be GUE instructor to churn out great divers. By slowing down classes, limiting class size, repetition of skills and asking students to perform skills at a higher level will create great divers. The training agency is mostly irrelevant.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Suicide by Scuba

Duane Johnson — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 19:26:44 +0000

I recently got back from a scuba diving vacation. While I was there, I was waiting to sign up for some charters at the resort we were staying. One of the lines was for people to sign up for courses while they were on vacation. As I was patiently waiting, I overheard one of the instructors talking to a non-diving customer about signing up for an open water class. If you have been a reader of mine, you’d know that I’m not a big fan of these resort “courses”, but what I overheard scared the tar balls out of me.

Here’s The Situation

There was this father, who was already a certified scuba diver. He wanted his two sons to take a resort course, basically a discover scuba diving type course, so that he could dive with them. The problem was, all of the “resort courses” were full and no instructor was available. So the guy behind the counter said if his two sons took the open water course, they could go scuba diving right away and be certified for life. Let’s stop the story here because I’m already seeing a big red flag (and it’s not the scuba flag). If all available instructors were not available for the discover scuba diving course, how is it that there one is available to teach a full out open water course? Hmmmm, let’s come back to that thought in a bit.

As the guy behind the counter was going over the details, the father asked about logistics of the course. Here’s the part that scared the crap out of me. The guy said that the two kids could finish their open water class in only two morning sessions, running from 8:30 till 12:30. Wow!!!! An full bore open water class in just eight (8) hours!!!! Sure enough, three days later, the father and sons were on the same boat as me doing their checkout dives, in only 100 feet of water.

During our surface interval, I was asking the boat captain (who was from the the Gulf of Mexico area) if he thought the instructors on the boat were any good. He smirked at me and said with a southern drawl, “Son, you’re the only instructor on board this here boat.” For the first time in my life, I peed in my wet suit. After only four hours of “God knows what” type of class, these two teen age boys were doing 100 foot dives for their open water class. All under the “direct” supervision of a Dive Master.

Caveat Emptor

This entire situation left me thinking, that’s one way to kill yourself. To this day, it still boggles my mind why people would choose to purchase such classes. The story I just shared with you is real. It happened just last week and will continue to happen. Even though scuba diving has a very good safety record, it is still an inherently dangerous activity. When learning to scuba dive, new divers need to pay more attention to the fine details to remain safe. If you are a person thinking about taking a scuba diving class while on vacation at one of these resorts, you’re putting your life at risk.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

How to Pack for a Scuba Diving Vacation

Duane Johnson — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:54:09 +0000

Pack Smartly for Traveling with Scuba Gear

One area of scuba diving education that seems to get little attention is how to pack your gear. My very first scuba diving vacation was when my wife and I got married in Hawaii and did our honeymoon in Tahiti. I toted a full sized, scuba suitcase from Chicago to Maui to Honolulu to Papeete to Bora Bora to Moorea, then back to Honolulu and finally Chicago. Each leg of the journey, I had to pay extra for the weight (and extra bag) of scuba gear. I carried way too much unneeded stuff. In today’s economy, the airlines are looking for any reason to bend you over and nail you in the keester with luggage fees. So planning how you pack, can save you some money in the future.

The Thinking Dive Traveler

Before you start putting anything in a bag, you first have to go over everything and look for items that can be removed. I’m currently packing for a trip to Turks and Caicos. As I was folding up my mesh bag for carrying gear on a boat, I noticed that I still had a bunch of teaching slates in one of the pockets. I removed the backup light from my harness as well as the backup double ender I keep and stainless steel buckle used to hold my canister light in place. Even though I could really use my stainless steel backplate, I’m taking my aluminum plate to reduce the weight of the bag (I’ll add a weight belt when I get there). By making these small changes, I was able to shave off 8 pounds from the bag. That may not seem like much, but it will help me get below the “heavy” bag weight limit the airlines impose. Remember, every ounce counts. So get into the mindset to eliminate even the smallest item if it isn’t needed. If your bag is even 1 pound over the weight limit, you can bet a paycheck the airline will charge you extra. There’s a war raging for your dollar. You need to fight to keep it. Make sure you know the weight limits for the airline you are traveling with prior to packing up your dive gear.

The Rental Option

Even if you own your own gear, you can still opt to rent gear from the dive operator you are diving with. This way you won’t have to worry about packing, and maybe losing your dive gear. I’m always skeptical about renting gear in other countries. Who knows how well it has been taken care of. I get the willies just thinking about donning a wet suit that a thousand people may have puked on, peed in or done something worse. So I prefer to take my own gear. Certainly renting gear at your destination is a viable option. Just do your homework into how they service their gear.

Maximizing Bag Space

Looking at how you pack your gear can be a big benefit to you. You are only given a finite space to place your gear in a bag. My shorty wetsuit and mesh gear bag will lay perfectly flat on the bottom of my travel case (when it’s laying down). I then put my backplate and wing on top of that. Make sure all of the air is out of your BCD prior to packing. My regulator bag sits nicely inside the harness next to the backplate. I have fin “pockets” on the inside of my travel case. Even my Jet fins will fit in them. My wet suit boots go in the foot pocket of my fins. The lid of my travel case has a padded zipper pocket on the inside of it. My mask fits in there nicely. I carry my bottom timer/depth gauge on my carry-on bag. By packing this way, I have plenty of room for souvenirs to bring home. Just as long as they don’t push me over the bag weight limit. In the past, I made mistakes by packing things I thought I needed. For example, I own two regulator bags. One is a very nice, thickly padded XS Scuba one. I love that reg bag. But it is too bulky to travel with. So I have a less bulky one, that isn’t as nice, to carry my regulators in. I’ve also stopped carrying multiple Pelican cases. In the past, I took as many as three Pelican cases to hold “stuff”. I’m now down to only one small case, to hold my wallet and sunglasses when I’m in the water.

Make Sound Travel Decisions

If you take frequent scuba vacations, make sure that you think through your gear choices when traveling. It doesn’t hurt to have a travel BCD that is smaller and lighter than your home BCD. Same thing with fins. As much as I love my Scubapro Jet fins, my old Dacor Panthers save me 4 extra pounds and I can move through warm water just as efficiently as my Jets. I also have warm water boots that are low cut and a thin rubber sole. Whereas my home wet suit boots are high tops with a thick, hard sole.

Otherwise, if you don’t mind paying the extra fees for exceeding your checked bag weight limit, then feel free to keep stimulating the economy. We could use all the help we can get.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Saving the Scuba Industry: The Happy Customer

Duane Johnson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:48:01 +0000

Happy Customers Grow Industries

I’d like to share with you something. About 90% of all of my new students come to me saying the same thing. The story goes like this. They took their open water class at local dive store XYZ. After their class, they didn’t feel like they could conduct scuba dives without the supervision of an instructor. When they talked to the kid behind the counter, he told them they needed to take the Advanced Open Water course to fill in the gaps. After taking the AOW course, the student still doesn’t feel any safer. They are on the verge of quitting diving. Then they find me. One thing I do well is to give customers what they want. If I cannot give it to them, I will work with them to help find an instructor or store that will.

My Friend Dan

Dan is a good friend of mine that I enjoy diving with. The story of how I met Dan drives home the point I’m trying to make. Dan was loyal to his local dive store. He took many classes from them and bought a lot of equipment from them too. As he started to progress more into diving, he started to look at DIR. So one day Dan went into his dive store and talked to the guy behind the counter about taking some kind of DIR style class. Well, the guy behind the counter told him him that DIR was bad and the PADI courses the store offered was what he really wanted. The guy behind the counter knows me personally and knows that I lean towards the DIR side of diving, but refused to recommend me in fear of losing a customer. So Dan took to the internet and eventually found me. Since then, I have taught him, and his family members, a few classes.

Had the dive store employee really listened to Dan and forward my name onto him, I would have shit kittens for that dive store. Not only would they have gotten my business, but I would have certainly recommended people buy gear from them.

Giving the Customer What They Really Want

This is typical of what happens in the diving industry. Dive stores are so desperate to get and keep customers, that they are failing to give their customers what they really want. So some, less educated, dive store owners/managers are thinking “If we can be everything to every diver, then we’ll be millionaires.” Here is the truth I learned working for one of the biggest companies in the world, you cannot be everything for everybody. It’s impossible. Companies that have tried that business model have either failed or have done very poorly. So if large Fortune 500 companies can’t get that business model to work, do you really think some small business, dive store owner will?

I see it quite a bit. A dive store will offer recreational, technical and public safety diving classes and gear. But they really lack full knowledge of any of those three areas of diving. To be successful, you need to be able to do something very well and keep doing it. If there are areas you are not able to do well, then develop a relationship with someone who can do it well. Then recommend your customers to that person/store.

You also cannot con students into thinking they are getting what they requested. For example, if a customer went into a dive store by me and requested a DIR type class. The store would just put the student in a class and say it’s got some DIR flavor to it. The reality is, it doesn’t. People will know they have been conned and you will lose business. Especially in the DIR world.

I get around 1-2 phone calls a week about my open water course. Most of these people do not have the time to take my type of class or are looking for a different style of course. I work with these people to recommend other instructors and dive stores in the area that I feel will give them what they are looking for. So let me spell this out for the dive store owners who may be reading this. Yes, in order to give people what they really want, I actually turn down business!!!

The biggest way to save the floundering scuba industry is to start giving the customer what they want. Even if that means you won’t make any short term money from them. I still get phone calls and emails from people who I had take classes from someone else. Even though they have not taken a class from me, they are still part of my diving community and continue to dive. Dive store owners/managers, scuba instructors and dive masters shouldn’t be afraid to recommend people go to their competition. The goal should be to grow the diving industry, not make as much money off it as possible.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

My Compressor Woes Continue

Duane Johnson — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:41:05 +0000

Broken Compressor Piston

My previous post about owning your own scuba compressor was written for a reason. A little over a month ago, I fired up the compressor to start filling tanks for an Advanced Nitrox & Decompression Procedures class that I was teaching. As it started, it sounded funny. After a couple minutes, the compressor stopped running, but the motor was still on. After I turned it off and removed the compressor shroud, I saw the first stage piston and rod were almost completely out of the bore. The bolt that held the rod to the main bearing had come loose (at 3600 RPM I might add) and pulled the whole assembly out.

My “Oh Shit” Moment

As I starred at now a 100 pound paper weight in utter disbelief, the $$$ were starting to add up in my head. I removed the piston/rod assembly (shown above) and inspected the damage. The threads on the rod end bolt were completely stripped out. Afraid to look, I got an inspection light and magnifying mirror to check the threads on the main bearing. To my complete surprise, they were fine. I was able to go to sleep that night thinking all I needed to do was replace the rod end bolt and I’d be back up running (with minimal expense). Man, I wish I had a nickel for every time I have been naive!

I call up the manufacturer and order a new bolt. They also gave me some tips on how to get the thing installed and wished me luck. A few days later, the new bolt arrived. As I started to dry fit everything, I noticed that the piston was binding on the first stage head (i.e. hitting it). So I adjusted the rod length and got it to work. As I was adjusting it, I noticed that a nut that locks the piston on the rod was not tight against the piston. I was able to turn it by hand. This didn’t seem right. So I call the manufacturer again.

They recommend that I remove the piston from the rod, apply some Loctite and put the piston back on the rod. As I was removing the rod from the piston, I saw that the threads coming out of the piston were very shiny. This can’t be good. Once I got the rod removed, I could see that the threads were fine, but there was metal inside the threads. Anyone want to guess where that metal came from? You guessed it, the hole on the piston where the rod screws into was completely stripped out!!!

Another call to the manufacturer was in order. I asked if I could tap out the hole and they recommend that I didn’t as it may weaken the material (since it was already screwed up). They told me that I would need a totally new piston/rod assembly. So my next question was, “How much does that cost?”. Answer, $210 plus shipping. Oh, and I needed new piston rings. At an additional $60 expense.

So now, I’m into this fix for over $350 (including the new bolt I had to buy). I had dreams of getting an O2 analyzer to finish off the Nitrox stick and some additional money for a backup dry suit. Looks like that plan will change. Did I mention that this winter I’ll need to replace the third stage piston as part of it’s general maintenance schedule? I need a job, just to afford owning the compressor.

Sorry for the rant.
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving

Tips for Owning Your Own Scuba Air Compressor

Duane Johnson — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:27:48 +0000

Breathing Air Scuba Compressor

People always tell me how lucky I am when I tell them I have my own compressor to fill my scuba tanks. When I hear this, I roll my eyes. Little do people realize just how much work goes into owning a high pressure air compressor. It’s almost like raising a child. Many times you have to handle it with kid gloves and other times, you need to get more forceful. Just like with children, when it starts to act up, it will cause you quite a bit of frustration. Don’t be surprised if you make a lot of new ~~leaches~~ “friends” when people find out you can fill scuba tanks.

Decisions, Decisions

The decision to purchase your own compressor is one that shouldn’t be taken lightly. When trying to decide, there are a few factors that you need to consider.

Electric or Gas – Most likely, you’ll want to go with an electric motor. Unless you are going to travel with your compressor. So you will need to make sure that the location where you are going to keep it is wired properly. Smaller compressors will require 220-240 volt electrical systems. Motors will also vary. If you are going to use it out of your home, you will need a single phase electric motor. Bigger compressors require bigger motors, those motors may require dual phase electrical systems. Homes are rarely wired for three phase. So if you want that 25 cfm, 4 stage compressor in your garage. Be prepared to drop a few thousand dollars to get three phase installed at your home (plus any municipal hassles).
Filtration – The type of compressor and motor will determine the amount and type of filtration needed. If you are using a gas compressor, you’ll need plenty of filtration to get rid of the carbon monoxide that comes from the motor exhaust. If you are using an oil lubricated compressor, then you’ll need plenty of filtration to get rid of the oil/hydrocarbons in the air. Rarely will compressors come with filtration already installed. So you will need to buy a filter system for your compressor. you’ll want something that can produce Modified Grade E air (or Oxygen Compatible Air).
Your Compressor Education – If you know nothing about high pressure, breathing air compressors, then you should not own your own. You should know how air gets compressed as it passes from stage to stage and how it travels between stages and eventually into your tanks. I would recommend become a certified gas blender. Having the understanding of safe flow rates and gas properties certainly will help you safely operate your compressor.
Your Ability with Tools – If you are like my wife and have difficulty using a screw driver, then you may want to reconsider purchasing a compressor. You need to have some mechanical ability to work on your compressor. If you are afraid to get your hands dirty, then have plenty of money on hand to hire someone to work on it.
Patience – If you get frustrated easily and rush to decisions, don’t buy a compressor. You’ll stress yourself to an early grave. You need to keep a clear head when working on compressors so that you can make wise decisions. Jumping the gun can cost you quite a bit of money if you screw things up even more.

Lastly, you need to have a continual stream of income. You’ll need to buy oil, lubrication, filters, rebuild kits, etc. just to keep your system maintained and working properly. If you think you will save yourself some money by owning your own compressor versus buying air from a dive store, think again. The only benefit to owning your own compressor is the convenience of it. I can fill tanks on my schedule and don’t have to rush to a dive store before they close to get my tanks filled. Do a thorough job of researching compressors and the amount of work to maintain them before you buy.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Scuba Diving Education: Not A Commodity

Duane Johnson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 14:09:41 +0000

Discounted classes, on-line training and the lack of performance requirements in training agency standards are diluting the belief that it is the instructor, not the agency/dive store, that makes a class good or bad. As scuba diving education moves into the 21st century, there is a very large danger that scuba training is being viewed as a commodity.

Why Scuba Training Shouldn’t Be A Commodity?

I grew up on a farm, so I am familiar with what many good farmers go through when trying to get top dollar for their crops. Let me give you an example of how this applies to scuba training. Two farmers grow corn. One farmer spends a lot of money to fertilize their crops and improve their fields for moisture control and erosion prevention in order to grow good, quality corn. The farmer down the street does not do anything to improve the quality of their corn. When it comes time for both farmers to sell their crops, both get paid the same as the price of corn is driven by the market demand, not by quality. So the farmer who spent a lot of time to grow great corn gets screwed, while the farmer who took shortcuts and produced mediocre corn gets paid the same.

This is where scuba training is moving towards. The demand from non-divers are driving the price down on scuba training because they are not aware that all scuba training is NOT equal. Many of the main stream dive training agencies are promoting scuba diving as a very easy, risk-free activity to participate in. Thus feeding into the belief that any scuba class will be fine to learn to scuba dive. Every dive training agency now offers on-line scuba diving classes. This now removes the instructor from the classroom, where students get their first experience with the instructor.

So, an instructor who continually tries to improve his classes and increase his own diving capacity, like this great technical diving instructor, will have an up hill battle to gain footing against those wishing to promote mediocracy. Just like the farmer doing his best to provide great corn, the scuba diving instructor who tries to provide higher than average dive training gets ostracized by the diving “industry”.

How to Prevent Scuba Training from Becoming a Commodity

In my opinion, in order to grow the scuba training industry, new and prospective divers need to be educated on the differences between scuba instructors/dive stores. Since many perspective scuba divers are using the internet to research scuba diving, we can use forums such as Facebook, Twitter, and internet forums such as Scubaboard (and others) to spread the word about differences in instructional abilities and what to look for in different types of scuba diving classes. When people start to search out the best quality classes, then the scuba industry will start to get better. We’ll see better trained divers and our underwater world will thrive.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving

Product Review: Vindicator Valve Handles

Duane Johnson — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:12:01 +0000

Vindicator Valve Handle

I had the opportunity to get my hands on a couple of the Vindicator Valve Handles made by Scuba Stik. I thought I would share my thoughts about them with everyone. First thing, these aren’t just simple replacements for you valve knobs. The ones I had gotten were for a Dive Rite valves and manifolds. They make them for almost any valve and manifold on the market today, you’ll just need to know which Vindicator handle will fit your valves, they have eight.

What is it?

The Vindicator Valve Handle is a new product to replace existing valve knobs. What it does is to provide a visual indication if the valve is open or closed. There are color coated pieces to indicate open or closed. When the valve is closed, the red piece extends below the knob. When you open the valve, a green piece slides over the top of the red piece as you turn the handle. Full green indicates that the valve is all the way open.

The Installation

Installing these things was simple. I just had to remove the existing valve knob and plastic washer. The red piece of the Vindicator goes on first. Then the Vindicator knob goes over the top of the red piece. Next, simple tighten down the Vindicator with the valves existing spring and nut. Like I said before, the installation was easy. Assuming you know how to use a screw driver that is.

My Opinion

I always hate to criticize other people’s hard work. But in my opinion, why fix something that isn’t broken? I have gotten into the habit of doing a flow check prior to going under the water. Since I can’t see the valve(s) on my back, this visual indicator is really no good. Divers should know which way an open valve turns. I can probably see when a dive master mistaken turns off a valve for a customer, thinking he/she turned it on, this indication would be a lifesaver. But as a thinking diver, we must verify all of our equipment is in working order prior to splashing into the water.

I’m also concerned about the material they are made from. From what I can tell, they are made from plastic. Plastic can become brittle in cold water. If one cracked and broke, then the diver may not be able to shut down their valves (assuming diving double tank configuration).

The think I did like about this product was the large knobs it has. When wearing thick dry gloves, it felt easier to grab my valves handles and manipulate them. Another benefit to these things are that if you were to come into contact with an overhead environment, an aware buddy will be able to see if your valve has rolled off. Of course, technical divers have a protocol to always perform a flow check whenever coming into contact with an overhead. Even though I like this feature, I will not be switching my valve handles over anytime soon.

Dive Safe,
Duane
Precision Diving