Lloyd Bridges…Not!
Divers who visit Hawai’i are frequently not among the most experienced of underwater explorers. Serious divers tend to focus more on the Caribbean and South Pacific. Those who visit Hawai’i generally come for the luaus, helicopter tours and tacky Aloha wear from Hilo Hatties. When they realize that there is actually an ocean surrounding the islands, a common reaction is, “Hmmm, I’m certified (or was, once). Maybe I should go scuba diving…”
Our dive operation recognized the fact most of our passengers were not exactly Lloyd Bridges, and took steps to quietly compensate for our guests’ lack of experience. For example:
- We never took divers below 65 feet.
- We “suggested” that passengers would have the best time if they trotted along dutifully behind one of our divemasters, who could show them things they might miss on their own.
One of our favorite tricks was hustling passengers aboard, giving them a quick safety briefing, then getting the boats under way.
Then, seemingly as an afterthought, we “suggested” that our passengers could save themselves the inconvenience of trying to set up equipment on a rolling boat deck by allowing us to do so for them. What this really helped prevent, of course, was passengers setting up their equipment wrong.
- For example, passengers seldom realized that our cylinders were slightly smaller in diameter than most and, if left to their own devices, we’d have tanks slipping out of BCs right and left.
- A favorite Turkey Diver trick was mounting a cylinder on a BC backwards, then compensating for this error by mounting the regulator on the tank upside down. This actually works — up to a point. The problem is that it makes a regulator second stage almost impossible to recover using the “reach back” method.
Getting It Right
Almost everyone has difficulty at times telling right from left. This may explain why some divers can never seem to get their tanks, regulators and BCs assembled correctly. If you’ve ever been frustrated by this challenge, here is some information that may help.
- Start by pretending you are dressing an invisible diver who is wearing your BC. Get behind the BC so that you are looking at the invisible diver’s back. Your right hand is now on the same side as the invisible diver’s right hand.
- Place the tank between you and the invisible diver. Orient the tank so that the valve turnwheel is on the right, and so that air from the valve orifice is flowing towards the invisible diver, not away from him (makes sense…right?).
- Now orient the regulator so that the second stage hoses are on the right, and the console and power inflator hoses are on the left. If the regulator first stage has a low-pressure swivel, it will generally (but not always) be pointing down.
- As a final check, the first stage inlet orifice and the tank valve orifice should match up. Make certain the yoke screw is aimed at the tiny dimple in the back of the valve post, not the valve orifice.
See, that’s pretty easy to remember, isn’t it?
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