hickdive
15-11-07, 19:08
An inflexible person's hints on reaching your valves.
Ok I'm not going to talk about valve drills or any blah like that 'cos I know nothing of those matters, I'm just going to run through some of the things that I have found helpful when reaching for my valves on my twin twelve litre cylinders with an isolation manifold mounted on a backplate and wing.
Now, I'm a very inflexible person and my drysuit and undersuit aren't specially designed to assist, in addition I just have bog-standard 'short' plastic handwheels on my valves, not nice long rubber ones, but I have found these tips have made it relatively easy for me to reach my valves.
I know that for many people this will be an exercise in teaching your granny how to suck eggs. But, having been through the process of learning how to do this entirely by myself, I hope it might save someone else some of the consternation I experienced; so the patience of those who are completely familiar with this is appreciated.
1. Make sure the top band is really high on the cylinders. The top edge of the band should be just where the curve of the cylinder neck starts.
2. Lie as horizontal as possible in the water when reaching for your valves. If you're kneeling or vertical then gravity will pull the cylinders down your back and away from your hands.
3. Stretch out your arms and legs straight out in front and behind you as far as they will go i.e. a bit like Superman in flight, before you reach for your valves. I mean really stttrrettchhh!!, like when you first get out of bed in the morning. You'll feel your drysuit and undersuit sliding over each other giving you much more room around the shoulders. I like to do this occasionally throughout the dive to make sure I'm ready to isolate.
4. When reaching back, try and get the inside of your upper arm as close to the side of your head as possible; your hand will get much further back than if you have your elbow sticking out at nearly ninety degrees to your head.
5. Tilt your head back. It's counter-intuitive I know but putting your head back really does bring your hand closer to your valve. Tilting your head forward might bring the valves a little bit further up your back but it restricts the rearward rotation of your shoulder by much more than you gain.
6. If need be, you can use your head to push your hand back towards the isolator.
7. Don't wear really bulky undergarments on your arms otherwise your elbow joint can't close as far as it might.
8. Don't have lots of gauges on one arm otherwise your elbow joint can't close as far as it might.
9. Don't be completely vacuum packed in your suit. Take the squeeze off and ensure that the suit isn't compressed so much that it is restricting movement.
10. Practice regularly, even if you don't actually shut down any valves, just reaching back and getting positive contact with each valve two or three times each dive helps.
The above have helped me enormously and here are a few more tips that, although I haven't used them myself, are supposed to help too.
Don't use a conventional BC, the over-the-shoulder parts of the buoyancy bladder can get in the way of your shoulder rotating and your elbow closing.
Don't have your harness cross behind your head, it reduces shoulder mobility and stops your head from tilting back fully.
Do pull up any excess drysuit material up through your waist harness to give more room for your shoulders
Try stretching your arms and rotating your shoulders before the dive to get them as warmed up and flexible as possible.
I hope this is of some help and please feel free to add your own tips so I can try them for myself.
Ok I'm not going to talk about valve drills or any blah like that 'cos I know nothing of those matters, I'm just going to run through some of the things that I have found helpful when reaching for my valves on my twin twelve litre cylinders with an isolation manifold mounted on a backplate and wing.
Now, I'm a very inflexible person and my drysuit and undersuit aren't specially designed to assist, in addition I just have bog-standard 'short' plastic handwheels on my valves, not nice long rubber ones, but I have found these tips have made it relatively easy for me to reach my valves.
I know that for many people this will be an exercise in teaching your granny how to suck eggs. But, having been through the process of learning how to do this entirely by myself, I hope it might save someone else some of the consternation I experienced; so the patience of those who are completely familiar with this is appreciated.
1. Make sure the top band is really high on the cylinders. The top edge of the band should be just where the curve of the cylinder neck starts.
2. Lie as horizontal as possible in the water when reaching for your valves. If you're kneeling or vertical then gravity will pull the cylinders down your back and away from your hands.
3. Stretch out your arms and legs straight out in front and behind you as far as they will go i.e. a bit like Superman in flight, before you reach for your valves. I mean really stttrrettchhh!!, like when you first get out of bed in the morning. You'll feel your drysuit and undersuit sliding over each other giving you much more room around the shoulders. I like to do this occasionally throughout the dive to make sure I'm ready to isolate.
4. When reaching back, try and get the inside of your upper arm as close to the side of your head as possible; your hand will get much further back than if you have your elbow sticking out at nearly ninety degrees to your head.
5. Tilt your head back. It's counter-intuitive I know but putting your head back really does bring your hand closer to your valve. Tilting your head forward might bring the valves a little bit further up your back but it restricts the rearward rotation of your shoulder by much more than you gain.
6. If need be, you can use your head to push your hand back towards the isolator.
7. Don't wear really bulky undergarments on your arms otherwise your elbow joint can't close as far as it might.
8. Don't have lots of gauges on one arm otherwise your elbow joint can't close as far as it might.
9. Don't be completely vacuum packed in your suit. Take the squeeze off and ensure that the suit isn't compressed so much that it is restricting movement.
10. Practice regularly, even if you don't actually shut down any valves, just reaching back and getting positive contact with each valve two or three times each dive helps.
The above have helped me enormously and here are a few more tips that, although I haven't used them myself, are supposed to help too.
Don't use a conventional BC, the over-the-shoulder parts of the buoyancy bladder can get in the way of your shoulder rotating and your elbow closing.
Don't have your harness cross behind your head, it reduces shoulder mobility and stops your head from tilting back fully.
Do pull up any excess drysuit material up through your waist harness to give more room for your shoulders
Try stretching your arms and rotating your shoulders before the dive to get them as warmed up and flexible as possible.
I hope this is of some help and please feel free to add your own tips so I can try them for myself.