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I had a similar weird experience when I took my tanks down to the keys. When I went in for a refill, the guy at the dive shop saw my mixed gas labels on my tanks and backed away from them like he had discovered a bomb. I told him not to worry, they only had 500psi in them. He then asked if they were "oxygen cleaned", I said no they weren't, anyway all I want is an air fill to dive some of the local 30' reefs, and could you please fill the tanks up. He said that they have to be oxygen cleaned to fill them, I said not were I come from, anyway I just want air, would you please fill the damn tanks. After much himming and hawwing and discussion with someone over the phone, I finally got a fill. It was apparent that not only did this guy not have a clue, but someone had initiated him with BS about nitrox, etc. to the point that he was terrified to even touch my tanks. The funny part is they had a haskell pump on site which they used to top me off, so I guess someone at one time knew what they were doing. Jim >Following is a recap of my first experience renting cylinders from a South >Florida dive shop: > >To keep things as simple as possible, rather than use my EAN instructor's >card, I would use my Recreational OWI c-card to rent the two cylinders we >needed. > >The gentlemen who waited on us was no inexperienced kid. He quite possible >could have been the store manager. My buddy and I specifically and clearly >asked for two aluminum 80 air cylinders. He asked me for a c-card. I showed >him my OWI card. He asked if we were using the tanks for dive training, to >which I said no. He did not ask to see my buddy's c-card. > >He pulled two 80's from the rack. They were unpainted, galvanized steel, had >green valve caps, and contents stickers on the side. The stickers had "21%" >written on them. Additionally they both had small pieces of masking tape up >near the necks with "32%" written in black marker. > >I reminded him I asked for *air*. He said no problem and he offered to cross >out!! the "32%" on the tape; not even to remove it. > >I said to hold on. I asked for air, I don't know about these kind of tanks, >what might have been in them, how they are maintained, or anything. He said >"We don't have to do that ... our agency doesn't use dedicated cylinders." > >I should have left then, but instead I asked again for two plain air >cylinders. After he spent a few minutes showing no effort to hide his >annoyance, he pulled two more cylinders from the same rack. These cylinders >looked like the others minus the tape on the neck. > >While this was going on, my wife whispered to me something about their air >quality. I told her to look for a gas analysis report. She found it tacked >to the wall by the fill panel. It was dated 1994. > >As we knew where we were diving, I kept much of this in perspective. Of >course *he* didn't know anything about where we were diving. > >It seems to me the implications are severe: What was actually in the first >set of cylinders? 32%? 21%? Something else? Whatever it was, how did he >know for sure? And what was he doing giving them to me? Was he sure at all? > >As he had no knowledge of our EAN training, how did he expect *me* to verify >that a cylinder with markings I had never been exposed to before in fact had >air in it? I'm not trained in this area, remember? Was I just supposed to >just take his word cause he's the expert? > >There are a lot of divers in this world unfamiliar with the concepts of >alternate breathing gases. People have been trained for years who never come >in contact with it. Even for recently certified divers, exposure to EAN >theory in open water training is still more or less optional, and unless the >instructor is well-versed or well-trained, inaccurate by many standards. > People generally do not know what it is they don't know. > > >Think of the impression on the mainstream, unsuspecting, and unexposed >public. He sees tank markings he's never seen before. He doesn't know what >they are supposed to mean. He reads it and immediately sees an obvious >conflict. He doesn't know how to resolve it. He is not trained to know an >analysis or test is even possible so he doesn't know to ask. > >Whether or not he buys from the store, he concludes there is no control. No >rules, no procedures, no clarity. Nothing special with regard to that >technical stuff he might have heard something about. "Our agency doesn't >require it" is like saying I got a note from home. Laxity, it doesn't apply >to us. Imagine if a doctor, lawyer, or accountant, stock broker said >something like that to you or your family. > >Based on what I went through, customers, "air" divers can inadvertently >receive EAN without ever knowing it. The air had no noticeable odor, taste, >or other obvious objection. I will, however, not visit that chain again. > >After everything I've been reading about for the last few years, where the >experts are, who the experts are, where it all began, and on and on, all I >can say is: > >Nice Job, really well done, South Florida. > > >RatDiver @AOL -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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