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Robert Lockard <robert.lockard@nc*.na*.mi*> writes: > Other than the standard Nitrox and O2 labels, I put a 1"x2" piece of > Plexiglas with the mix, MOD, and date of analysis on neck of the > bottle, and second stage side of my regulators. On my O2 (80/20 or > 100%) I have a V cut in the Plexiglas large enough (1/2"x1/2") so I > can feel it even with thick gloves on. I've gone diving in pretty crappy viz, and pulled deco in soup so thick the fingers of my outstreched arm were disappearing into the fog, and it seems to me that all the tactile cues in the world for telling deco bottles apart aren't going to help you if you can't read your gauges to tell how deep you are and how many minutes along so you can follow your deco plan. Where I think tactile cues have their value is so that multiple senses are telling you which bottle you're deploying, to help reduce the chance of sliding through a wrong choice. If eg. your low deco reg unclips with a Fastek and your high deco with a bolt snap, your fingers will remember that at the same time your eyes are reading the markings. However, the danger zone here is when a reg gets a predive downcheck and one or both bottles have the "wrong" reg on them. It's best to mark the "thing itself" rather than any detachable associated items. For example, in the computer business, unmarked backup tapes and labelled boxes are the way to madness; I mark the tape itself and leave the (transparent) box unmarked. Likewise, your deco bottles are unlikely to suddenly trade gasses onsite; having the markings and any tactile clues directly on the tank, and the valves turned off on anything you're carrying too deep to breathe, would be better. I usually use a wide piece of tape on the tank shoulder, placed where I can see it with the bottle clipped on, to mark important data. I haven't found and implemented a good system of tactile confirmation yet; different valve knobs might have promise. Visual confirmation works perfectly virtually 100% of the time anyway; see correct tank, turn tank on, deploy second stage clipped off next to valve, verify hose leads back to first stage, breathe, and enjoy. Anyway, I hope that helps. (BTW, if anyone ever has to plan deco in zero viz, some kind of ladder with set stop depths, and a plan to time stops in your head, may be necessary. This would not be a situation I'd ever want to personally investigate. Chances of getting lost or entangled go up exponentially as viz approaches zero.) (Oh, and I was back in the neighbourhood of that bad-viz deco today, off Long Point in Lake Erie, and the Zebra Mussels have sucked up all that badness, and viz was somewhere in the 50-70 foot range. One day we'll tell new Great Lakes wreckdivers what it used to be like, and they won't believe a word of it.) -- Anthony DeBoer <adb@on*.ca*> -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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