[underwater exhalation]
Hi! My name is Bill Gordon. I'm one of the instructors at the NOAA Diving Center in Seattle, Washington.
What we are about to go over is NOAA's version of a predive safety check.
This is our opportunity to catch about 95% of diving problems before they get in the water.
We try to catch those in the predive safety check. So, let's go ahead and start!
As you approach the diver, approach from the back: check to make sure that the cam band is woven properly and that it is nice and tight.
It should be perpendicular to the long axis of the cylinder.
Then travel up...
Make sure the air is all the way on, a quarter turn off.
While we are here we are going to go ahead and check all the hoses: make sure they are more than hand tight.
Then we are going to go ahead and check where the corrugated hose attaches to the BC. Make sure that's tight.
This is a remote dump. Make sure that that is tight.
And then most BCs will have a remote dump somewhere by the diver's hip.
In this case, the BC has it down by the diver's right hip. So, we'll go ahead and check that.
And we are going to go ahead and check hose routing.
So, the primary second stage - the one the diver breathes from - should travel over the diver's right shoulder.
The low pressure inflator hose that's used to inflate the BC goes over the diver's left shoulder and then goes underneath the Velcro.
The high pressure hose that goes to the gauge console, travels underneath the diver's left arm
and should be trapped in between the BC strap and the diver's body so that the gauge console always hangs out here.
After we've checked all this, we'll go ahead and spin the diver...
...so that we can see the pony bottle system.
This is NOAA's RASS or Redundant Air Supply System.
A 13 cu. ft. bottle in a bag...
...with a sleeve for the second stage hose.
And we can see how it's attached to the BC. There is webbing that goes around the BC bladder
and then there's a D-ring and you need to run the right shoulder strap through the D-ring.
Now, to keep the pony bottle in the bag
there is a bungee cord that wraps around the yoke screw on the yoke strap.
So we can see that here.
To check the pony bottle system, we pressurize and secure.
When we do this we make sure there is space in between the yoke strap and the knob. If there wasn't space here -
if this was touching the knob - it might be difficult for the diver to turn the air on wearing thick gloves when they're diving.
After checking that,
go ahead and make sure that the second stage hose is routed properly through the sleeve
and that the second stage is turned mouth piece down as the diver will be oriented in the water so that the second stage doesn't free-flow.
Then we are going to check to make sure
that the cylinder has at least 2700 psi in it.
So that's the pony bottle system.
Now - go ahead and turn a little bit more for me -
we can see here, we can go back up to the diver's left shoulder and we are going to check
to make sure that the corrugated hose and the low pressure inflator hose are trapped underneath the velcro.
Then we travel down the length of the corrugated hose, and make sure the plastic nut is tight
and also that the low pressure inflator hose is attached.
to double check this you can push the inflator button and also hit the purge button.
Since we're up here by the diver's left shoulder, we're going to check and look for a whistle.
And from that point we can go to the chest strap on the BC. This is optional, the diver chooses whether or not they want to use this.
From here, we get to the pressure gauge. Notice how the hose travels underneath the diver's left arm
in between the BC shoulder strap and the diver's body to keep the gauge console up front.
And we can check the cylinder pressure, 2700 psi or greater --
and continue down the front of the diver.
From here we can get to the cummerbund
and on top of that is going to be the plastic buckle.
next step down is to make sure that the weight belt is right hand release.
So this is right hand release but in this case the diver is wearing a DUI harness. In order to dump these weights the diver pulls the yellow handle.
And that would dump the weight from the belt.
If this was a standard weight belt and not a DUI harness, we need to make sure that this buckle
is not trapped underneath the cummerbund of the BC otherwise the diver would not be able to release it.
And we continue down the diver - here the diver is wearing a knife on the inside of the leg. The knife has to be reachable with either hand.
Then, of course, the diver has mask, snorkel, fins, and appropriate exposure protection for this dive.
That's a predive safety check!
...You know that stuff good enough...here's the camband...
Spin! Arms are up...
Pressure secured. Of course you have to look at pressure gauges...mouth piece down...dial a breath...space...bungee cord...
Velcro...nut...air...whistle...chest strap is optional...buckle, cummerbund, weight belt is a DUI with black handles...
knife is reachable with either hand.