14 Sep 96 17:30, Achim Lohse wrote to Jay Hanig:
 AL>   Both my J-valves were inspected by a reputable dive shop just three
 AL>   dives back. Why should I trust them any less than a gauge?
It is the nature of the beast that makes it undesireable.  I have seen one of 
the shops here in town tear down a j valve and when they rebuilt it, managed 
to reinstall the handle that the pullrod attaches to upside down.  In the up 
position, it would allow you to breath the tank dry.  This was a reputable 
shop.  Now *I* know how to avoid that, and I know how to test for it, but 
people make mistakes.
 JH>> completely different from yours.  Failure of a pressure gauge makes
 JH>> a dive no-go for me.
 AL>   Don't understand how you arrive at that interpretation. My pressure
 AL>   gauge leaks but performs its job. I haven't ever made a dive without
 AL>   a working pressure gauge, nor have I said that I would. Unlike most
 AL>   divers, I've got a backup device in my J-valve. If _your_ pressure
 AL>   gauge failed during a dive, how would you be better off than me?
Since I check my pressure regularly during a dive, I would have a pretty good 
idea of where I stood with my air.  If I was deep, I'd surface then.  On a 
shallow reef, I'd probably stay a while longer.  What I wouldn't do is make 
another dive until it was repaired of replaced.
 JH>> Steve was right.....you are an accident waiting to happen.  I've
 JH>> recovered bodies of guys like you before.
 AL>   Seems a rather rash pronouncement to me, given the information
 AL>   available to you.
You are the one who keeps claiming that the J valve is an adequate backup.  I 
don't believe it is.
 JH>> I don't mean to be nasty, but you need a swift kick in the ass
 JH>> before you kill yourself.  If you can't afford a SPG right now, you
 JH>> can't afford to dive.
 AL>   As I've said before, _any_ gauge can fail, even the next one I might
 AL>   buy.  And if the possibilty of such failure constitutes an
 AL>   insurmountable obstacle to survival, then no-one should dive without
 AL>   back-ups of every "essential" item of equipment. How many divers
 AL>   meet this criterion?
 AL>   I'm trying to find out if the leak in the gauge casing signifies an
 AL>   explosive potential, a point on which I'm still not clear.
No.  The housing is not going to go boom.  The bourdon tube and the gears 
attached to it will probably freeze from corrosion.  The end result is a 
gauge that never moves.
 AL>   A year and a half ago I reported on the Internet about a dive
 AL>   operation in Ocho Rios, Jamaica where the divemaster refused to give
 AL>   me enough weights for the dive (my first ever in salt water), but
 AL>   promised to carry an extra for me if I should need it, then took off
 AL>   with my "buddy" while I struggled to get under, and left me all
 AL>   alone, underweighted, for the entire dive. Nine out of ten people
 AL>   who responded to my post called _me_ incompetent, and a couple even
 AL>   wished I had drowned.  The divemaster was PADI certified, and was
 AL>   said by one of his admirers to have made 5000 dives.
I'm sorry that happened.  I would have taken your side in that situation. 
Being underweighted is a major PITA and detracts from the fun of the dive.... 
if you're even able to get down.  You say a couple of people wished you'd 
drowned?
 AL> Various correspondents said I should make a formal complaint to
 AL> PADI or shut up, but not one could come up with an e-mail address or
 AL> even a FAX number to which I might send the complaint. I guess they
 AL> don't get many complaints.
They get plenty of complaints.  You still want those numbers?
 AL>   Safety concern in scuba is mostly a matter of "see, hear, and speak
 AL>   no evil".
Au contraire.  It's a matter of assessing risk, and then choosing the path 
that minimizes it.  Diving has many parallels to flying.  One of my maxims 
was that if I was beginning to worry about fuel, I don't have enough.  You 
could easily say the same about air.
Jay
--- GoldED/386 2.50+
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