Precision Diving

I had the opportunity to get my hands on a couple of the Vindicator Valve Handles made by Scuba Stik. I thought I would share my thoughts about them with everyone. First thing, these aren’t just simple replacements for you valve knobs. The ones I had gotten were for a Dive Rite valves and manifolds. They make them for almost any valve and manifold on the market today, you’ll just need to know which Vindicator handle will fit your valves, they have eight. (more…)

Earlier this summer, I was asked to try out a Whites Fusion dry suit. I have only owned Diving Concepts and DUI suits. My only experience with Whites was when I dove the Nexus suit for my dry suit certification course. My experience with that suit was so bad, I questioned if I wanted to dive dry or not. So I was more than reluctant to try out the Fusion suit. (more…)

A while ago, a dive store manager asked me to try out this new gizmo called a Quick Shot. It is a device that is supposed to help divers inflate SMBs or lift bags easier when wearing deco, stage, pony bottles. I have always been reluctant to try new gear that is advertised as an improvement on something that doesn’t need improved, but I tried it anyway.

The Quick Shot is basically the mechanism of the end of an inflation hose, without the hose, that has the 3/8″ threads. It screws into a low pressure inflation port on the first stage of a regulator. This device is meant to go on a deco/stage bottle, not on tanks on your back. This device can only be used with SMBs or lift bags that have the inflation nipple (like a BCD inflation nipple) for inflation.

Normally, SMBs or lift bags are inflated orally or by using a low pressure inflation hose, such as your BCD or dry suit inflation hose. I have always preferred orally inflating my SMBs. So when I tested this device, I did it in a scientific method. That is, I used my normal way of inflating a SMB as a control and compared how to inflate the SMB using the Quick Shot to my control. Below are my findings.

I first found that the Quick Shot needs to be on “top” of the first stage in order to fit the SMB inflation nipple to the Quick Shot device. So my dive was cut short and I had to head back to the bench to move the device to a different port on the regulator. Once back in the water, I used the Quick Shot to launch SMBs. I found that there were two methods to shoot the SMB. One, I had to wrap up the spool and access SMB material in my left hand then inflate the SMB with the left hand as well. The Quick Shot does inflate rather fast. I found this out the hard way as the SMB took off and I was left searching for the spool. The other thing that went wrong with this method of inflation was that if the SMB is in front of you, when it inflates, the SMB may dislodge your mask due to the fast inflation rate. So I had to be careful to keep the SMB away from my face. My second attempt at shooting the SMB, I kept the spool in my right hand and inflated the SMB with my left hand. This gave me more control over the SMB. Again, I had to make sure that the SMB was away from my face. However, this method didn’t leave me with a free hand. If you read my blog article on how to shoot a bag, it is a team activity. If a member of my team had an emergency and I had both hands full with the SMB, it could lead to even more problems. In order to get more practice at shooting the SMB using the device, I shot a total of 12 SMBs using both methods I just described. I even tried using this device when I was in a near vertical position (one I’m not comfortable in). Still the same results. It became even more difficult when carrying two bottles and the bottle with the Quick Shot device is on the bottom. The SMB and spool wanted to get tangled up in the deco bottles. Plus, I had to remember which bottle the device was on.

In conclusion, my theory is that a diver shouldn’t let equipment replace what can’t be done with skill. This holds true with this device. Shooting a SMB the “old-fashioned” way is more effective in that it 1) doesn’t inflate the SMB too fast. The diver can control how fast he/she blows into the bag. 2) It allows the diver to be in more control of the process and also keep an eye on the team. The MSRP for this device is around $20 USD. So if people buy one and never use, then you aren’t out much money. Heck, we’ve all spent a lot more money on more useless things. My suggestion is, learn how to inflate the SMB the right way and stick with that. It is a process that has been proven to be effective time and again.

FWIW, I did not purchase this device and was not paid to test it out.

I welcome your questions and comments.

Dive Safe,
Duane Johnson
Precision Diving