My drysuit valve was backwards for 2 whole seasons

Been diving out of Port Angeles for years and never thought to double check my exhaust valve setup. Last month my dive buddy pointed out I was fighting the current just to vent air, and it hit me that I had the intake and exhaust hoses swapped the entire time. Checked my training notes from 2021 and sure enough, the diagram showed it the other way. Now I spend way less time finning and more time actually working on the hull calc. How many of you run into gear setups you just assume are right until someone calls it out?

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wade7671mo ago

Backwards for 2 whole seasons" hits different because that's basically a whole rig you trusted without looking twice lol. My buddy Dan did something similar with his BCD inflator hose, had it routed under his arm instead of over for like a year. We were doing a drift dive out of Neah Bay and he kept bobbing up and down like a cork, cussing up a storm. Turns out he'd been using the dump valve as his main inflate the whole time, just never connected why his trim was always off. It took some random guy on the boat to point it out during a surface interval, and Dan sat there with his mouth open like a goldfish. I get it though, once you set gear up a certain way you just roll with it until something screams at you. Now I make a point to do a full gear audit every spring before the season starts, takes like 20 minutes and saves the embarrassment lol.