I want to share a glitch that happened to my reg while I was on a dive yesterday.I have already lost count of how many times I have dove with this reg,And I had a feeling that something was going to give me some kind of inconvenience.I've been wondering about the duckbill for some time,And it finally showed it's face
.I jumped off a boat while 8 other divers were stacked up behind me.When we exit the boat in this fashion,We shoot straight down,No O.K. signals or equipt check on the surface before submerging.We need to egress asap to prevent injury from other divers,Anyway,On my first exhale after I cleared the other divers.I had no exhaust.I knew it had something to do with the duckbill.Since I was in 30 feet of water ,I just blew the air out and sucked on a purge until I got to the bottom ,Then removed my tank.I pulled out a stiff zip tie that I use to tickle scallops open with.I shoved it into a exhaust hole and sure enough,The duckbill folded in the can.I managed to eliminate the problem and continue to dive.Luckily none of the other divers noticed or I would not of heard the last of it
.When I got home, I cracked open the can and after rinsing,I put a thin bead of silicon under the duckbill to make sure this does not happen again.I also shot some silicon under the folded -over portion of the duckbill to keep it from twisting on the can.I dove all day this afternoon with no problem.I still need to find out how long the silicon will hold.