Using a Harness when Gold Diving

Regulators can only be used for Hookah diving when it is used along with a chest harness. The harness has three main uses:

• It prevents the air hose from getting in the way of the diver when he is going to be working under the water. Harnesses have a back plate that is automatically placed over the middle of the diver’s back when the harness is used. The back plate takes care of holding a check valve that works as a junction point for the air hose and regulator. Given that the air hose ends at the diver’s back, it avoids it from getting tangled around the diver’s body. 

• The regulator input that leads to the check valve prevents it from being pulled from the main air hose when a diver is working under the water. When a diver is working underneath the water and was to come to the end of the hose, the harness would take the shock and the regulator will not be suddenly pulled out of the divers mouth.

• The check valve that is located on the back plate is very important as well because is serves as a safety gate by shutting the air system down, and allows the air to go in and travel in one direction. If a leak were to happen in the air line in between the output of the compressor and the input of the check valve, it could avoid a vacuum from happening in the mouthpiece of the regulator which would then cause the diver to breathe in a bunch of water and could cause panic and tension. It is very important to always dive with a harness and check valve.