alternate air sources

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King

Nice site! I'll take the mouth to mouth option please :)
 
Mario,

Nope, I do not have it bookmarked for the dive gear... I have it bookmarked because I built that site a few years ago...

hehe

=-)

 
:royal:, why am I NOT surprised? LOL! It's somehow very appropriate.... :wink:
 
I have a Scubapro air2 AA source. I believe this to be safer than a seperate octopus on the same tank. However this is my personal preference because i usually react calmly under pressure/emergencies and i would instinctively pass over my primary reg to the donor. Hose lenghth is a concern on a primary if you use an octo inflator. Obviously if you use a very short primary hose you probably shouldnt go for the octo-inflator option.

I must admit though, i do like the idea of a pony bottle config. However i have never used one before so i am apprahensive. How long will a 3 litre pony bottle last if an emergency occured at depth? Further, what if the OOA diver had to swim 40 metres to get to you. The OOA diver would be out of breath and once they started breathing on your pony bottle they would be hyperventilating. Just a thought.

__________
Experience is a good school, but the fees are high.

 
Aegir, it is my personal opinion as well that integrated octo inflators are safer and quicker to use and donate air in an out of air emergency where it's you that's doing the donating. I won't get into that now, but what I will get into is the 40 meter's your buddy is swimming to get air...

First and foremost you shouldn't ever be 132 feet away from your buddy, but we'll even leave that alone... most likely in this circumstance the surface, and therefore air is a whole lot closer than your buddy in this instance. When you are out of air, you should be heading toward the closest air supply. If the dive happens to be deeper than 40 meter's you had better have a sufficient pony bottle with you or you can pretty much kiss your ehem, 'can' goodbye :wink:
 
Having followed this thread, there is one thing I ought to add, than what is right in one set or circumstances in not right in another.

The vast majority of my diving has been drysuit in cold (UK) waters. Whilst the rest of me is toasty warm, my lips are always frozen. Getting a reg out at the end of a nice looong cold dive is no problen, but putting it back in again can be more problematic. From having tried, it is an absolute nightmare getting a combined inflator, octopus into a very cold mouth, there just isn't enough hose, or movement to give it a good enough wiggle to get into place (inuendo not intended).

This brings me to my second point, that the hose on the combined thing I used was FAR TOO SHORT for me to be able to look anywhere other than to my left, or almost straight ahead.

Perhaps, If you dive in warmer water, with a longer hose, then it isn't a problem, but for my diving it isn't suitable.

Jon T
 
I agree, yes. But I was giving you an example of a real life scenario not a "model textbook" scenario. You said 132ft, how many people can gauge distance underwater. Divers that can tell between 30 metres and 50 metres are surprisingly rare. You had to point that out for the beginner though so I understand.

So at what depths are pony bottles concidered to be a safe concept?

Turnerjd all my diving is also done in UK waters and I can honestly say that I have never encountered the problem of "cold lips" which you describe. I suppose its all down to personal preference and how well you can handle an OOA emergency. Anyway I think I will be getting rid of my Air2 soon, since I want an Inspiro divator2 FFM.
 
Originally posted by Aegir


Turnerjd all my diving is also done in UK waters and i can honestly say that i have never encountered the problem of "cold lips" which you describe. I suppose its all down to personal preference and how well you can handle an OOA emergency. Anyway i think i will be getting rid of my Air2 soon, since i want an Inspiro divator2 FFM.

Probably because I spend most of my time underwater doing sweet F. A. as a divemaster. Normally there is the expectation that unless there is an emergency the DM hovers where the instructor wants them, watching the sprogs, sorry clients, whilst the instructor deals with an individual student and their skills. - this gets me cold. Stoney in jan or feb is not the time to be hanging round doing nothing.

Jon T
 
Aegir,
When I was referring to depths and distances I intended to point out that from a visiblity standpoint, it would be almost impossible to even see your buddy, let along be able to swim to them. I'm sure that you would agree that it is far easier to swim toward the surface than it is to swim horizontal in the water. I don't feel I need to explain why that is... My point is that this particular example is a 'solo dive', or a 'same ocean dive'. Between me and you, I am very familiar with this type of diving, as is many photographers, videographers and research divers out there. In this circumstance your best bet is to be sufficiently redundant to deal with any unfortunate incidences.

As for pony bottle use. I was told back in the day when I started inquiring about deep diving that you should dive no deeper than twice the depth you can comfortably free dive to. Anything deeper than that and you should have a redundant air supply for safety sake. The size of your pony bottle would be dependant on the depth and scope of your dive. Surely you would agree that a diver diving to 129 ft in warn crystal clear water would suffice with a pony that is smaller than say a diver diving to a wreck in 100 ft of water when the temperature is cold and the viz is 3ft.
 
Heh understood Turnerjd. Mario by the way I watched some more programms on underwater wreck archaeology. Guess what...all the divers had ID2 masks AGAIN. Dam those things are popular. I got quoted 335 pounds ($490) for the on demand mask and 355 for the posotive pressure. Seems pretty reasonable to me, what do you think? Im not sure wether to go for the on demand or the pos pressure mask, could you help?

___________
"I always arrive late at the office, but I make up for it by leaving early."
 

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