Buddy breathing vs Octopus

[captain]

If there is a diver with no Octopus of alternate air source then he will not be my buddy! It sounds very Macho to dive with the bare minimum of equipment but such people should realise that they are putting themselves and others at risk by not using all the safety gear that is available!
If you dive correctly and monitor your air usage then there should not be hardly any divers running out of air!
If your baggage allowance does not cover the weight of all your gear then take the most necessary and rent the rest at the place you are going to dive![/QUOT





If you lack the skill to buddy breath than you will not be my buddy. As Walter said it is a very easy skill and even easier with the single hose regulator then with the two hose regulator that I learned on. Like Slonda said, unless I am diving with charter that would require an octo I don't have or have ever carried one.

 

[Walter]

we had to buddy breath using a snorkel ( on the surface obviously).This was a "skill" which had no real value EXCEPT to add confidence and make you feel comfortable in the water.

Except it is so incredibly easy that it doesn't really build confidence. I still think the requirement that the buddy making a surface dive keeps the snorkel is ridiculous.

 

[Sas]

Buddy breathing is not hard but if faced with an OOA I would prefer to donate an octopus unless it is my regular buddy who I know has no issue with buddy breathing. Someone who was OOA, panicking and had never done buddy breathing I don't think would work out as well as donating my octopus - though I have never experienced this personally so I could be wrong . Receiving air if I was OOA, well I would not mind between octo or buddy breathing.

 

[rstofer]

The thing with buddy breathing is that you don't give your reg to the victim. You control the reg at all times, never letting go of it. This process was certainly part of the NAUI training in 1988 although I have always had either a conventional octo or an Air 2 device.

I think I like the long hose primary and necklaced octo concept so that is the way we are setting up the regulators. We'll see how long this fad lasts. I'm not sure I like my regulator hose being wrapped around my neck.

Now that I am starting to mess around with double hose regulators, there may very well be occasions where I don't have an octo. It's not the case for all configurations, of course, but the Mistral doesn't have intermediate pressure so I just won't have LP inflation and an octo. This is going to take a little thought and training for both of us. Or, one of us can carry a small pony.

My guess is that buddy breathing from a double hose regulator is somewhat more difficult that doing it from a single hose. It seems like a good thing to practice in the pool before trying it at the bottom of the ocean.

Richard

 

[mudhole]

In the 1980,s My brother, with a couple hundred dives, was diving with his soon to be fiancee. . . her unfamiliar regulator "locked up" on a dive, and she had never trained to buddy breathe. . . learned it first try. They married and both gave up diving. It happens a lot, girls learn to dive, catch a husband. . . lose two divers.

 

[seaducer]

I have never done it outside a training class, but what I remember it was very easy. Nobody had any issues with it.

I can see where people might think it is not as safe to give up your air for short bursts, but so long as your buddy is not in a state of flight it shouldn't be an issue. BTW the same out of control buddy on your octo can drag you up to the surface, and if they get behind you then you have no control anyway.

6 of one 1/2 dozen of another I suppose.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

The thing with buddy breathing is that you don't give your reg to the victim. You control the reg at all times, never letting go of it. This process was certainly part of the NAUI training in 1988 although I have always had either a conventional octo or an Air 2 device.

Buddy breathing is still a part of NAUI training ... but not until you reach the DM level.

In the 1980,s My brother, with a couple hundred dives, was diving with his soon to be fiancee. . . her unfamiliar regulator "locked up" on a dive, and she had never trained to buddy breathe. . . learned it first try. They married and both gave up diving. It happens a lot, girls learn to dive, catch a husband. . . lose two divers.

I don't know too many "girls" like that ... most of the single women in my diving circle wouldn't even date a guy who didn't dive.

I have never done it outside a training class, but what I remember it was very easy. Nobody had any issues with it.

I can see where people might think it is not as safe to give up your air for short bursts, but so long as your buddy is not in a state of flight it shouldn't be an issue. BTW the same out of control buddy on your octo can drag you up to the surface, and if they get behind you then you have no control anyway.

6 of one 1/2 dozen of another I suppose.

Like any skill, buddy breathing is easy if both you and the person you're doing it with understand how it is done. The difficulty comes ... as it does with any diving skill ... when you've either never been trained, or haven't practiced it for a long time, or are attempting it with someone who fits that description. You can't "talk" someone through a procedure like that underwater ... especially when they're struggling for air.

The skill itself is easy ... the thing that makes it less safe than standard air-sharing is the higher potential for a stressful situation ... and the increased risk that a diver will panic as a result of that stress.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[CompuDude]

Avoiding panic is the key point, and only training in buddy breathing and practice can prevent it. But the incidents I have first hand knowledge of ALL involved new divers with less than a year of diving, and they did not panic.... "stressed" certainly, but no panic. This was because they had been taught to buddy breath in OW. It is a very "learnable" skill, and it is a shame it is not in everyone's "toolbox".

Best wishes.

Buddy breathing is a very easy skill, but I think the thing to bear in mind when condemning it's elimination from training is the horribly abbreviated nature of the majority of training courses these days. (There are exceptions, to be sure.) But most classes back when many of us first trained were MUCH more extensive than they were today. People were much more familiar with their gear and much more comfortable in the water than your average student today after finishing the minimum 1 pool session and 2 OW sessions. The difference is night and day, and frankly, if they added buddy breathing training to the course (and an hour to the in-water time to accomplish this), I'm not sure that I would feel confident that a new diver would have the composure needed to pull off buddy breathing.

Is it difficult? No. Is is a skill every student should have? Absolutely. Is it likely to happen (effectively) outside of a significantly longer-format class? No.

 

[bill_bain]

The key to buddy breathing (or using a "safe second" like an octopus) is the same -- don't panic.

Having had the misfortune of being paired with a diver I didn't know on a dive in the Bahamas who panicked in less that 30 feet of water when his reg malfunctioned, flailed around, knocked my mask off and tore MY regulator out of my mouth and refused to give it back, and then rocketed for the surface literally dragging me up far too fast, so fast that I was concentrating on the free ascent even though I had an Air2, I'd make 2 points:

1. No matter whether you're buddy breathing or using an octopus, you need to take a minute in the water before heading down to talk about how an OOA situation would be handled. In my case the stupid sot had never seen an Air2 before. He was grabbing for the non-existing octopus. This is particularly true if you're using equipment that's "off the beaten track."

2. I do wish that even if buddy breathing isn't taught anymore, that ascent using your buddy's octopus, or what ever was (maybe it is now, I don't know -- I dive with my son and we've worked on buddy breathing). It can get pretty awkward to be that close to a potentially panicked diver and make a controlled ascent.

 

[Sas]

1. No matter whether you're buddy breathing or using an octopus, you need to take a minute in the water before heading down to talk about how an OOA situation would be handled. In my case the stupid sot had never seen an Air2 before. He was grabbing for the non-existing octopus. This is particularly true if you're using equipment that's "off the beaten track."

You can potentially avoid such issues by going through both your gear and your buddy's gear when diving with someone new before the dive. Did you not do this?