LariatAdvance
Registered
My problem with the spare air is that it is like trying to jump across a chasm in 2 or 3 jumps. If there is not enough air in it to get you to the surface, how does it help? If you need (say) 10 breaths and you only get (say) 3, are you really better off? The spare air give the illusion of redundancy, when it fact it is not sufficient. Yes, of course, if you are 15 feet from the surface and run out of gas, then it might help. But you don't need it if you are 15 feet from the surface. Yes, i believe in redundancy; but a spare air is not redundancy, it is a fantasy.
My method would be a little different than yours. With a full breathe, I can slowly exhale while ascending to prevent a lung OE injury and CESA 20 feet easily on that one breath. I know this because I've done it from 32 feet before. If I only get 3 breathes from a SA, I'm looking at at least 60 feet of ascent travel. Probably more like 75 in a "no other choice but to do it or drown" scenario.
My guess is you'll be breathing sea water at least 60 feet before I will. Here in the the SCUBA sport we call that drowning. Drowned divers don't have to calculate the added inconvenience of getting bent from a CESA or don't have to worry about the $70,000 bill for the decompression chamber ride that might follow.
And I can't say much for the "I'd rather have nothing than have three breaths" comment. That's pure bravado ego talking right there. I've been in a firefight in Iraq and used my 210 rounds basic load of ammo. **** was starting to get scary. I had grabbed a piece of a belt from the saw gunner before we left that had about 60 rounds on it and had crammed it in my butt pack for some reason, "just in case" but I had to go thru the hassle of breaking each round off the belt one by one and loading them into my empty mags before I could fire them. I'm here today because having a little is a proven winner over having none. Wishes and letters from mama don't kill insurgents. Bullets do. "You fight with what you have, not what you'd like to have." Fighting for your life to keep from drowning is the same as fighting for your life on the battlefield.