A crutch for having little or no situational awareness and a tendency to wander off and leave your dive buddy, while sculling your arms about wildly and trying to take pictures of marine life with your go-pro on a selfie stick until you suck your tank dry and shoot to the surface, having not once looked at your SPG."
That might not be true in your particular case, but that's what I'm thinking when I see the bottle bouncing on your belly as we wander to the back of the dive boat.
I have a pretty good idea of how long my air will last with a runaway regulator, torn hose etc, and I know how far away I can be from my buddy or another diver if I suffer a catastrophic failure, so I endeavor to wander no further than I can fin without panicking. I check my SPG regularly and have a mental estimate of how much gas I have, in my head without looking. This is my piece of mind.
I was thinking of an actual course not an outfit who teaches OW divers with 12 dives to dive a wing and doubles but I didn't specify that so touche'.
The quote you pasted is nonsense. Most newbie divers I've worked with spend more time looking at their SPG then they do at the reef, we train them to watch it. It takes longer to develop bad habits. As long as you know it's use and just as importantly it's limitations, there is no safety gear that is useless. Anything that can save your life or just as importantly reduce stress underwater is worth it. That's like saying "I have perfect navigation and will always surface where I plan to so Im not going to carry an SMB or a whistle". Under your thinking as long as long as you think you can estimate how much air you will have and how close you are to your buddy there is no reason for anyone to carry an alternate air source for emergencies. I'm glad you have a good idea how much time you will have before going OOA if your 1st stage blows or a hose tears. I'd prefer not to bet my life on that, or gamble it on getting to a buddy (some that I may have just met on a boat) notwithstanding current or any other factors. So I'll keep my little spare air on my back when I do those types of dives that I carry it (I don't like things bouncing on my belly).
And I wouldn't judge divers' skill on what they may be carrying on a recreational fun dive. You may be surprised.
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