Ways you can use a spare air tank other than as scuba redundancy

[brandon429]

fair enough steve, maybe my trip pics coming soon might sway ya check back laters sir
B


holy smoke on the post count people, up +160 in one hour dang/ please allow me to shark in my youtube video again of the worlds smallest and longest lived coral reef aquarium. apparently this thread may do wonders for my view counts and it will be another area we can tear a new one into! It is valid here because those in the reef tank circles made similar jests about my posts in 2000: "Hey guys, is it possible to keep a full coral reef inside a glass vase?"
Only now they have to come to me for advice when their tanks crash or have constant problems he he

corals from around the globe do not normally chemically intermix well in confined spaces, so this experiment and it's long term success may help one day in preserving reefs that are el-ninoed or anything else where a preserved chuck could be used to reseed the area in later times. To me this is legit science and is associated with diving in many ways...These are not ripped from nature, I am a biology lover I would not tear up a reef...many think you can't own a reef tank without having damaged nature and this is no longer the case, all this is reproducible and natural and is traded among fish tank owners. These are maricultured, and this is a master ecosystem that has more planning than you could imagine. sheck her out belo

The only saltwater aquarium that does not evaporate water at any time, ever, and never needs topoff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3lhEeOCpao

How many live animals can you keep in a flower vase for three years-demonstrating sensitization in cnidarian organisms:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsbsebZHh4M&feature=fvw

it would be neat if cross linking here, to professionals who enjoy corals in nature, would drive up my tube vid counts beyond 10,000 and start a side discussion of divers who also like marine tanks. I'll never forget the first time I dived-- our master in the Caymans said to never touch corals, because it will slowly start to kill them and they'll recede permanently ruining 100's of years of growth. Nothing could be farther from the truth, I always wondered if they felt the need to say that to scare people into not damaging the reef. This is not a big deal, it just made me wonder what else he said as gospel that wasn't really accurate and I also think it reflects the changing understanding of the reef as a very quick progression for the public in general, even land locked ones.

 

[Rapid Diver]

Micro diving is not new. Take a look at Hans Hass circa 1940's in his tiny rebreather.

There are 1000's of divers around the world enjoying the great attributes of diving light weight, ridiculously small scuba systems...you just don't hear about it because it is supposed to be a secret.

My recommendation is that this thread is permently deleted and that we never mention this again...ever.

Chris

 

[brandon429]

I figured I wasn't the only one diving with a spare air tank...just the only one in west texas? And, how come every dive shop in town says they have never seen anyone microdive? I guess the popularity is based on location, we're too far away from your cool town lol

na leave the thread open, it's too helpful to close. these are things I wish I would have known when starting (the filling pressures, the lubrication of the nips to prevent metal flaking) so it makes these 14 pages rather valid. And, the fact that I am responsible for causing a minor resurgence in hobby diving in my city due to the several people now interested in the hobby from seeing me in public places with the gear. There are about 5 examples of I have of people who put money back into diving because of this venture, the most rececent was a lifeguard who was certified in the army but hadn't dove in ten years. Just like me...from the second I dove with him on his break he was re-hooked and has now ordered one and will go diving with me in full gear next month. To refill his tanks he will have to rent at the shops I told him about, you can thank me best little dive shop with some refill rentals free of charge

You'd be suprised how many people I have got back into diving since starting this. I am also 100% sure that my own diving skills are backed up 100% by this hobby because of all the practice in clearing sinuses and masks, controlling breathing and ascent rates and getting generally comfortable again in the water.

Spare air diving rules, drift diving in a river with them rules even stronger, this is terrible fun I assure you! Its fun to post up near the pool drain and watch divers (board divers) splash in on top of you. It's too deep for them to hit bottom, and you'd be suprised how loud it is and interesting to watch the bubble explosions./ hey I do what I can to liven up this barren scenery.

I also invested in a koredry surf shirt, they don't work. they come out of the water as wet as a cotton t, the only dry about 20% faster. if you thought you'd come out of the water dry using a koredry rashguard, think again, it's pure crap. it only wicks water when you dribble it on the front for the store demos...if you jump in the water, you got a wet sponge t shirt just like the ones you didn't pay $39 for. FYI...

 

[mikelarocque]

not too sure if anyone still reads this thread. its exactly what i was looking for, and very very helpful!

as far as where these started. well atleast first publicly shown! you'll laugh...

Baywatch!

They used them in countless episodes, of course this is where i got the idea of these and "microdiving" as you call it.

 

[Diver0001]

I was certified a while back and am not interested in getting back into full diving, but would have a lot of fun using the 3.0 kit in a pool and in shallow sandy beach areas. I was planning on carrying a small 8l cylinder to refill from a few times, can you think of any major safety issues in using this equipment only as mentioned? I'm thinking the most damaging possibility would be if someone inhaled at the bottom of the pool and then for some reason held their breath upon ascent...basic no no, but outside of that I can't really see any risk in using one of these in a standard home swimming pool and then refilling it occasionally from the larger tank in the garage. I would of course keep the equipment inspected, but i'm thinking it's okay. Wanted your professional input!

Thank you

Brandon

I'd say they're perfect as a toy for in the pool or playing around in shallow water provided you have the training and know not to hold your breath.

I helped someone a few years ago with a design for a pressure balancing device for the "drybox" of a model submarine that they were building and IIRC he used something like a spare air to keep the dry box dry. That's another useful applicatoin for them.

Unfortunately they're sold as diving gear, which most divers would agree is a misnomer.

R..

 

[JahJahwarrior]

 

[FireInMyBones]

On only one spare air? I mean, even with the scooter... I would not have seen that coming.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

I think the video was meant as a joke...

...I have it on good authority that the Spare Air did not last the entire way out

...and if it was a real emergency do you think the camera guy would have been videotaping it all?

 

[FireInMyBones]

That was my guess. Never seen another tech diver with one before.
I was explaining the concept of a spare air to my wife. She is not a diver. She knows how serious I take gas planning.
Her exact response to my description: "So, what's the point? One more breath is not going to get you too far. Why spend that much on something that only gives you one breath?" Then she asked if there was a way to carry more air with you, basically describing a bailout.
For someone who does not dive, she sure can make good diving choices.

 

[brandon429]

Hello you guys, Im amazed this thread carried out to 12 pages, the last few posts were cool and that diving vid is neat there aren't a lot of spare air vids on youtube.

Thanks for the baywatch feed lol! lemme tell you another one I wound up seeing, Jaws II where Dennis Quaid and Beth Armstrong are diving out to check the gates, on 1l bottles! when I saw that clip I thought of this thread, I hadn't seen spare air before youtube


This purchase, and the three others (4 tanks total, one for each limb) was the cause of the best summer I've ever had, the second most fun hobby I have, and this summer's micro dive trips will be great as well. Several friends got back into diving with me because of touch-up runs in the pool, where you mentioned good breathing was safe, and these have been nothing but pure fun for all of us.

Of course I spent more money at 180$ a pop on 4 spare airs then I would have with a full set of craigslist dive equipment or even some new stuff, that's not the point, I vastly prefer spare air diving to full gear, here is how it progressed, it would at least vindicate 12 pages of hows/whys/your dead etc

the evolution:
of course we ended up leaving the pool with these, didn't think we would at first, why else would I own and maintain 4 of them now. I do not recommend anyone do this, but I will be glad to hang around and debate as to why it's safe for me to do so, as safe as any other diving anyway. read if you wish, please don't flame this is just an update to tell you what we do fyi...don't hate if you don't like it, I do not condone it to anyone but I absolutely love spare air diving I only wish I had these in the caymans for the inshore lagoon, that's 100% safe as normal diving in a ten foot depth restriction.

after several assorted pool dives we took the gear to the natatorium dive center in san antonio, the deepest public pool around on public swim day. 19ft seems like an ocean with micro dive gear. full gear AGAIN is too scary for people to let you use in places like this, they will say "no scuba diving in here" unless you show up with a tiny spare air, they say nothing, they love them. The technique is to get out and go refill the spare airs from the car trunk. If they don't see the big tanks they don't care. 90% of places, after they figure out what's going on, will let me bring in two spare refill tanks and lay them down in a rope holder in the pump room, then refills don't suck so bad lol. The way you keep 4 scuba tanks from popping seals on a 100 degree san antonio day locked in a closed trunk is very simple, it can last 4+ hours without a vent:

A 5 gallon cooler of ice and some wet towels. Just drape wet towels over the tanks, dump some ice in the folds, when the ice melts/sublimates enough water will remain on the soaked towels the tanks will be 70 degrees in a trunk that's 120 all afternoon and on the way home empty. once again, detailed pressure testing and time trials went into this culmination of handling bulky refill tanks, this was not haphazard. Keeping refill tanks in a car is not an issue if you have wet towels. It works well without ice even, this is just for backup.

We dive for about two hours until the refills are so low (>30% we stop a tank) we go home or go refill the big tanks at a buddy's shop I made friends with. I have bought probably $300 in air from him, and been his biggest repeat renter, thanks to micro diving and an eccentric passion for it.

I have access to 5 micro dive sites for every large site in my area, and now that it's winter the YWCA is my friend lol. I can simply get wet 10x more often with spare air diving than all the rigamarole it takes to get out the big gear and plan a trip.

When you jump in giant public pool with a mask, and a bag of yellow padded tanks that looks like some beach toys, and then you don't come up for 30 minutes, you've had fun and they have nothing but questions. I stay in the deep end away from everyone, snorkelers are like little dolphins buzzing around we made so many friends. So many lifeguards who were divers loved it, one used it afterwards for drain inspection and gave us free swimming the rest of the summer when he was in.

So, I have micro dived in about 10 different public pools, which for a land locked guy is mighty fun. The indoor ones are blurry and look like an ocean of blue, the outdoor ones have shimmering lines like the inside of a reef tank. Either way, the sensation of being underwater is what I find best, the location is incidental. Obviously I'd prefer cozumel, but being practical I can just pretend band aids and drain hair are anenomes.

HA, two diamond earrings this summer baby via the drains, contemplating a post on urban treasure diving save for next summer maybe. don't be all mad I didn't turn them in to the office, if someone would have shown up requesting a lost diamond earring they would have gone down to look in the drain #1 was my thinking. if they were down there long enough to be wrapped in hair and crap then it was either the pool boy or me lol

We began lake diving in august at lake alan henry texas. I already know the risks, so here are how we hedge:

we aren't stupid enough to go deep, and we dive on a known rocky outcrop there is no sticks, magic fishing line or anything to hold you underwater this is where the sheriffs dive team trains and we talked to them about currents as well. We have done roughly 20 lake dives with 2 spare airs per guy, we only stay down on the first bottle as a backup, redundancy of the redundant.

one strapped to each limb regardless how ridiculous this will seem to you guys with $5K setups When done in depths around ten feet it's not a big deal. it's not hard to control diving variables except for a heart attack, in which case it will not matter if you are spare air diving or full diving imo.

Spare air diving is to scuba what nano reefs are to reef tanks, and large reef tank owners have no trouble hammering the pico guys lol.

we also dived the comal river in new braunfels, which is my #1 preferred natural micro dive site. Simply float in river currents at again 10-15 foot max depth no safety issues even though we microdive we have excellent command of breathing control and underwater comfort gear-less, again we weren't haphazard with it.

I don't want to say others should do it but we weren't just stupid about the matter, we planned in a very serious way. Lastly, there are several small waterfalls and river pits around austin/san antonio with a different set of friends we jumped in a few for exploration and it was as fun as the time I actually did dive in the Caymans.

You have to be a tweak, but micro diving is worth every penny depending on how you get your kicks.

How did we refill? Park the car, tanks and walk upstream 100 yards, estimate

There are two issues I've seen in using these regulators as primary breathers.
1-constant refilling of brass to brass on the inlets will create brass dust on the threads, you can see it in the black cap of the spare air. You are breathing this, so to prevent buildup keep the threads siliconed. Normally this would not be an issue when used as recommended, hardly ever refilled...
2-more than once the pin indicator leaks air out the pin, on different bottles. what a TERRIBLE design, very short term. For this I have two spare ones in a bag ready, and two of my bottles have the pressure indicator anyway.