New Diver - Dumb Regulator Question (Maybe)

As a new diver, I was wondering why there is no strap to hold your regulator in place?

A moment of unconsciousness, that on the surface might be a minor medical emergency, can end your life under water. It could be caused by a number of things like a heart attack, seizure of some kind or just a bump on the head.

There must be some very obvious reason it's not done. Can someone educate me?

Thanks,
Jerry

I assume you're talking about something like a mask strap so the reg is held firmly in place.

I'm sure there's other reasons but what occurs to me immediately is in an OOA (out of air)situation you now have to slip the reg and strap over your head, (which includes over your mask!) rather than simply taking your primary out of your mouth and grabbing your buddy's octo or taking their primary as some buddies do. Obviously if you and your buddy donate your primarys in an OOA situation you now have two people that need to slip straps over both heads.

You also have the situation (that, based on reading here, is not that uncommon) where an OOA diver may rip the primary out of the "first mouth" available leaving an unsuspecting diver with not only no reg but most likely no mask either. I have no interest in having my Atomic mask sink to the bottom because of a panicked OOA diver

tech divers do put the octo on a necklace so as to keep it close to them if they would need it. they are bought or homemade and need to be able to have the mothpiece pull away from the necklace if necesary.

with that sais i have read a book about scuba injuries and fatalites where one diver did feel his was boing to be bent or the such ( been a while since i read it so i cant remember what his symptoms were ) and he did put the reg on the necklace in his mouth so if he passed out and went face first in the water he would still be able to breath.

i cant explain why it is not used by everyone other then is just does not fall into the low, out, and share air excersizes done in the OW class

but there is never no dumb question asked unless you never ask it

Off the top of my head, I can think of a couple of reasons...

If I'm OOA, my regulators is obviously useless and I want to be able to easily put in a working reg into my mouth.

If my buddy is OOA, or some say OOG, I want them to take the working reg out of my mouth and I'll switch to my back up.

If my primary reg free flows or malfunctions, I want to be able to switch to my secondary.

If I want to blow or shoot a bag to the surface, I usually use my primary reg because it is on a long hose.

If I want to switch to a different gas, I need to switch regs.

If I want to talk to my buddy on the surface before or after the dive, I need to remove my reg.

Nearly any medical situation underwater isn't good. If you look on DAN, a lot of diver deaths are attributed to drowning, but what is not a clear is what caused the person to drown, i.e. heart attack.

They say SCUBA is the great equalizer and that nearly anybody can do it. They are correct, but I disagree. If you require a XXXXL wetsuit, maybe you should rethink your lifestyle before diving. If you smoke a pack a day, again rethink your lifestyle.

Last Sunday I dove for the first time with doubles. My rig alone was easily 90+ pounds. With my exposure protection and the 100+ yard walk to the water, I had to float and relax for a moment, and cool down, before the dive. Odd to say when your dive profile ended up being Max Depth of 75ffw, Ave Depth 43ffw, Temp 46, and Dive Time 52 minutes. My SAC wasn't great, it was .74cuft/min. It was a stressful dive.

There are full face mask out there that technical divers will use, that will allow them to switch regs. I've never seen one in the wild, but they do exist.

Well, I'm also a bit of a noob still, but the first thing that comes to my mind is this:

The reg really only works properly if we are keeping our lips sealed around the mouthpiece. An elastic band may hold the reg in our mouth, but it won't keep our lips sealed around the mouthpiece, and as I'm sure most here would attest, water has a remarkable ability to find any available avenue to enter a given space. One or two hairs trapped in our mask skirt, and we have a constant trickle into the mask; what can we expect in our mouth if our lips go slack around the mouthpiece?

In such a case, an elastic strap would hold the reg, but we would still be getting a mouthful of water instead of the air we need (the reg delivers the air in response to our draw on it; otherwise, it would always freeflow). If our buddy were to just glance over at us, he would see our reg still in place while we started the process of drowning. If, on the other hand, we're losing consciousness and our reg slips from our relaxed jaws, he can see right away that something is wrong when we're not immediately reaching for it or our backup, and perhaps react fast enough to save our life.

David was on the right track.

If you rig your regs the PADI way (for lack of a better word) your octo is clipped off somewhere in the triangle (hopefully it is still there and not dangling behind you when you need it). Because you plan to donate the octo it must be on a sufficiently long hose. Because you may also have to donate the reg in your mouth (the primary) it also must be on a sufficiently long hose. It is awkward (but not impossible) to bungy a reg around your neck with this configuration (the hoses are too long).

With the "long hose" set up (I use it for rec diving) your primary reg is on a 5'-7' hose routed around your chest (do a search for long hose bungied B/U configuration to see details). You breath from this one during the course of a routine dive and also plan to donate it to an OOA diver. After donating the long hose primary you then breath from your backup (B/U) reg which is on a short (22"-24") hose and bungied around your neck.

If your concern is regarding loss of conciousness (LOC) a bungied reg is a maybe proposition at best. I have heard of divers prone to LOC states who use full face masks.

And I agree, there are no dumb questions

The early single-hosers all had them. Divers thought they looked stupid and got in the way, and took them off and threw them away. So the gear companies stopped putting them on.

I appreciate all the responses. Many of your objections could be alleviated by design and I'd thought of many of them before asking. For instance you could design this strap, bungee or whatever so that it could be easily removed and reinstalled so that donating air (either configuration) or switching regs wouldn't be a problem. The big one I missed is the one Hoomi brought up and that is that an unconscious diver would probably still breathe water with his reg in place.

What brought this question up was that I was reading about a diver that suffered a seizure due to oxygen toxicity and his buddy held his reg in his mouth so he wouldn't drown. How was he able to prevent drowning by holding in his reg?

It seems a full face mask is the only real way to accomplish what I'm asking.

Why do divers not bungee their regs in place in their mouth? Well.... because it would be too difficult to remove when we want our buddies to take our picture of us smiling! Kidding!!!!!!
I personally wouldn't want my reg to be strapped to my face. What if it began to free flow? What if the mouthpiece became unattached and you couldn't get to your octo without having to remove the strap? What if a panicked diver tried to rip it out of my mouth and I became entangled in the process? What about if I need to orally inflate my BC quickly and then spent time struggling to remove the reg in my mouth? It seems as though the cons of strapping a reg on far outweighs the very, very slight chance that one will oxtox and go into seizures and not have a buddy near to manually hold the reg in.
The unconscious diver may still be breathing but not able to hold the reg in his mouth without assistance. Plus, having the mouth plugged may just prevent large amounts of water from entering the lungs. The rescue diver purges the regulator at regular intervals to simulate "breathing" or just to keep water from collecting in the mouth/lungs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but it's seems like the rescue diver has to try something... anything.... that may give his buddy a chance.

Okay, serious question:
Why would there be divers who are prone to LOC? It would seem as though that would put them in a "high risk" category in a "high risk" sport. Are there really people who consider diving a safe activity if they are at a high risk of losing consciousness at any time?