Spare Air

[TheRedHead]

Here is a classic post about gas management in case anyone is interested:

http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=401869&postcount=65

 

[Thalassamania]

I had not intention of being mean or snide or any such. If I came off that way I please accept my deepest mia culpa.

 

[Halthron]

Those who carry it, how often do you test it? If you've had one more than a year, did you take it to a shop for a viz?

 

[Diver Dennis]

Thanks for the link Red.

 

[lamont]

Spare Air is a dead horse that has been beaten to powder on scubaboard. This thread from 2001

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=958

defends it as an enhanced CESA. I've thought about in the past and the only use I can come with it is the potential for a few breaths in order to get a seperated diver to his/her buddy, but I've never tested this theory.

at least 95% of divers would fail if you actually tested it. it assumes that you can deploy the spare air successfully, breathe off it in a reasonably controlled fashion, and get to a better source of air in minute or two.

your average recreational diver will probably fail to deploy it, or fumble it so badly that they wind up in a worse shape and just run out of gas twice. it is not going to deploy reliably (unless you bungee it under your neck or something) and once you deploy it will be useless.

all it is doing is promoting overconfidence and complicating a response to an emergency. it is not better than nothing, it is definitely worse than nothing, so nothing is better.

use a pony bottle (slung as a stage) or double tanks if you need the redundancy, and ideally just find better buddies and practice OOA drills. the tank on your buddies back should be your pony bottle, if you can't rely on them, you have a problem and you are technically solo diving.

 

[ItsBruce]

Lamont: I have the greatest respect for your insights, especially vis-a-vis gas management However, I respectfully disagree with you on Spare Air. If a pony will keep me alive then, subject to volume issues, so, too, will a Spare Air. And, for the depth at which I usually dive, 3 cubic feet is enough.

I agree that one's buddy's tank should be one's pony and that a buddy should not be more than a moment away. And, I agree that one should practice OOA drills. I even agree that unless one has practiced grabbing a Spare Air, one will probably fail to deply it in an emergency. So, yes, absent adequate practice, it promotes overconfidence and thus, nothing might be better. But, doesn't having a slung 40 also promote overconfidence and won't switching to it be a problem for someone who is faced with an emergency and has not practiced the requisite skills?

 

[erparamedic]

I had not intention of being mean or snide or any such. If I came off that way I please accept my deepest mia culpa.

I think trucker girl will appreciate this. Thank you!!

 

[Thalassamania]

I think what Lamoint is saying is that if you are charged by a large angry bear you'd be better served to pull out a 44 Magnum, not a paint pellet gun that might just piss him off further.

 

[Cacia]

Thal, I thought it was Mea culpa. Am I wrong again? I have been wrong all day...

If a pony is too much trouble, then so is a spare air. I bought a spare air about four years ago at the trade show, out of boredom, but my reg service guy says he won't work on them because the regs are so bad. The airline took it all apart...so that was that.

I can see a few extra breaths getting you closer to the surface or a buddy, but I have decided keeping it all to my irreducible minimums and the KISS method works best for me.

 

[Thalassamania]

You are, as ever, beautiful and correct ... Mea culpa!