DIR Standard for Octo Necklace & Primary Reg Colors?

[tbone1004]

most people are living on the edge by not doing it. 99.9% of the time it's not an issue, but since you're supposed to breathe off of each second stage anyway, it doesn't hurt to pop the IP gauge on the inflator hose and watch the IP while you're breathing. That's the only way to tell the health of your first stage, and takes a few extra seconds. It does tell you a lot though because a slight IP creep on the first stage won't become catastrophic on your right post since you're using it all the time for inflation and breathing off the primary, but since the left post doesn't get used at all unless you're sharing air or have a drysuit, then a slight IP creep can become catastrophic after a few minutes of the IP building.

 

[PfcAJ]

I only get in the water with an inflator on 2 regs. Right post and argon. No inflators on stages or deco bottles. Because dir.

 

[willcats]

Colour-wise it really shouldn't matter since most high performance balanced reg only come in black.

In terms of the choice of necklace reg, the unblanced argument was they are less likely to freeflow, however with an adjustable balanced 2nd stage, just turn the knob all the way down should stop any unwanted free flow and when you do need them for an extended period of time, just crack the knob open again.

 

[Adobo]

Hey, I'm new to scuba diving and the DIR idea caught my attention. I'm in the process of picking out my gear for the first time and I'm trying to learn everything I can about it. I know I want a BP/W setup, because I felt like I was being squashed with a vest inflated on my OW cert dives. I like the simplicity of harnesses, drings, and all the custom setups you can make. So I think this is the right area for me.

I like the octo necklace approach. Hand off your primary with a longer hose and use the octo on your neck. From my vast experience of 6 dives and OW cert, the octo is typically some sort of yellow casing/hosing. So in the DIR rules, if your primary is given to the OOA person, should that be yellow? have a yellow hose? Does it matter? Should I avoid buying a yellow octo if it's going on my neck?

Another idea that crossed my mind was to get 2 of the same primary regs and use one as the octo. They would have two different length hoses, and possibly colors. Any suggestions on that?

I tried searching, but no luck. I'm heading to my LDS today to start picking out gear, but wanted the DIR opinion. Thanks!

Well, rule 1 of DIR is, you don't talk about DIR. Or maybe I am confusing DIR with a different club altogether.

Rule 6 is, always look cool. So with that in mind, I think for you, fluorescent pink everything (reg cover, hoses, drysuit, fins, etc.) will be the right color.

 

[lamont]

So in the DIR rules, if your primary is given to the OOA person, should that be yellow? have a yellow hose? Does it matter? Should I avoid buying a yellow octo if it's going on my neck?

Color doesn't matter. In general there shouldn't be any need to even donate in anger, most problems can be mitigated long before it gets to that point. If a donation does occur its the regulator in the persons hand which is coming straight at the affected divers face which should be the huge clue about which regulator to take -- if you're not noticing your buddies distress and OOA signals and they're having to actually go for your regulator that's going to be a bigger problem that needs to be solved. And in the situation which should never occur where a diver is coming at you in a panic (possibly some random rec diver on a boat) then they're most likely to go for the regulator they can clearly see which is in your mouth (regardless of if you've got a necklace backup or bungeed octo -- they're not going to be thinking and going for the yellow reg, they're going to go straight for the bubbles and the air and life and rip the reg out of your mouth).

I did see some divers about a decade ago go with bright colored primaries (yellow/pink/etc) in the mouth and black necklace backup, but it didn't really solve any actual problems and never caught on.

 

[LiteHedded]

Color doesn't matter. In general there shouldn't be any need to even donate in anger, most problems can be mitigated long before it gets to that point. If a donation does occur its the regulator in the persons hand which is coming straight at the affected divers face which should be the huge clue about which regulator to take -- if you're not noticing your buddies distress and OOA signals and they're having to actually go for your regulator that's going to be a bigger problem that needs to be solved. And in the situation which should never occur where a diver is coming at you in a panic (possibly some random rec diver on a boat) then they're most likely to go for the regulator they can clearly see which is in your mouth (regardless of if you've got a necklace backup or bungeed octo -- they're not going to be thinking and going for the yellow reg, they're going to go straight for the bubbles and the air and life and rip the reg out of your mouth).

I did see some divers about a decade ago go with bright colored primaries (yellow/pink/etc) in the mouth and black necklace backup, but it didn't really solve any actual problems and never caught on.

it solves the problem of who has the coolest regulators. (I do)

 

[Taliena]

Haha, I think I have the most colourfull divestuff. I have yellow regs on the longhose and backup. The stageregs have all different kind of colors on the hoses, pink, blue, green, black, red. And all is 'dir'

 

[Matan]

pink rules though I still thinks the coolest thing is a totally black suit, with white hoses and white jets fins (got the fins, now just need santi E-lite and white hoses lol)

I guess my only true donation to this thread is that in all OOA scenarios my buddies had, they all took my primary from my mouth (one of them was in the old days with no long hose or something. I guess that's when I got it that I need one ^^)

Matan.