Questions about history of octos...

[tursiops]

Octos were fairly common by the early 1970s, at least on more demanding dives like wreck penetration and decompression dives.

That is not my experience, which started in 1964, and included US midwest, Europe, and US East Coast.
For fun, I found this 2006 SB post, Alternate reg from the left or the right?.
The following is purely anecdotal, however, others on the board of my vintage may be able to corroborate this with their own experiences.

In 1980 and 1981 'octopus' second stages first began to be seen in California (La Jolla) and NAUI/PADI course literature as widely distributed as (Marine bases on) Okinawa and Guam in the South Pacific. Until that time "buddy breathing" off one second stage had been the standard OOA response. The "octopus" second stage was touted as safer than buddy breathing.

[Secondary second stages may have been in use earlier, but not widely. In a cave class we were informed that during the early 1970s some cave divers used a second second stage on a long hose to allow two divers - a donor diver and an out-of-air recipient diver - to pass single file through narrow passages and restrictions in caves, where buddy breathing would obviously not have been possible. It simply took time for this concept to migrate into the recreational diving realm...]

 

[AfterDark]

p104 of that publication: The recreational dive community has popularized the "Octopus" system. An additional breathing regulator ("second stage") is added to simplify sharing a single source of gas. First used by cave divers in the early 1970s, diving instructors in the late 1970s, and then adopted bv the recreational training agencies in the early 1980s, the Octopus or alternate 2 nd stage has become standard for most open-circuit dive operations.

Well, first used by cave divers doesn't mean developed by cave divers. Cave divers may have seen the safety in it for cave diving spurred by a greater need for that kind of gear. Wreck divers probably used octo before open water divers for the same reasons.

Personally I didn't use an octo until the last 10 years. If I was deep diving or wreck diving I used IDs which IMO are better than an octo.
The people I dived with for 4 decades all knew and understood buddy breathing from one regulator, there wasn't a need for an octo.
The last 10 years I've been diving with some new divers that would have no idea how to "share air with one regulator; some I wouldn't have trusted to give it back! So now I drag an octo around, even when I'm solo diving.

 

[pauldw]

I think perhaps what people are thinking is that those three items would have shown up in recreational diving when they did whether cave diving existed or not. Hence the curiosity about proof that the manufacturers were guided by cave diving. There is that potential post hoc ergo propter hoc thing to consider.

 

[tursiops]

The 1963 "Complete Illustrated Guide to Snorkel and Deep Diving" book by Owen S. Lee (whom I met in 1968), one of the early Cousteau divers who later worked at the Naval Electronics Lab in San Diego doing work on internal tides, does not mention alternate 2nd stages in any context.
The 1969 "Diver Below!" book by Hank Frey (who I worked with in 1992-96) and his wife also doesn't mention alternate 2nd stages in any context.
It's hard to imagine they were "fairly common" in the early 70s. I never saw one until the 80s.

 

[GJC]

In 1979 I took my first scuba course on Long Island. The instructors taught NAUI.

Octos were not taught and were not required in the course. We practiced buddy breathing a lot. We also practiced breathing off the LP inflator hose while disconnected from the BCD. The end of the hose had a schrader valve with the end sticking out that you could press to cause air to release. I found this pretty easy to breath from but some people had trouble doing it. I don't think this was part of the curriculum, but the instructors thought it was a good idea to learn how to do this.

SPGs were standard, everyone had one. There were J valves on some tanks and we were told what were for but to just keep the valves down (reserve open) since we were supposed to be keeping track of our SPG pressures.

I bought my first regulator during the course. It was a Conshelf XIV with 1 HP and 3 LP ports. Our instructors and the dive shop sales people told us the 3 LP ports were for your regulator, an LP inflator and a dry suit inflator. No mention of octos.

The most popular BCD was horsecollar type with an LP inflator and a CO2 cartidge (see my profile pic). We were taught to orally inflate our BCDs. BCDs with LP inflators were pretty new and I don't think the lesson plan had caught up yet.

Just after the course, the dive shop I used at the time started marketing octos. ​

 

[diver257a]

I live in Australia and learnt to dive in early 1978. The use of octopus was discussed in the theory lectures, but not taught in practical pool sessions where buddy breathing was taught. The course include one openwater dive which was described in the course flyer as a "check-out dive". The instructor who lead this dive was equipped with an octopus and used it to assist my buddy who had run out of air back to the nearby shore. I brought my first octopus second stage in 1982 which I fitted to a first stage which had four LP ports and proceeded to use it as discussed in an Australian cave diving book, i.e. the regulator with the long hose goes in the mouth and this is the regulator that is donated to an out-of-gas diver.

 

[dead dog]

The 1963 "Complete Illustrated Guide to Snorkel and Deep Diving" book by Owen S. Lee (whom I met in 1968), one of the early Cousteau divers who later worked at the Naval Electronics Lab in San Diego doing work on internal tides, does not mention alternate 2nd stages in any context.
The 1969 "Diver Below!" book by Hank Frey (who I worked with in 1992-96) and his wife also doesn't mention alternate 2nd stages in any context.
It's hard to imagine they were "fairly common" in the early 70s. I never saw one until the 80s.

Uh oh! Looks like we have another Sam Miller with all the name dropping going on.

But Sam is right though, it started with Sportsways in the early '60s in SoCal.

Cave didn't even start in Florida, I read Skin Diver Magazine in the '50s, that in upper New York State a cave diver lost his life in a cave dive back then.

So how can you say with all insurances it stated in Florida in the '70s?

I think your too young to know when anything started, especially if you were trained by PADI.

 

[Landau]

Took my NAUI Scuba Diver in 1979, Octos were mentioned but the instructor said "Octos and power inflating BCDs are expensive and for rich guys. You aren't rich"

We had oral inflating Mae West type BCDs and practiced buddy breathing. Everyone had an SPG.

The textbook - Jeppesen Sport Diver Manual Third edition 1978 - has Photos and Illustration of Octopus regulators, and this excerpt:

"Beginning about 1965 single hose regulators became available with a second hose and mouthpiece. This double or 'octopus' regulator... .. has become important to sport divers as a standard piece of equipment like the buoyancy compensator and submersible pressure gauge"

The cave diving section of the manual is three pages and can be summarized as "Cave diving can be dangerous and you can get specialized training in Florida"

 

[pauldw]

I was looking through my old early '80's OW manual again, and on the page describing the complete PADI training program it lists "cavern diver" as a specialty. That surprised me because after relatively recently being a tourist in Quintana Roo, I had assumed that "cavern diver" would have been invented to give the Mexican dive industry a way to get more people into cenotes without divers having to go through the whole cave diver thing. Perhaps I guessed wrong. Does anyone know the original of that specialty?

 

[tursiops]

Uh oh! Looks like we have another Sam Miller with all the name dropping going on

You sound jealous.

But Sam is right though, it started with Sportsways in the early '60s in SoCal

I'm guessing you don't have any proof of this either. Sam seems to be talking about SPGs, but the thread is about octos.

I think your too young to know when anything started, especially if you were trained by PADI.

LOL. Wrong and wrong. 78 and first class before PADI existed. Back at you: perhaps you are too old to think and spell correctly? There, how does that feel?