Air 2, dangerous octopus??

[Gary D.]

Grin....no doubt that getting to where things go in one ear and immediately out the other would make my world much less stressful. Can't understand why it doesn't naturally happen, there isn't much in between to slow anything down

where is home?

Gary D.

 

[divewench]

Home is Southeastern Wa. Almost half my dives have been in the Columbia River since it is easy to do after work, the other half on the West side. We make it over to Idaho fairly often, but its to play on top of the water not under (white water rafting/kayaking is another passion of mine).

 

[albane]

This is such a touchy subject that I hope I don't offend anyone. I think that the Air2 Octopus is dangerous if the person who is using them is dangerous, i.e. an undertrained unprepared person lacking the skills and/or knowledge of proper use, much like any other piece of equipment, whether it be dive gear, a car, or heavy machinery. The faults that I see with the Air2 are that like DennisW mentioned, which is problems that occur with sand and freeflow, which results with sand in your first breath, which I have experienced in multiple rescue situations. I suggest that you run yourself through practice S drills, not just the basic drill but an active, panicky drill and decide for yourself. Bottom line is you and your buddy are only as prepared as you force yourselves to be. You just may find yourselves wearing an octo and a necklace around your neck. Please be safe.

 

[android]

A common issue w/ any infltor is an "auto inflate" wich could be caused by many things including corrosion, the fix is VERY simple disconnect the LPI hose right? but w/ an air2 you just lost your octo also.

So are you trying to say that if it was just a manual inflator that free-flowed, you would disconnect it and continue your dive since you have would still have an octo?

 

[Boogie711]

Not necessarily Android. What if you're in a simulated overhead - say in a shipping channel, or on a shipwreck where you want to get back to an anchor line. You may still have a 5 or 10 minute swim back to your ascent point... and when your buddy goes OOA, you're pooched.

With a regular backup, it's not a problem - you're not going to be adding any more air to your wing from that point on, so it's a relatively simple procedure to disconnect your wing, signal turnaround and head back to your ascent point. But with an Air2, if you tried that and your buddy goes OOA, you're now buddy breathing the whole way.

Definitely not the optimum solution, and easily avoided by getting avoiding Air2's all together.

 

[Mandy3206]

I've used for the last 6 yrs the Tusa Duo Air, same as the Air 2, haven't failed yet, I can apreciate and understand many of the negative aspects presented here and will evaluate them for sure.

So far I've no complaints about it and my thinking is that for recreational diving, it should be OK, for a more sofisticated dive, I'll go with the extra 2nd stage.

Thanks for the info

Mandy

 

[Gary D.]

I've used for the last 6 yrs the Tusa Duo Air, same as the Air 2, haven't failed yet, I can apreciate and understand many of the negative aspects presented here and will evaluate them for sure.

So far I've no complaints about it and my thinking is that for recreational diving, it should be OK, for a more sofisticated dive, I'll go with the extra 2nd stage.

Thanks for the info

Mandy

True. If I didn't think they were safe my wife, who dives with MS, would not be using one. Just not suited for anything other than sport.

Gary D.

 

[mntdiver]

True. If I didn't think they were safe my wife, who dives with MS, would not be using one. Just not suited for anything other than sport.

Gary D.

Gary hit the nail there.

I didn't go back and read every post here. Maybe someone else has already brought this up. Seems that there's a mix here. Recreational diving and Public Safety. One has little to do with the other, other than breathing underwater. First off, all water in public safety diving should be considered contanimated. Thus, a bite mouthpiece should be out of the question. Air 2's and Octo+'s and the like are pretty much out of the question if you're diving a FFM. They're designed for you to donate your primary. Sorry, you ain't gettin' my AGA. Octo's aren't that useful either. Won't do you any good to breath from an empty tank. Fully redundant w/pony's, yes. If you want to discuss these issues, we could start another thread.

Seems that we spend alot of time here talking about recreational diving methodology and equipment. Is this the right forum, or did I miss something?

 

[scubapro50]

now I'm an old SCUBAPRO diver from wayback ..... worked for a dive shop back in the 7o's that sold the equipment. First what you you want .... Air2 solves some problems but creates others ..... it like a catch 22 ...... you have one less hose to keep track of but durning some emergencys it's not the best piece of equipment to have. If your 2nd stage screws up then Air2 is a quick alterntive. If someone swims up and need air then Air2 doesn't come close to a good reg/oct. in that emergency. Also the cost of the Air2 system is more expensive and needs more upkeep. It is not interchangeable with normal BC connections so you must carry a second hose to change out if needed. I have one on my old vest but not on my jacket. The jacket has a lot more places to hang stuff than the old horsecoller .

 

[junior diver]

IT CAME TO ME AT 1:30 THIS MORNING! Air 2 was invented by DIR divers. It's redundant i.e takes up less space, it's a donating primary system and when they saw how much people hated it... they said they were against it.