"Air Buddy" Alternate Air Source

[rockjock3]

That just looks like a camelback mouthpiece for a LP hose. Looks a little scary to me and definitely not a minimalist approach. Looks like any one of those things has a about 6-10 parts that could fail or leak. A standard octo has about that many and is truly built for the purpose. This honestly looks like some weekenders attempt with some spare connectors and some camelback mouthpieces to come up with a get-rich-quick scheme.

 

[rockjock3]

Hey everybody, check this website out. It is the homepage for the "Air Buddy", which is their flagship product. You have to see this site and some of what they offer to believe it. I had a good laugh.

http://www.airbuddy.com/

 

[Brandon]

Rofl... some cool quotes from the site:

"The use of the Air Buddy as an alternate air source will increase the breathing time you will have on any given air source by 20% more than you would have if you use any other alternate air source available at this time."​

Why? Because it uses MAGIC air... rofl.

And there's a NITROX version!

I was scratching my head when I read:

"It is the safest source of emergency air now available."
"It can be used to easily put air into the BCD of a diver who is out of air."​

The traditional 2nd stage vs. the Air Buddy comparisons are pretty funny too.

To use the old fashioned 2nd stage octopus you need to:

1. Place it properly in your mouth (it is odd shaped).
2. Either press the purge button with your hand or blow into it to force the air out of the pressure chamber. If your lungs are empty, you will need to push the purge button.
3. Suck to get your air supply. ​

​

Wait a second though. I have to suck air out of my oddly shaped primary regulator too. And if it comes out of my mouth, I have to purge it.

Heck, I should switch both of my second stages to Air Buddies!

And our traditional alternate 2nds (and by logical correlation... our primaries) are inferior because:

"It needs periodic maintenance by a trained technician to keep it operating."​

but, the Air Buddy apparently doesn't....

"It does not need any more maintenance than your dive knife."​

No wait, apparently, yes... it does.

"We will do a complete safety check and repair or replace anything needed for only $15.00. That will include parts, labor, postage and insurance. Your Air Buddy needs servicing at least every 2 years."​

Thanks for the laugh rockjock!

-B.

 

[Brandon]

Photoshopped by yours truly...
(Dive Rite / Air Buddy / Hasbro are going to sue me... rofl)



"My air buddy
My air buddy
Whenever I go
he goes!

My air buddy
My air buddy
My air buddy and me!"

-Brandon.

 

[mattroz]

I'm quite enjoying the 20% longer spiel. Here i was thinking that a freeflow (which is what this "regulator" is doing) was a bad thing? It turns out it adds time to your dive!! AMAZING i'm holding the purge button from now on!

oh god. has anyone looked at the shark deterrent product? apparantly they have a laser pointer that is "infinitly" more powerful then a conventional laser pointer. I'm sure a bunch of dead scientists are rolling over in their grave. And as per the shark deterrent. He says he likes to be able to scare away the shark from 30-40 feet underwater with his laser pointer.. I'm thinking it would be quite the challenge to see him hit the eye of a moving( and very fast) shark with a little "infinitly powerful" laser

Reading on there are a bunch of grammar mistakes and typos. I wouldn't buy a regulator from a company who can't spend the time to re-read their website and especially not from a company that would state that something is "infinitly more powerful" as a fact.

 

[wedivebc]

Blawler, I find people like you who try things out and think for themselves very interesting. Let me assure anyone out there that there are many old school divers out there who are diving without alternate regulators. I am not saying it is good or bad, but sometimes I get the feeling people are surprised. These guys are not diving on commercial dive charters in Cozumel or Grand Cayman. They dive where they live, and most of them have been doing it a long time. Blawler, I do not agree that once you are sharing air the dive is called. I know that is the conventional wisdom, but I have had many safe dives with a regular partner where we share air, and basically manage our gas together in a way that optimizes timing on drifts, photography goals, or a task at hand. (on a long hose) And we do it with 700 psi "in the bank".
I am impressed that you tried this gadget out and provided feedback. Really makes me curious.
Where would diving be if everyone just stuck to the current "program"? Gear and methods would never develop.

How refreshing to see an open mind. I still wouldn't use an air buddy but I certainly agree with this post

 

[mattroz]

definately agree

 

[spectrum]

Blawler, I find people like you who try things out and think for themselves very interesting. Let me assure anyone out there that there are many old school divers out there who are diving without alternate regulators. I am not saying it is good or bad, but sometimes I get the feeling people are surprised. These guys are not diving on commercial dive charters in Cozumel or Grand Cayman. They dive where they live, and most of them have been doing it a long time. Blawler, I do not agree that once you are sharing air the dive is called. I know that is the conventional wisdom, but I have had many safe dives with a regular partner where we share air, and basically manage our gas together in a way that optimizes timing on drifts, photography goals, or a task at hand. (on a long hose) And we do it with 700 psi "in the bank".
I am impressed that you tried this gadget out and provided feedback. Really makes me curious.
Where would diving be if everyone just stuck to the current "program"? Gear and methods would never develop.

You're not alone Catherine. My wife is the bigger air user and has no interest in a bigger cylinder. On a nice peacefull dive she will swim at my side on my alternate for a spell to even the score. She does this with plenty of gas still on her back and her primary in hand. We get a longer dive and practice steady swimming in formation. I probably wouldn't do this intentionally on a deep or complicated dive but for a shore dive to 20-30 feet in good conditions it's as much a drill as anything. The same has happened with other buddies who missed their turn pressure, I've shared so they could keep a good reserve on their back just in case. Swimming back like this long the bottom beats the heck out of surfacing offshore and surface swimming back.

Now for the AIR BUDDY, its the most ridiculous thing I've seen in a long time. With legitimate alternates that actually regulate the air going to the diver on the same site for as little as $65. there is no point.

With excess pressure venting out of your mouth what factor do you use for a Rock Bottom calculation? It is black but can it take a bungee and is it DIR?

 

[Thijsie]

:rofl:

If you are pressing it, the air from the Air Buddy will force all the water out of your mouth and will come bubbling out around your thumb. It should take you all of about three or four minutes of practice to become proficient in this new skill.

I don't know about you, but I'd be worried if air came bubbling out around my thumb...

 

[Doc Intrepid]

I agree with Catherine that in the absence of open minds, new applications for technologies won't move the field forward. I also agree that equipment items are like tools in a toolbox, and there *may* be a very specialized use for something like this - that is, under extremely narrow circumstances.

But for general recreational diving I can see a number of drawbacks to something like this, and one of the first is that if your insta-buddy isn't familiar with it and has some problem, trying to familiarize them with it underwater could get interesting.

I think the drawbacks of many devices designed to respond to sudden emergencies is that the designer never actually experienced any sudden emergencies.

So the designer makes a number of assumptions regarding how sudden emergencies will happen and designs accordingly. Obviously, when the diver practices an "out of air drill" for example, they do so under the same assumptions.

But sudden emergencies have this annoying habit of not proceeding as people assumed they would. You find yourself trying to do about 8 things at once with another diver on the verge of panic, swimming against current and trying to unclip this or untangle that with only one hand because the other hand is holding onto the other diver, dumping gas as you ascend if you can spare a hand to dump it, and now you're trying to do all these tasks while breathing hard off this tiny POS in your mouth, holding it in your teeth, getting wet inhalations because you're sucking wind, streaming bubbles out between your teeth so you can't see, god help you if the hose gets ripped out during the flailex and your teeth lose their grip on the dinky thing, oh yeah.......I think I'm going to run right out and get one this afternoon.

Not.

But it does kinda make you wonder if the person who came up with this thing has ever had to use it during some response to a chaotic sudden emergency. I cannot imagine it performing as well as a standard second stage when it's suddenly critical that you do 8 things at once...

That said, I admit I haven't tried it. Perhaps I need to keep an open mind

:doctor: