Air2 thoughts please

[PerroneFord]

For the record, I am not an Air2 style reg fan for a lot of reasons, many mentioned here.

One of the things that always puzzled me was the amazing consistency of people trying to "streamline" or eliminate a hose. I simply didnt understand it. A hose adds nearly NO drag in the water so I couldn't understand why people kept talking about it. Until I did a dive with a BOW diver again. It had been a while.

The standard hose lengths and stowage methods showed me the light. There are hoses going EVERYWHERE in loops and bends. In this scenario, I can see why one would want to get rid of a hose.

In the scenario of someone using a long primary (7ft) and a 24" backup hose, and a 24" SPG hose, the diver profile is VASTLY different. For those who are buying an Air2 because of streamlining, I would humbly suggest you look at this configuration as it will streamline in a way the Air2 simply cannot touch.

 

[victor]

I have had my AIR2 for over 10 years and I am happy with it.
Have a long hose on your primary so if you need to donate your it you don't end up face to face. It's quite natural to donate your primary and breath off your AIR2.

Assuming you are sticking to recreational diving then the AIR2 works fine.

The only down side is if it goes wrong on vacation, then you need to rent a reg set and BC, or carry a spare inflator hose and borrow a reg and BC.

 

[Jarrett]

Has there been discussion around a panicked diver and the 7 foot hose setup? Meaning what happens when a panicked diver rips the primary (7 foot) reg from his buddy's mouth? Does the hose wrapped around his neck and body come neatly unwound or does it constrict? Does it come over the back of the head and rip the mask off of the non-OOA diver?

 

[PerroneFord]

I have had my 7ft hose ripped from my mouth. And have done it to other divers. It slides right off the back of the neck. Remember the hose is neutral in the water. It has no weight to "pull off" a mask strap. Because it does not make a complete loop around the neck it is impossible to constrict.

The ONLY instance which would initially problematic is if the OOA diver approached from the diver's left side and grabbed the reg. In this case the hose would pull against the right side of the non-OOA diver's neck. If the non-OOA diver turns toward the OOA diver (as would happen since he is being dragged that way) the hose will simply come free.

 

[ChrisEdwards]

Well I guess you can say I jumped in with both feet, feet first.

I went back to the LDS, they had given me a pair of Atomic splitfins to try as my Mares were casuing me to cramp up.

I tried them out in my pool and they felt absolutely wonderful.

Anyway, back to the LDS, I told him I wanted the Knighthawk but did not want the Air2 regulator/inflator. He said no problem and promptly swapped out the Air2 for the standard inflator/deflator.

I ended up buying the Scubpro Knighthawk BC, an Atomic B2 regulator, Atomic Z2 octo and of course the Atomic Splitfins.

I had some credit with another dive store, due to my wife having a clothing splurge there a couple of weeks ago and then deciding that she didn't want half of what she bought, so I stopped by and bought an Oceanic Pro Plus 2 with compass to round out my major gear purchases.

I'll need a few other bits and bobs, but that's an excuse to go man shopping again at the dive store this weekend.

Now I can't wait to go get wet.

 

[Jarrett]

Sounds like good choices. Have fun with your new equipment.

 

[archman]

Anyway, back to the LDS, I told him I wanted the Knighthawk but did not want the Air2 regulator/inflator. He said no problem and promptly swapped out the Air2 for the standard inflator/deflator.

So why the change? I thought the LDS dude told you that the AIR2 was part of the package. Was he just pulling your chain, or did your put your foot down about getting the standard inflator?

 

[HilaryRN71]

IMO...couldn't have picked a better reg. I absolutely love the Atomics regs. I opted for the SS1 back up reg instead of the standard LPI. I've liked it and switched out during dives just to play around, breathes pretty dry. My one issue...it free-flowed on me BAD one time in the Keys earlier this summer. Of course before a night dive to 110 feet and I lost 1400 psi before I got back to the boat and my tank turned off. So it was just a ....shorter night dive to 110 feet. But never had the problem repeat itself and have logged 30 or so dives since then.

 

[trucker girl]

I'm going to sleep now so I don't have time to read the long/heated threads...

I guess I'm a little confused on the Air2 thing. My best friend bought this setup (had her inflator hose swapped out to this, in fact). The part you breath on is actually part of the inflator hose, right? So if you're going up, how do you let air out of your BC? Do you breathe in the air you're letting out of your BC? Or do you use the weight of your buddy to keep you from flying up?

Or am I just confused about the setup? I haven't actually seen her bc and I've never actually seen any air 2 I guess. And I'm way too lazy and tired to go read about it so could someone spoon feed me here?



And why do people get upset about a repeat thread? Who cares if it's somewhere else, too? I can understand not wanting to repeat yourself over and over again, and no one here seemed too upset about a repeated thread, so don't think I'm talking about you- but I have seen elsewhere on this board and on other boards too where people just get testy about it- it makes me afraid to start a thread sometimes for fear that someone had a similar thread 5 years ago, and why didn't I know that? Anyway, just wondering.

 

[TheRedHead]

We have this thread about once a week, TG.