Buddy breathing??

[akbpilot]

Not sure about other shops, but both the padi shops(one for confined and classroom, one for o/w portion) my wife and I used for cert last year taught buddy breathing from the same reg as well as the octo. In the pool, we practiced stationary, then an underwater swim together the length of the pool using both an octo and a single reg. O/w we did a single reg share near the bottom (30 fsw) then asended to 15' and held, or tried to as the current was giving us a little ride at the time. Octo ascent was from 30fsw to surface, OOA diver had to inflate b/c manually.

 

[300bar]

As formerDutch CMAS diver in the 80's we had to do buddybreathing as the only option
we just did't have a alt.air source we did this as a standard training, but we forced this to the exterme, that is we closed the valves of our bubby's and then go for buddybreathing.This was fine in the pool,but we had many near accidends in the openwater.So since I went over to PADI I was glad that this skill was optional.
I do train this in the pool however.but the skill is so difficult in a real OOA i'm personaly NOT a fan

 

[GDI]

I still teach it

 

[Scubapat]

when i did my open water through NAUI we Did our buddy breathing by handing off our primary Reg to our buddy, then grabbing our octo for our own breating needs. then we would grab the right side of our buddys BC strap and they would grab the right side of our bc strap and we would ask if each other is ok, then we would signal to surface. i would love to learn the single reg buddy breathing technique.

 

[akbpilot]

I don't think the single reg share has as much practical application today, as most divers have a alternate setup of some kind to utilize. Hard to envision 3 of 4 secondaries going TU at the same time. I think it has its most value in getting you comfortable in giving up an air source to another, and in developing a trust with your buddy, as in "I trust that he or she is going to give my reg back after a couple of breaths". It also helped us in getting used to clearing a reg, kind off makes it an automatic reflex.

 

[Thalassamania]

I teach BB, we use it as a confidence building/task loading skill and when I've done it in real life, it worked just fine.

 

[Tigerman]

When I did my OW class this summer, it was demonstrated to us how it should be done, but thats just about it. Its not required to learn it, but I think its good to atleast have some idea of how its supposed to work...
As far as being confident under water without a reg in your mouth, Id think theres other ways to train that than by buddybreathing. For example simply taking the reg out and swimming around a bit, which IS a part of the course, for controlled swimming ascents for example..

 

[Thalassamania]

When I did my OW class this summer, it was demonstrated to us how it should be done, but thats just about it. Its not required to learn it, but I think its good to atleast have some idea of how its supposed to work...
As far as being confident under water without a reg in your mouth, Id think theres other ways to train that than by buddybreathing. For example simply taking the reg out and swimming around a bit, which IS a part of the course, for controlled swimming ascents for example..

You have a missunderstanding of what confidence building and task loading exercises are about, I haven't the time to detail it for you here right now, my apologies.

 

[Tigerman]

You have a missunderstanding of what confidence building and task loading exercises are about, I haven't the time to detail it for you here right now, my apologies.

Now thats like saying "let me tell you how this car works. Oh, wait, I dont have the time"..
Task loading, sure, youll need tasks to do. Confidence and stress management however is not neccesarilly the same thing..

 

[Nemrod]

Some time back, before octapus rigs were common my wife and I had gone out on a charter for drifting somwhere near Ft Lauderdale or was it Jupiter, some of our favorite desinations--anyways? Well, I had been elected to be lead for one drift group and was given the dive flag. The current seemed pretty rough that day and not always going the way we wanted to go, seemed to swirl this way and that. We were running between 80 and 100 feet as I recall. The other three divers that had been put with my wife and I were rather weak divers and constatly strayed and grabbed for the bottom stopping themselves which meant I had to kick against the current to hold for them to get sorted out--over and over. While at the time I was into marathons it was still beginning to tire me. I had just checked my air and time and noted I had 1500 psi. Well, being very fit is good to conserve air but something many don't also know is that being very fit can allow one to process a whole bunch of air---lol. Well, ok, next thing I knew, I inhaled and nothing--zip--nada! I was still aggravated by my three new friends and my atention still more focused on them than my OOA situation. It was about that time that I realized that not only was I zip on air, had exhaled my last breath and already had been near a minute past that that I realized I had a problem. As I contemplated heading for the surface I saw my wife--coming at me like a torpedo--somehow she knew I was in trouble. She took her mouthpiece and shoved it into my mouth and I took several deep breaths--my vision finally clearing as I passed back to her and checked her air--500 psi!! The other three divers had to be empty but perhaps not as low as my wife and I from having to hang against the current waiting on them. I should have left them but I never leave a buddy. Well, back to the story, we buddy breathed--face to face to about 60 feet where I let loose my wife and went to the surface on my own. The captain was in a bit of a fuss over the incident but calmed down when he saw I was OK as was my wife. That evening I bought my wife an octapus rig and soon after I got one for myself--but still--after all these years I remember back to the day my wife came in like a torpedo to save me and thanks to her excellent skills it was successful. These skills were learned in a Y class where as I had years before, learned to buddy breath swimming laps with no mask switching off and even exchanging gear.

N, risk is the spice of life