Do you actually see people diving with pony bottles?

[CuzzA]

without needing any experience or training?

Now did I ever say that?

 

[rek_diver]

If you want to swim out to the Madeira on the surface with a snorkel, great, you dive the way you want. I'm not going to dive like that. There are waves, and boats, and wind, and all kinds of things. It's much nicer, and much safer, on scuba.

I'm not familiar with the wreck other than what I've read, which is that a surface swim allows divers to spend more time at the wreck because they don't use their tank gas to get there and back. As far as applying this to shore diving in general, I don't mind battling some wind and waves on the surface and watching for boat traffic in order to get more bottom time, if anything it adds to the experience and I just might get a good workout at the same time, but I understand that your mileage may vary.

 

[uncfnp]

Sure... We're often taught to keep your rig the same to develop muscle memory, right? My goal is to simply be so damn good it really doesn't matter. I could pick up anybody's rig and comfortably dive it like riding a bike. Does that make sense?

Sure. You mean like how you could easily hop on and happily go on a cross-country ride on a kickstart knucklehead, a Honda Rebel 250, or a Suzuki Hayabusa without needing any experience or training?

Now did I ever say that?

CuzzA. Consider making this a thread. I have seen consistent gear configuration, muscle memory and adaptation discussed here and there on SB but I think might make an interesting discussion on its own merits.

 

[Marie13]

34 pages...sheesh.

 

[Wookie]

CuzzA. Consider making this a thread. I have seen consistent gear configuration, muscle memory and adaptation discussed here and there on SB but I think might make an interesting discussion on its own merits.

Saw an interesting post on Facebook this morning from the former DSO at the New York Aquarium. He changed up his gear configuration by moving his light head from right hand to left hand. This is actually common for folks to run their scooters.

He says his brain broke. I guess it's like anything. If you know your cutting tool is on your left shoulder strap and for some reason you move it to (someplace else), you'd go nuts looking for it until you stop and think about where it is.

That's why I'm not such a firm believer in the muscle memory argument. I advocate stop, think, and plan.

Of course, I could be wrong.

 

[boulderjohn]

Hi John,

I think you may over estimate the complexity of buddy breathing or underestimate the ability of (some) divers. Back in the day, LA Co Underwater Unit, 1970, there were no safe 2nds and buddy breathing was it. That's all we did in the pool and in the ocean. We were brand new divers, buddy breathing was certainly not the most difficult thing we were asked to do. If I remember correctly, you grabbed your buddy's BC and passed the regulator back and forth every 2 breaths. Not that you would have to do it today, but it was simply not that difficult. It was all we knew. I think this was better than a deep CESA. We didn't do safety stops, I don't see a reason you couldn't do one. Maybe it depends on your buddy.

Good diving, Craig

I didn't make any estimates. I quoted the estimate produced by Dr. Glen Egstrom in his study.

I only know of one example of true buddy breathing in an emergency situation in the modern era. In that case, a woman was given a rental regulator set with no alternate. She ended up buddy breathing with an OOA diver. They both drowned.

 

[boulderjohn]

Rereading the post, I see a need for more information: "The four of them headed for the surface but before they got to the surface my friend and his wife went OOA and so all four of them buddy breathed off two regs while they did their safety stop."

That means that the two OOA divers were buddy breathing from the DM and the other diver who had previously been breathing from the DM's alternate. So the DM only allowed two of his divers to go out of air, and one to be low on air. He wasn't as bad as I thought--merely horrible, in fact.

EDIT: I really am confused about this.

You're in good company

I think I understand now--it took me a while.

I believe the DM and one of the other divers was buddy breathing with his primary regulator, and the other two divers were buddy breathing off of his alternate.

In that case, I stand by both my original statements.

• This has to be the worst DM in the history of Cozumel. I have had many dives there over a couple of decades, and every DM has been anal about making sure everyone in the group reaches the surface with plenty of air. This guy had 3 divers run completely OOA. Not only that, he was not even aware that two of them were sharing air until they got to him to let him know.
• Buddy breathing like that during a safety stop is foolish. Since buddy breathing is very rarely taught these days, that means you have 3 and possibly four complete novices in the practice doing it together while holding a stop that is considered optional. Not only are those divers almost certainly complete novices, they were also all divers who had run out of air on a routine NDL dive, which speaks volumes. You can argue that one of them ran out of air because he shared air with a buddy, but if you have a standard reserve, even the common "be back on the boat with 500 PSI" reserve, you have enough to get yourself and your buddy to the surface with a safety stop.

 

[RayfromTX]

It remains the dumbest set of decisions that I have personal knowledge of that didn't end up in a dead or bent diver. I guess that if it all goes right, there is no serious danger and I assume the the DM was actually monitoring his air and it was the other three divers that were oblivious at points along the way. I am glad I wasn't the DM and he must have just wanted that whole situation to go away after it was over. I'll ask my co-worker tomorrow how deep they were when the first OOA occurred.

 

[billt4sf]

So, you have no problem removing the valve and regulator for TSA & custom inspections (making sure that you are not stuffing something dangerous/ illegal inside the bottle) every fricking time you fly, on top of additional weight you have to pay extra for when you fly to remote place, requiring limited baggage weight (for small airplane) and rigging up the oversize beer can back together before being filled back up with air? Tell that trick to @billt4sf as he has to do that often flying from San Francisco to Bali & to other remote places in Indonesia, like Raja Ampat.

Mine is twice as big as his. 6L or 40c.f. I fly around Indo but I have not taken it back and forth to the US, at least not yet. Yes, it's weight, and yes, you have to pay. More importantly there are delays in making this extra payment. PITA for sure. Maybe I should just bring a sling and sling an extra AL 80 as some people suggest.

- Bill

 

[Dan]

Mine is twice as big as his. 6L or 40c.f. I fly around Indo but I have not taken it back and forth to the US, at least not yet. Yes, it's weight, and yes, you have to pay. More importantly there are delays in making this extra payment. PITA for sure. Maybe I should just bring a sling and sling an extra AL 80 as some people suggest.

- Bill

Renting HP100 costs us extra $8/day/diver though.