SloopCamotop
Registered
My wife and I are brand new divers, certified last year in Key Largo and headed to Key West this year. I have caught the bug and taken my AOW and Nitrox at the local quarry and am reading this forum like crazy to try and soak up as much information as I can.
I think though, that I may have gotten a little over excited, and told her how I thought it would be a good idea to switch to a necklace setup with a 5 ft primary, just in case anything ever happened with an OOA situation. With 14 dives I am brand spanking new and have no illusions of cave, or single file exits from anywhere, but we have 3 daughters who want to get certified and I thought the easier to share air with someone in need the better.
She asked if that happened often and I said, well if it does it probably won't be one of us, it will be some ding-dong stranger that will just yank your primary, and bing - you'll use your left hand to put in your back-up and give the panicked person room.
She was not keen on the concept that we need to plan for panicked strangers attacking our air supply, and then said maybe this whole diving thing isn't worth the hassle and risk. ALL ASTERN FULL!!! I quickly explained how safe rec. diving is when we do this exact thing - plan and discuss and practice, then we can relax and enjoy knowing what we'll do and how to do it. She was less than enthused.
How much focus on the pitfalls is healthy? Are OOA situations not an IF but WHEN? I would love to tell her its no biggie - one in ten thousand but what the heck, lets just practice a few times anyway, but I don't want to say that if it really is more common occurrence -
Insight from those who know? (and btw - is it plain silly for a newbie like me to show up on a boat already kind of leaning towards a Hogarthian set up with only a few dives? Am I putting the cart before the horse here?)
I think though, that I may have gotten a little over excited, and told her how I thought it would be a good idea to switch to a necklace setup with a 5 ft primary, just in case anything ever happened with an OOA situation. With 14 dives I am brand spanking new and have no illusions of cave, or single file exits from anywhere, but we have 3 daughters who want to get certified and I thought the easier to share air with someone in need the better.
She asked if that happened often and I said, well if it does it probably won't be one of us, it will be some ding-dong stranger that will just yank your primary, and bing - you'll use your left hand to put in your back-up and give the panicked person room.
She was not keen on the concept that we need to plan for panicked strangers attacking our air supply, and then said maybe this whole diving thing isn't worth the hassle and risk. ALL ASTERN FULL!!! I quickly explained how safe rec. diving is when we do this exact thing - plan and discuss and practice, then we can relax and enjoy knowing what we'll do and how to do it. She was less than enthused.
How much focus on the pitfalls is healthy? Are OOA situations not an IF but WHEN? I would love to tell her its no biggie - one in ten thousand but what the heck, lets just practice a few times anyway, but I don't want to say that if it really is more common occurrence -
Insight from those who know? (and btw - is it plain silly for a newbie like me to show up on a boat already kind of leaning towards a Hogarthian set up with only a few dives? Am I putting the cart before the horse here?)