New Divers and Dangling Equipment!!!

[jagfish]

About danglies...
They really erk me, too. (Is that how you spell erk, urk..)
However, I have yet to see a rental BC/reg setup that has enough of, and the right kind of clips to properly secure everything (over here especially).

If the shops don't set the example with their rental stuff, makes it harder for students to follow through...

 

[czjack]

About danglies...
They really erk me, too. (Is that how you spell erk, urk..)
However, I have yet to see a rental BC/reg setup that has enough of, and the right kind of clips to properly secure everything (over here especially).

If the shops don't set the example with their rental stuff, makes it harder for students to follow through...

I believe that it's "irk" the others urk/erk is the sound you make if you're on a boat in rough seas.

I agree with the clips. It's mindboggling difficult to find clips that don't have too much give.

My suggestions is when a buddy becomes OW certified buy and make them a dangle pack 1 clip for the octo and one for the console.

 

[TheRedHead]

I couldn't believe that new divers are not taught to buddy breath and the use of snorkels as optional. Are we "dumbing down" dive clases like the education boards did our schools ? Yes ..... they all should check each others gear before they get into the water ...... or is that too being left out of the new dive courses?

My instructor felt that buddy breathing is dangerous in that you could end up with 2 injured/dead divers instead of one. That is his rationale; I have no opinion on it as I have never performed the skill.

This may be a dumb question but I wondered when I was taking my OW classes why we don't secure our primary reg hose where it crosses over the right shoulder? Seems to me like you could run it through something so when it is lost, you don't have to contort to find it. It's fairly simple while you are kneeling on the bottom, but becomes more complex when you lose it ascending on a line with your right hand on the line and your left hand on the bc inflator hose. I had this happen to me with almost no viz in a quarry and I just grabbed my octo until I felt secure enough to find my primary. I've always wondered why the primary is never secured anywhere?

 

[MikeFerrara]

About danglies...
They really erk me, too. (Is that how you spell erk, urk..)
However, I have yet to see a rental BC/reg setup that has enough of, and the right kind of clips to properly secure everything (over here especially).

If the shops don't set the example with their rental stuff, makes it harder for students to follow through...

Carry a piece of bungee, a couple of doggie clips, and some cave line with you. Hang your backup around your neck (swap it with the primary if the hose lengths work better that way). Tie a bolt snap to the HP hose and clip it to something.

 

[Rick Inman]

Carry a piece of bungee, a couple of doggie clips, and some cave line with you. Hang your backup around your neck (swap it with the primary if the hose lengths work better that way). Tie a bolt snap to the HP hose and clip it to something.

I did this about 100 dives ago, plus put my computer and compass on my wrists, based on SB advice. Those changes (plus the BP/W) revolutionized my diving. The only negative is being forever branded on SB as a DIR-(learned-on-the-net)-wannabe (worse than a stroke). At the same time, my LDS wants to know when I'm gonna' "upgrade" to a weight integrated BC, gage console and safe second.
Ah, the life of an outcast...

 

[czjack]

This may be a dumb question but I wondered when I was taking my OW classes why we don't secure our primary reg hose where it crosses over the right shoulder?

That's a good question. I have on occasion had my reg slip out and I spent some time trying to get it back. I guess attaching it with a loose cord to the front of my BC makes the most sense.

As for buddy breathing, there is a possibility that this may stem from when some recreational divers use to utilive 1 regulator only. Now a days everyone use an octo in addition. Might be a topic for another thread.

 

[Marek K]

This may be a dumb question but I wondered when I was taking my OW classes why we don't secure our primary reg hose where it crosses over the right shoulder? Seems to me like you could run it through something so when it is lost, you don't have to contort to find it. It's fairly simple while you are kneeling on the bottom, but becomes more complex when you lose it ascending on a line with your right hand on the line and your left hand on the bc inflator hose. I had this happen to me with almost no viz in a quarry and I just grabbed my octo until I felt secure enough to find my primary. I've always wondered why the primary is never secured anywhere?

I think it's a reasonable question. Back when I was first certified, 1985, a lot of the BCs actually had velcro flaps on the right shoulder -- similar to the ones on the left now, for your inflator. Those right shoulder flaps could only have been intended for securing your primary 2nd stage hose, though I never heard that for sure. I think I actually tried that once, too. Problem was, as I remember, that it made any kind of head movement impossible.

I think any kind of fastening would be more trouble than it's worth. Worst reasonable case, you could grab your octo until you find your primary, like you did.

--Marek

 

[SquattingRadishDM]

My instructor felt that buddy breathing is dangerous in that you could end up with 2 injured/dead divers instead of one. That is his rationale;

As for buddy breathing, there is a possibility that this may stem from when some recreational divers use to utilive 1 regulator only. Now a days everyone use an octo in addition.

I think ur right czjack. However it can be usefull to be competent at buddy breathing. I was on a dive a few yrs ago in which me and a DM had to deal with 4 OOA divers as we were coming up from to our safty stop. We had dropped onto a 100' wreck and had to swim as hard as we could for a fare amount of time to reach the wreck and then stay on the wreck. We were with 4 divers who were newly qualified AOW divers, were pretty unfit and hadn't got their air consumption down yet. They were hanging on to the wreck for a few mins until the DM called the dive.

As we ascended all 4 divers had <500 psi. They were pretty stressed and we still had to do a 3 mins safty stop. Anyway both the DM and I had 2 divers breathing from our octo's and primarys and we would take a few breathes of the each divers reg every 10 secs or so. Bouyancy controll was quite a challenge with two stressed out divers hanging off you, and breathing out a lil' stream of bubbles!

Anyway after 5 mins we ascended, left the 4 divers floating round the surface marker bouy then decended to 15' feet again to do another 3 mins of deco ourselves as we weren't sure if we had off-gased enough N2 given we weren't breathing continously during our safety stop (any thoughts on that point? I wasn't sure at the time and didn't want to chance it).

Anyway even tho u have an octo and you could cope with 1 OOA diver, what if u had more than 1? THATS why every diver (at least Rescue Divers) should be competent at buddy breathing IMO.

 

[Jeddah Aquanaut]

I've always found it disturbing that I see so many divers including students under instructor supervision and even the instructors themselves with dangling equipment.

First of all it's dangerous and second, at least in the case of some agencies, it's actually a standards violation.

Equipment configuration in general and especially as it relates to emergency procedures, streamlinning and trim should be an integral part of entry level training.

As it is divers often don't get much of this in any training at all.

I wholeheartedly agree about the dangers of the danglies. I have seen several instructors here in Jeddah with the danglies themselves, and couldn't understand why. Now that I'm a DM, when assisting my Instructor-friend, I make it a point of showing how important it is not to have equipment dangling. What a new diver sees will be what stays with her/him for a long time. The instructor and DM's need to demonstrate this as much as proper bouyancy and other "must" skills. I've seen big fan corals broken off, when for only a few bucks, a hose or instrument clip would have prevented it. Danglies can give all divers a bad name. Use clips and retractors!