No Octo?? Here goes...Blast away!!

[John C. Ratliff]

We were doing our advanced open water training. I had no choice of buddies. And given that I have dove in Kansas lakes with less than a foot of vis, I can see even good buddies wandering off in a split second.

You divers out there ever heard of a "buddy line"? In low visibility, that's a line that clips to you, and to your buddy.

In the 1970's, I had two belts made by our Life Support personnel at the 304th Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Squadron, with "D" rings on each side. The belt was made of 2 inch wide parachute webbing, with 5000 lb strength "D" rings sewn into it. I used a 1/4 inch braded nylon line, with two snap clips on it, to clip to the belts. I braded the snap clips into the line at each end, so that they were very strong. I believe the snap was rated at 250 pounds. The line was about 4 feet long. You had to decide who was to be on which side, then stay that way during the dive.

We proved out that system during a dive off the Oregon Coast at Otter Crest in December. We were out when the waves went from just manageable (about 5 feet), to 15-20 feet in just a few minutes. Coming back to shore, we were rolled by a very large breaker, and when we came back up, both of us were minus our masks. I had my helmet still on, and my buddy was right beside me (sans his helmet, which was held on by velcro rather than a neck strap). We helped each other find our second stages so we could breath (we were on the surface swimming in when we got rolled). We maintained buddy contact when being rolled by a 20 foot wave! We "proved the system" that day.

By the way, we got picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard about 3 hours later, thanks to our girl-friend shore observers. The Coast Guard personnel were really happy to see us, as we were their first live pickups in a number of months.

I'm enclosing three photos our girl friends took of us, the first prior to the wave, the second after the wave rolled us, and the third after they had called the Coast Guard and they were waiting without being able to see us for awhile. We were all pretty happy about the pickup, and my eternal thanks to the Coast Guard for coming out. They had a pretty hairy trip in with us, as they lost one engine coming in to Depot Bay. But we did make it. While my buddy and I were getting out of our wet suits (which, by the way, kept us quite warm), I bent over and had about a cup full of water come out of my nose from my sinous spaces. That wave was pretty powerful. We thought we'd newer make it to the surface. We had both ditched our weight belts, and I blew up my back-mounted BC and my vest (I had a Bill Herder inflatable wet suit BC at the time). Bruce blew up his vest.

You don't have to make belts anymore, as most BCs have ample "D" rings on them.

SeaRat

PS--Don't dive the Oregon coast in the winter. There's nothing between the Oregon coast and Japan but the Hawaiian Islands, and they don't provide much buffer from storm waves. I've seen this area have 20 foot waves on a bright, clear day (which this one mentioned above was not). I still have those belts, the line, and the helmet. Without the helmet (red, white-water helmet with white tape on the top), the Coast Guard would not have seen us.

 

[Divmstr223]

You divers out there ever heard of a "buddy line?" In low visibility, that's a line that clips to you, and to your buddy.

In the 1970's, I had two belts made by our Life Support personnel at the 304th Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Squadron, with "D" rings on each side. I used a 1/4 inch braded nylon line, with two snap clips on it, to clip to the belts. The line was about 4 feet long. You had to decide who was to be on which side, then stay that way during the dive.

We proved out that system during a dive off the Oregon Coast at Otter Crest in December. We were out when the waves went from just manageable (about 5 feet), to 15-20 feet in just a few minutes. Coming back to shore, we were rolled by a very large breaker, and when we came back up, both of us were minus our masks. I had my helmet still on, and my buddy was right beside me. We maintained buddy contact when being rolled by a 20 foot wave! We "proved the system" that day.

By the way, we got picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard about 3 hours later, thanks to our girl-friend shore observers. The Coast Guard personnel were really happy to see us, as we were their first live pickups in a number of months.

You don't have to make belts anymore, as most BCs have ample "D" rings on them.

SeaRat

Yikes!!! Glad you made it out of that one okay....

I guess you can say we used something similar if not the same thing as the buddy line when I did my Rescue course with SSI. The Vis was bad and we were doing sweeps to find a lost diver. But we had a 10 foot rope that connected us. We could only see about 5 feet, so the 10 foot rope was perfect.....We did find the lost diver (CPR Doll, lol)

 

[Storm]

for the free flows from the octo, the snagged coral;, or wreck doors, lines, etc that get caught...QUOTE]

One can also bungee the secondary around one's neck, dir style, to keep it from snagging, and as to free flows, some suggest that your secondary should be in the same quality category as your primary second stage. But that's just some opninions.

As for the judgemental side, if you have a secondray air supply and are willing to donate your primary to an OOA diver, I'll dive with anytime. Just be sure to educate this rookie as to the procedure you want to use as an OOA air supply donar and familiarize me with how your gear is setup and were cool.

Terry

When I first started diving, I assumed that if my buddy had an octo/Air-2/whatever, that I could get air in an emergency. Then one day I watched a service tech open a reg that was so corroded that the only way to get air would have been to cut the hose and breathe off the freeflow.

Now I carry a pony (slung in front). I *know* it works and has gas (added a full-size SPG), so I don't rely on the boat-buddy's mystery reg that might or might not work.
[/QUOTE]

What you're describing here is adding equipment to solve a potential problem that could very well be addressed by other means...like pre-qualifying your dive buddies.

Again alot of these scenarios are based around buddying up with someone you don't necessarily know or trust, and given this I can see where some would be concerned about using someone elses secindary air supply.

I made a decisin when I started diving not to buddy up with people I do not know, and know them well for that matter. I have a regular dive buddy (my wife) and I can guarantee that her gear is in top notch order. (No corroded octos here thank you very much). Othewise, I stay on the baot/shore and get a tan.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

...I made a decisin when I started diving not to buddy up with people I do not know, and know them well for that matter. I have a regular dive buddy (my wife) and I can guarantee that her gear is in top notch order. (No corroded octos here thank you very much). Othewise, I stay on the baot/shore and get a tan.

This is a very good and prudent way to go about your diving.

SeaRat

 

[billeelou]

here's the same discussion again

 

[cowdog77]

UNLESS you've got a Zeagle Octo+.... then it's all "right there" and you can do both simultaneously.

~ Lovin' my Zena ~

 

[talon4477]

All this guarantees is that when the **it hits the fan and your buddy runs out of air, they'll come over and mug you for your primary and then you'll have nothing.
Terry

:whack: .........

 

[StraitsdiverGeo]

Diving should alwaws be safety first, No question about it. That's the buddie system. I look out for you, you look out for me, that's the way I like to dive. I have a pony and with the reg tied out of the way and have never had a problem. I never would leave my wing man, never! IMHO

Regards, George

 

[scubapro50]

One of the best reasons to have and use (if necessary) a octo is that most basic diving classes don't teach "buddy breathing" these days. Back in the "early" days of diving we only had one source of air and if something went wrong you had to share with your buddy. We were taught how to pass a single hose regulator (or better yet a double hose regulator) between the divers . Now most instructors take the position that learning this skill is too difficult for the beginer to master. In other words we have "dumb down" our diving classes in a skill that use to be required.

 

[mattroz]

for everyone saying that they used to dive without octopusses(sp?) and they survived... well people used to take horse drawn carriages to travel the country. guess what technology has evolved and there is a better and safer way to do things. adapt or darwin will get you!