octopus in public safety

[Paul R]

Addressing the silt issue - would an octopus holder solve your problem? We have had no issues with the muck causing free flows since we started using them. Not inhaling loose river bottom particles is a bonus.

 

[Thalassamania]

An octo holder will only solve the problem if the octo stays there (and it never does) and/or if you can detect when it comes loose on its own. I can not recommend their use if you are ever going to be in limited visibility water.

 

[ajtoady]

I would rather not have a secondary valve in an air line. If you hand off a reg to a distressed person, do you know for sure if it is open or not, you run the chance of further task loading that diver. Also in an emergency will the diver remember to look or check that it is open?I use a octo holder that plugs the mouthpiece and helps prevent free-flows. It also holds the octo very securely. I was the receiver of a switched air reg and was lucky that it was open. The owner had forgot about the valve switch being there and realized later that his holder could have shut down the air flow. In an emergency it could be a problem. Also another point of failure.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I would rather not have a secondary valve in an air line. If you hand off a reg to a distressed person, do you know for sure if it is open or not, you run the chance of further task loading that diver. Also in an emergency will the diver remember to look or check that it is open?I use a octo holder that plugs the mouthpiece and helps prevent free-flows. It also holds the octo very securely. I was the receiver of a switched air reg and was lucky that it was open. The owner had forgot about the valve switch being there and realized later that his holder could have shut down the air flow. In an emergency it could be a problem. Also another point of failure.

We used one of those in-line valves on a second stage that was connected to a 25 ft hose pumping oxygen down for deco from a boat. It was very useful because the tank was on the boat and the second stage was prone to freeflow when hung or tossed in big seas (going up and down)......It worked FINE.

However, I have to tell you, I never really learned which was was on and which was off..but when we went to oxygen it was always under relaxed conditions and I had another working reg in my hand. It was very well justified in that application i think.

It is NOT something to ADD to an octopus, especially to a third second stage that you DON'T need...I have also seen one of those valves get caught under a tank during the set up and it was damaged and exploded and caused a lot of air to be lost....

The third octopus adds complexity and then a shut off valve adds even more (very real) potential failure points to your rig.

 

[dandecraene]

After much consideration, taking our experience and training, as well as opinions posted here, into account, we have decided to eliminate the octo from our primary system. We have a back mounted, fully redundant pony system for use in emergency. Our main reasoning is the two main reasons for having an octo are failure of the primary second stage and buddy breathing. First, buddy breathing: Public safety divers do not dive with a buddy. (We do not use the flying V pattern in our jurisdiction.) Our shore or boat based line tenders are our buddies. As far as failure of the primary second stage, we wear full face masks, as should all public safety divers. A failure of the full face mask ends the dive. The redundant system we use is more than sufficient to use to exit the dive.
I am sure there will be more discussion on the subject, and no one should have any objection to that.