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ETA: Just to quote you:
Why would they recommend "not test breathing your Octo pre-dive, just purging it"?
The operator, who is not named, never acknowledged the question. I don't think it has been addressed by posters on this thread either. Our group of divers over the last 40 years have had none ( 0% ) to almost none ( .0001% ).
What percentage of OOA divers do you have in your group of divers?
But it is. 100%. So I guess you are OK with the policy?
I've been there 12+ times, what stories?
I always dive with a pony or redundant independent air source. I believe everyone should. Perhaps one of the positives derived from this crisis, would be that a " New Normal Higher Standard " is achieved. Every diver must have a redundant independent air source.
They're also recommending not test breathing your Octo pre-dive, just purging it a few times. So if you're doing an Octo donate underwater in real OOG conditions, again, on the slightest off chance covid happens to be passed along, you can fix covid, but you can't fix dead....
Based on their current Covid recommendations, they feel that "test purging" a few times is sufficient enough to ensure that the flow is not restricted and it closes each time after purging, as opposed to actually test breathing it as per the old recommendation.
Makes about as much sense as requiring people driving cars to wear helmets. And steel toed boots. You know, just in case.
These statements are not accurate. What is recommended by at least the two organizations I teach for is to 1. Test breathe your secondary regulator with your buddy watching. Then sterilize that regulator. 2. Once you are on the boat and doing buddy checks or at the shoreline, you then purge the reg a few times to check it is still in working order.
They have not recommended to only purge the reg. Now clearly you will need to make sure you have the time time to sterilize the reg prior to the final buddy checks before you splash but that is not that big of deal. We just plan for that time in advance and consider this the "new normal"
Does Test purging really mean it wil breathe fine if needed? I look at the primary reason for the octo as a backup 2nd stage for myself and always test breath before I splash - a backup for an OOA diver is secondary. So does purging it really tell me it's good to go?