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The biggest thing is that, if you are using an Air2 secondary, you should put a longer hose on your primary regulator than the 24" which is standard, because sharing air with a 24" hose puts you face to face with the other diver, and pretty much requires a pure vertical ascent. A hose at least octo (36") length is better, and a 40" hose with a swivel at the connection with the second stage will permit easy routing under your arm, to keep you from having a big loop of hose sticking out.
nothing realy wrong with it, but for use as an alternate air source in some emergency situations an octo would be better, now that I am in the "instructor mode" I have decided against having an AIR 2, seeing things differently now. Hope this helps, good luck, have fun diving and choosing what best suits your needs.Solo1mick:That's not really a good advert...
So what's wrong with it...?
3-Ring Octopus:I'm confused as to why a long-hose is thought of as "necessary" in open-water scenarios. ... however, in open-water I don't want my OOA, probably panicked buddy to have very much wiggle room with MY air. I WANT to be face-to-face...having his entire field of view be my calm face isn't such a bad thing.
3-Ring Octopus:I'm also confused as to why a purely vertical ascent is a bad thing. Purely vertical allows me to "lock on" to his BC/Harness strap and have a bit more control over rate of ascent, along with the ability to support him/her at the surface until such a time as their BC can be orally inflated. I'm sure that others would excuse a bit of silting (if it occurred) from an OOA diver.
Cheers,
Austin
TSandM:To be honest with you, I found the degree of proximity enforced by sharing air with a 24" hose to be stressful in and of itself. There just wasn't any room to move my body at all. I can share air on a 36" hose or a 40" hose and keep hold of my buddy's BC if I want to, but both of us can move a little bit without threatening that critical connection between the two of us. I'm not saying you have to have a 5' or 7' hose, just something a little longer than 24 inches if you are going to share it.
I think vertical ascents are harder to control, because any finning you do tends to drive you upward, and you present very little surface area to the water to slow yourself down. JMHO.