21 replies to this topic

[Greg@ihpil]

I have 2 comments..
1st one is on the dive alone.I will be among the divers that as Joe & Ellen ,not by choice ,but happen's, It did happen in Roatan,As I was TAKING PIC'S. I went up over the wall & the group was gone.I was probably more concerned about the group looking for me endlessly ,wasting air.I simply surfaced looked where the boat was, returned to depth and swam in the direction of the boat, where I stayed and waited for everyone.
2nd.recently I purchased a new Hollis reg with a adjuster , making it my primary.I then took my Mares reg/primary & added the yellow hose.Is this acceptable,or should the reg also be yellow?

[Jerrymxz]

My 2 psi is I don't care what color any of it is as long as you and your buddy know which reg you donate and are at least competent if not proficient in its deployment.

When I dive with someone for the first time I go over how the long hose is employed if the need were to arise. I have on several occasions donated my reg to a buddy who was getting low until we got back to the line and did our ascent. Then when we were ready to surface we transitioned back to our own regs. They now had sufficient gas to inflate their BC and reboard without any issues. Had we not shared things can go south in a hurry when on or near the surface and you suck the last bit out of a tank.

Sorry a bit off topic

[TX65]

I have only dived alone with a back up diver either sitting on the deck with communication or when spearfishing with a back up diver in the water ready to drop down 5 minutes behind me.

Of course, there are those events where your buddy takes off and doesn't bother to notice you are not with them which is when you find a new dive buddy.

[ChumShiver]

That is a great reminder Jerry of something EVERYONE should do regardless of the venue and that is practice using and ensuring your octo works well. We are in Dominica and a diver almost aborted a dive because the primary was not working correctly. I advised he use his octo and look at it after the dive.

The point is we ALL should not only practice using our octo but make sure it is working properly. If you offered a person your octo and it did not function properly and they were already starting to panic because they were out of air then EXPECT that they will grab your primary and you'll be the one dealing with the poorly functioning octo. And in some cases if the diver is already spooked because they are out of air and they don't want to risk whether you have a properly functioning octo or not...they will simply take your primary and leave you the octo in the first place. And understand this is perfectly ok because this is what our training has set us up for...we are the spare air for a diver in trouble.

That is why divers like Jerry and myself dive with a VERY long hose on our primary regs and we dive a short hose on our octos which you find around our necks. This allows us to 'deploy' or give you the primary reg we've been breathing off which you KNOW is giving up good air and we take our octos. This is also why we buy higher quality regs for our octos since we know it will become our primary either during drills, in the event of emergency etc. Its a bit more expensive to do it this way but the first time you are panicing trying to breath off your own octo when your primary starts taking in water you'll be pretty thrilled you've previously checked it out. Otherwise you may end up in a dual panic situation I watched a diver in NC face. Primary reg failed and when they went to breathe off the octo it was breathing moldly slimy water with every breath. They must of forgotten to service it or being plastic which 95% of the octos are...it just didn't perform when it was needed. So as a result they started doing an emergency ascent to the surface as they could not breathe. And all of this could have and should have been avoided.

So check your regs including your octo and practice diving your octo...see how it performs during a dive. Like it? Great! Don't like it? Then realize in the event of an emergency either yours or a dive buddy near you...you will probably end up diving it anyway so consider a new upgraded octo for Christmas this year. It could be the best present you've ever gotten!

 

Good advice, WW. I had a cheap little octopus for a few years, and always glossed over the fact that it never really worked well. I finally spent some time on a dive trip actually breathing off it, and realized it was time to ditch that little plastic death trap. This was only confirmed when I had my regs serviced. The tech commented on my first and second stages, and then asked why I'd put such a cheap POS octopus onto such a good reg set. My new octupus is plastic too, but better designed. And sure breathes better underwater! I've gotten a few  looks from dive guides when they swim by and see my octo in my mouth during a dive. I figure, lesson learned. Test and retest, so I know how it'll behave when the shyte truly hits the fan.

[tstormwarning]

I have done some solo diving in my career. I have some upper level Tech training & am also a Solo diving instructor. Although I do prefer to dive with a buddy to share the experience, I am not adverse to solo diving, when I must. As a Dive professional, I must ofter dive on my own, I have had buddies that were woefully insufficiant at buddy/ team awareness. I am a solo diving instructor & as a technical diver have been trained that while team bailout can be handy, self sufficiency  is much better. In technical diving, as with any kind of diving, the weakest link is the weakest diver. Although I do solo diving, I do not advocate solo diving without proper expeience, training, equipment & mind set.

[WreckWench]

Hey Tammy! Great post! Great to have you back! Wake up some other topics or feel free to start a few new ones! :cool!:

[Ducky]

I like to solo dive, from shore, where I'm very familiar with an area, and at depth no greater than 15m. I do not usually have a redundant air supply unless I happen to be diving sidemount. I am certified self-reliant but even then I need all three of the aforementioned requirements to dive without at least a pony. Otherwise I want someone else who is equally trained diving with me(at least in sight) as my alternate air source. As a diving professional, I encourage others to take the self-reliant course for safety and for extra problem solving experience in case of an emergency. My preference and to feel completely comfortable for a solo dive is side-mount with 2 80s. See you in 4-6 hrs!