Reducing the bubble noise of open circuit ?

[rhwestfall]

or go "old school" (actually, this is a Phoenix [modern] first stage on an old set of cans...

 

[TMHeimer]

I always wear the hood regardless of water temp. Bubbles not loud enough to bother me. Though I do hold my breath (gasp) when hovering over a flounder with my poke spear. They're so stupid that the bubbles don't alert them anyway.

 

[george_austin]

hood, proplugs and a double hose reg

 

[TMHeimer]

You could always wear a hood, it'll muffle just about everything.

I always wear it, or once a swimmer's cap when I was in the tropics. No bubble noise that bothers me. Also good to keep water from going far into the ears. I've used Doc's Pro Plugs in the pool--can't recall a lot of bubble noise there but probably more than with the hood.

 

[halocline]

Aside from getting a rebreather, is there any way to deal with this, to get the bubble stream away from my ears?

The most obvious is to get a KRAKEN

There, I fixed it for you.

 

[rx7diver]

Aside from getting a rebreather, is there any way to deal with this, to get the bubble stream away from my ears?

The most obvious is to have longer exhaust ports on the regulator that stick far out to the sides like handlebars on a bicycle, away from my face, or have some sort of fine mesh "bubble diffuser" exhaust to break up the large bubbles.

Javik,

Yes, my Scubapro Balanced Adjustable 2nd stage (vintage 1987) is noticeably quieter than my Scubapro G250 (vintage 1988), even though they share a very similar design. The chromed brass BA has a large, rubber, detachable exhaust tee. The relatively smaller G250 has a plastic case and non-detachable exhaust ports (rather than an exhaust tee). The insides of these two 2nd stages are *very* similar. I think the fact that the large exhaust tee routes the bubbles further away from from my ears is the reason the BA is quieter.

Last year summer I began diving a double hose regulator, a US Divers DA Aqua-Master (vintage 1960, I think) upgraded with a 1st generation VDH Phoenix nozzle 1st stage. It's absolutely startling how quiet this DH regulator seems compared to my BA, G250, Scubapro D400, and Poseidon Odin 2nd stages!

Safe Diving,

rx7diver

 

[EricTheDood]

The most obvious is to have longer exhaust ports on the regulator that stick far out to the sides like handlebars on a bicycle

Sweeeet.

 

[rhwestfall]

And the work of breathing (exhalation component) then becomes......

 

[The Chairman]

I love my SF2 rebreather. All these other methods are stop gap. You know you want a rebreather, so why put off the inevitable? I even went to Cooper hoses so it's even quieter. I sneak up on fish like thief and can often grab their tails. In caves, I can hear OC divers yards away giving me time to turn off my lights and go golem. That's pretty fun, actually. They don't even know I'm there as they pass noisily by.

 

[Steve_C]

Since double hose vents to the back it is quieter and nice that way. One issue is that if you are the kind of person that sometimes breaths inverted (head down feet up) or on your back you will notice a difference with double hose - at least the ones I played with.