Octopus second-stage: over shoulder or under arm?

[Bob DBF]

What exactly does this video show?

That no one could get the leaking SPG out of everyone's face so the incident could be handled without drama. I'm pretty sure everyone knew what the problem was immediately, no need to continue the show and tell.


Bob

 

[AfterDark]

That no one could get the leaking SPG out of everyone's face so the incident could be handled without drama. I'm pretty sure everyone knew what the problem was immediately, no need to continue the show and tell.


Bob

Probably a staged teaching video. If it shows anything it shows that having redundant air while buddy diving is better than the Charlie Foxtrot that ensue when trying to share air.

Did that divers SPG leak all the way to the surface? Hardly an emergency with 3 divers and clear water. Imagine that was a night dive with 10' visibility.

 

[Bubbles McGee]

What does that video illustrate about an Air2? You do realize an Air2 would also be on a short hose, right? Same length as a necklaced octo. Where you see bad equipment choice based on old myths, I see bad divers with poor training. The funny thing is it was a traditional octo that started free flowing at one point.

Anyway, @Chris Richardson, over the shoulder is fine. 18-22 inches on a necklace is how you would set it up with your primary on a 40" hose under your arm. This is called the Streamlined Open Water setup and is a fantastic, clean and tidy setup. Alternatively an Air2 also works especially well with this setup.

View attachment 530973

A 5 ft. primary hose is a really bad hose length, IME. It's unwieldy as it's too short to secure under most average size guy's bodies. A 7 ft. hose doesn't make much sense in open water as its purpose is for single file cave exiting. 40" under the arms works great. Short enough to be streamlined, yet long enough to do a comfortable air share.

I really like the 40" under the arm and secondary on a 22" hose with necklace. Streamlined it is indeed.

 

[GameChanger]

I watched that video a couple times and it seems as if one of the divers was implementing the old "buddy breathing" technique where you share your primary. (I was trained this way in 1970...). Not sure where the Air 2 "issues" are in the video...perhaps I just didn't see them. I dive with the AL AirSource 3 and I make sure I go over OOA procedures with my dive buddy before every dive, regardless of how familiar they may be with my gear and vice-versa. I can say though from a real-deal OOA experience with a buddy at ~100 ft that the OOA diver will grab/go for the closest regulator they can see. In most cases that will be YOUR primary. They can forget their training and switch to survival instinct in a heartbeat.

 

[loosenit2]

Being in the UK you should ignore all the advice above or people will laugh at you, accuse you of being an internet diver, and possibly refuse to dive with you unless they have redundant gas.

You are fine with the octopus going over the shoulder so long as you find a good way to secure it, as always.

Internet Diver, I love it. Can you get a specialty c-card for that!

 

[DBPacific]

Internet Diver, I love it. Can you get a specialty c-card for that!

PADI probably has it

 

[GameChanger]

PADI probably has it

 

[myshadeofred]

It depends on your gear setup and hose length. Many of us run the octo on a 22-24" short-hose that's then attached via a necklace, so its just under your chin. That routes over your shoulder. You then donate your primary which is on a 5ft or longer hose.

For rental style BCD and octo setups with a 36" (or was it 40" ?) octo it's normally run under your arm to keep the hose routing as nice as possible. The reality is that in an OOA scenario if the diver is calm enough to grab your yellow octo and not rip the reg out of your mouth, then the issue you are talking about is the least of your problems.

If you want to see what an OOA situation really looks like for most divers, watch the below video. To me it's the perfect demonstration of why long-hoses are such a better solution and why Air-2's suck.

This is a great learning video. I personally never had any issues with my Air2 and i kind of want to go back to it. However, in this video, I saw the other person had an Octo...why didn't the one person whose gauge was leaking use that? But I will say everyone was super calm and I think this should be shown to others.

 

[Fastmarc]

I can say though from a real-deal OOA experience with a buddy at ~100 ft that the OOA diver will grab/go for the closest regulator they can see. In most cases that will be YOUR primary. They can forget their training and switch to survival instinct in a heartbeat.

Are you saying that a diver grabbed your reg out of your mouth in an OOA at 100ft?

Though I've seen this said many times on threads that this can happen, but if that is what you are saying, this is the first I've seen of someone saying it actually happened to them.

 

[Scuba-74]

I really like the 40" under the arm and secondary on a 22" hose with necklace. Streamlined it is indeed.

That would imply a 360 degree swivel, as in the picture earlier in the thread, correct?