Resort's " New Normal " Rule - No AIR 2 or diving your long hose

[saxman242]

I'm getting a bit tired of all the chest-thumping about death rates and the right to get infected if one wants

Is that how you're interpreting the comparison between risk rates that I am trying to do? Or was that intended as a separate commentary in general?

 

[tursiops]

Is that how you're interpreting the comparison between risk rates that I am trying to do? Or was that intended as a separate commentary in general?

I was not commenting to you, or I would have quoted you.

 

[saxman242]

I was not commenting to you, or I would have quoted you.

Fair enough

 

[Blackcrusader]

I'm getting a bit tired of all the chest-thumping about death rates and the right to get infected if one wants. If someone wants to go play Russian roulette, that's fine with me. What I am NOT OK with is the asymptomatic asshats passing their virus on to me. I don't care if THEY feel immune; I do not, and wish they would respect that and not barge into my life and 6-foot private space without a mask on.

I'll save everyone the trouble of sharing air to me if OOG. I will simply exhale back into my BCD and recirculate that air and get to the surface. Yeah my BCD is flushed with special solutions to get it clean and free of bacteria. There may also be a squirt of two of air in the tank or primary or secondary lines as I ascend as well.

 

[MichaelMc]

If the resort is Dive Buddy, their list of measures seems extensive and as good as can be done. Boats with divers 6' apart may not be the most economical, but it is better than no divers at all. I'm fine diving with them.

If the unnamed resort has only the OOA change as their mitigation, they are clueless and I'm not diving with them.

So I wonder what the sidemount divers will do...

With my sidemount, I'll attach a second shorter hose to my right tank, leaving the long hose in the hose bands for the OOA diver. As an alternative to shrugging at them underwater and asking what happened to their independent air source. Which is tempting but not very nice.

For the backmount divers:

• The mass of divers dive octo donate anyway. They can test it on the dock then disinfect it with the no hand contact disinfectant spray station.
• Those with just Air2 should add a non integrated octo. Those that whine about carrying that extra gear should find a different sport in a pandemic, or dive on their Air2, as it is so easy to use.
• The very few with necklaced regs are likely experienced enough to add a third reg (octo) or breath off the necklace and add a breakaway to what was their primary.

In general, I'd love to see all divers with independent air sources, such as tiny doubles or pony, but the odds of this destroying the tendency to stay semi near their buddy do not seem great. But if training went that way it might not be a bad thing.

The metal tube, taxi, etc I use to get there are separate issues. Local shore diving looks good once our travel for exercise restrictions loosen.

 

[Angelo Farina]

The reality is that people dive with them, regardless of how anyone feels about them.

The immediate effect of this policy is that divers that are used to other configurations will be put into configurations they aren't used to. We can talk until we're blue in the face about changing training, eventually getting people used to other configurations, etc, but the reality is that NOW, TODAY, if you're diving at this resort with other divers, these rules will put some of them into configurations that they aren't used to.

Why do you say this?
I was simply giving to my customers equipped with just an Air2 another additional, independent full reg. There is no reason for removing the air2 and making them using systems to which they are not used.
This anti-covid policy simply requires that an additional air source is made available for your buddy.
This can either be a pony tank (as the Italian government recommends in the official guidelines) or an addictional octo ( as the rules set up in Bonaire suggest).
Having an additional air source, possibly fully independent, actually increases overall safety and does not require modifications to the user's equipment.

 

[Angelo Farina]

You didn’t answer the question as expected. Your description also did not answer a previous statement that frog kicks are not allowed. You rather obfuscated it by saying that one somehow glides on their back through the cave.

I confirm that when under a dome populated by red coral you should stay face up, keeping your fins as low as possible and far away from the coral.
If the cavern is high enough you can stay vertical, when the space is limited you stay with your back down and your bell up.
Hitting the bottom with your fins (or with a back mounted cylinder) is of no concern there, as it is solid rock without silt or mud.
If instead you hit the ceiling, destroying the coral, as it can easily happen with the American style for cave diving, this is really a big problem.
Inside marine protected areas environmental protection comes before confort and safety of visitors.
Who does not agree with such a priority should not dive there.
Diving is allowed only following a local guide. And following means obeying to his/her instructions.
If the guide see a diver in the typical horizontal cave position, with flexed knees and frog kicking, the guide will not allow to enter the cavern.
Regarding kicking style, a special kicking technique has been developed for these delicate marine environments, called the horizontal scissor kick, where knees are always kept fully extended and fins never go above or below the body, so it can be safely employed either facing down or up.
But kicking techniques is off topic here, and I have already described this kicking technique in some other topics.

However my point is general. In every different environment you can find different conditions, requiring to adapt your techniques, your equipment and your behaviour.
You must follow the rules in place in each site, or avoid diving there. Saying "at home I do it differently" is no excuse for violating the rules set for a given site, organization, resort or wathever...

 

[formernuke]

I'll save everyone the trouble of sharing air to me if OOG. I will simply exhale back into my BCD and recirculate that air and get to the surface. Yeah my BCD is flushed with special solutions to get it clean and free of bacteria. There may also be a squirt of two of air in the tank or primary or secondary lines as I ascend as well.

Problem is you exhale CO2 so the air in your BC has too high a CO2 to be safe.

 

[Edward3c]

Problem is you exhale CO2 so the air in your BC has too high a CO2 to be safe.

Exhaled breath still has 17% O2, good enough for rescue breaths, and good enough for rebreathing from a BCD. The down side, why it was dropped from training, is the high potential for legionnaires disease.

 

[The Chairman]

I do not, and wish they would respect that and not barge into my life and 6-foot private space without a mask on.

I always wear a mask while on Scuba.

I will simply exhale back into my BCD and recirculate that air and get to the surface.

How often do you run out of air? Since I attached an SPG to my rig, I have never, ever run out of air. IOW, I plan my dive and dive my plan. Running out of air is simply not an option for me. And yes, I have even rescued people and still had air to spare.