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Yes VIP is not standardized by PADI. It just means if you're looking for a technical diving instructor teaching your kid 1:1 with a few extra days in DIR gear, you can get that with a PADI OWD card as well. But these VIP classes don't play a big role here anyway, too expensive. The more popular...

If you're concerned about this kind of valve failure underwater, consider that the isolation valve is a single point of failure for the issue you had. If the same defect your right post valve had occurs at the isolation valve then you lose all backgas quickly but can't do anything about it...

In Europe many shops offer a "VIP" option of the PADI OWD; don't they in the US? It's not a standardized offering by PADI, only the shops adding value. More days, and/or smaller classes. Of course it costs more, some almost double the price. A Tec diving shop near my place (a TecRec IDC) offers...

It's neither complacency nor lack of training, but human error. The one near-miss I witnessed was a GUE trained diver with GUE trained buddies. They certainly knew how the valve works and had done V drills before. Nobody could explain why it was closed during the dive, other than that he may...

Once again, I didn't say they should not recommend a manifold. The question is: why is the isolating valve inside the manifold still required if its safety track record is so bad? See this picture: File:Scuba Manifolds Schematic.png - Wikipedia The upper right one is the "non-isolation...

True for the European non-burst-disk valves, the o-rings are still there. But in general still all of these problems are very unlikely and it's doubtful if there was ever a case where closing the isolator valve saved a diver's life. Might be because such failures happen with high tank pressures...

I'm sorry if my last question was not clear; I wasn't suggesting to remove the manifold, but to remove the valve in the manifold. Why do training agencies not recommend or at least allow the straight bar non-isolation manifold?

Resurrecting the thread, going back to the initial topic: (Note that this is about isolation vs. non-isolation manifolds. It is not about independent doubles / sidemount). Seems to me that in-water burst disk failure is the main reason for having the isolation valve, instead of using a plain...

Can you rent or borrow a bp/w from a friend for a day and try for yourself? The answer to your question depends also on the weight of course; how big is your tank, how much lead to you carry. Probably not much in a beach dive with a small tank and a 3mm wetsuit. But then, why spend a lot of...

The question is what is pure Bühlmann. When creating tables, to add a safety margin, he added a 2m (7ft) safety margin on the max.depth and used max.depth also during the descent. When using the table you have to round up bottom time, altitude, and depth to the next value listed in the table...

Going sidemount (congrats I hope you'll love it), you'll see that most bladders are shaped like triangles: a lot of lift at the lower back, almost nothing at the upper back. Makes a lot of sense to me. There's no advantage in adding lift at your shoulders/neck unless you carry a lot of gas on...

I think when comparing BCD jackets vs BP/W the suit is very important. Drysuit divers love BP/W because they need a lot of lead and BP/W allows them to put a lot non-ditchable on the back. They also don't need BCD jackets' pockets because drysuits come with leg pockets. The shape of the...

regarding the trimix depth recommendation, it's not about depth alone. In open water you can feel nitrogen narcosis coming and then reduce risk simply by going shallower. But that doesn't work inside a cave or wreck, hence I don't think it's overconservative if an agency focused on cave diving...

The special thing about the OSTC plus is the housing: it has a large 2.4" display inside a very small milled aluminum housing. Display size is the same like divesoft freedom (2.4") and larger than Shearwater Perdix (2.2"), but the OSTC plus' housing is more compact. Its display is bonded to the...

Consider that the buddy had severe problems of unknown nature and may fail to control his buoyancy during the free ascent, may become negative and fall into darkness. So you may have to take control of his wing and drysuit and rebreather, and yours as well, both of you in rebreathers plus...

As long as the situation starts with a diver being only low on gas and notices it in time, gas sharing can be done calm and easily with any method. I see the advantage of the usual octopus setup for the majority of occasional vacation divers with little experience. Every group member knows that...

I consider a free ascent in a lake in low viz more stressful and incurring a much higher risk of losing each other than swimming near the bottom. Particularly if the distance is short, visibility is very bad and the buddy has problems, then losing him would be my bigger concern, more than deco...

@BLACKCRUSADER : definitely agree that the main factor is: what you do, how much energy do you spend. Experience with scuba diving, good trim, ... matters a lot. A relaxed unfit diver doing nothing will have a lower SAC than a marathon runner swimming hard because of too much lead and bad trim...

Strange, some seem to think that fitness doesn't mean much for SAC. How much air must be ventilated (SAC) to exhale 1L of CO2? This ratio (ventilatory efficiency) is not constant and not the same for everyone. With increasing exercise, everybody reaches a level (anaerobic threshold) beyond which...

Not to omit the obvious, the most effective solution will be addressing the root cause ... a healthy diet, and endurance training like long distance running will do wonders to your SAC. And no it won't take forever, just do it.