AIR2 and no Right Shoulder Dump

[cortez]

Before I ask my question, let me just say that I know there are plenty of people out there who hate these devices. That's fine! That's your opinion. That's not what I am looking for here. If you can't answer the question that is posted, please don't post anything.

That being said, I posting this simply out of curiosity...

Scubapro recommends that when using an AIR2 to share air, the donor (breathing from the AIR2) utilize the right shoulder dump on the BCD to exhaust air during a vertical ascent. In fact, I believe that I have heard them say that this was part of the design decisions about the valves and operation of the AIR2.

I've seen many people diving with an AIR2 on a BCD that has no right shoulder dump - ie. Dive Rite Wings, Custom Divers Sports Harness, Zeagle Ranger, etc. For those of you that dive this setup, how do you exhaust during a veritical ascent while sharing air? Do you simply pull on the corrogated hose (assuming you have a pull dump on it) or do you actually remove the AIR2 from your mouth and vent in the traditional way? Or have you ever tried it?

Thanks in advance for the information. As I said I was just curious about this, so please don't overwhelm this thread with 'you should never use an AIR2' comments. Additionally, I'm looking for real feed back from real users of an AIR2 in this configuration. If you don't have the experience please allow those that do to answer.

Thanks!

 

[Lead_carrier]

Scubapro recommends that when using an AIR2 to share air, the donor (breathing from the AIR2) utilize the right shoulder dump on the BCD to exhaust air during a vertical ascent. In fact, I believe that I have heard them say that this was part of the design decisions about the valves and operation of the AIR2.

I've seen many people diving with an AIR2 on a BCD that has no right shoulder dump - ie. Dive Rite Wings, Custom Divers Sports Harness, Zeagle Ranger, etc. For those of you that dive this setup, how do you exhaust during a veritical ascent while sharing air? Do you simply pull on the corrogated hose (assuming you have a pull dump on it) or do you actually remove the AIR2 from your mouth and vent in the traditional way? Or have you ever tried it?

Thanks!

You do not have to remove the Air2 to release air from your bc.. Simply cover the mouthpiece with your tongue and push the deflate button. This works find since the the air released out of the exhaust. Works fine for me. There are a couple of other ways but this is the simplest as far as I'm concerned.

 

[cortez]

You do not have to remove the Air2 to release air from your bc.. Simply cover the mouthpiece with your tongue and push the deflate button. This works find since the the air released out of the exhaust. Works fine for me. There are a couple of other ways but this is the simplest as far as I'm concerned.

Never thought of that... Interesting idea. Just out of curiosity, what kind of BCD do you have your AIR2 on?

 

[redacted]

I have my air2 on a DR travel wing with pull dump. I have never had to use it in a real emergency. I have practiced both pulling on the corrugated hose with the air 2 in my mouth and removing the air2 from my mouth and holding it up. The pull dump on the DR wing takes a bit of effort (more tha SQ pull dump) to operate but it did work. I usually have very little air in my wing and doubt if I could dump it as Leadcarrier suggested but I'll give it a try.

 

[cortez]

I have my air2 on a DR travel wing with pull dump. I have never had to use it in a real emergency. I have practiced both pulling on the corrugated hose with the air 2 in my mouth and removing the air2 from my mouth and holding it up. The pull dump on the DR wing takes a bit of effort (more tha SQ pull dump) to operate but it did work. I usually have very little air in my wing and doubt if I could dump it as Leadcarrier suggested but I'll give it a try.

You make a good point about DR (and others) pull dumps being harder to operate with the AIR2 in your mouth than the SQ. As you probably know SQ uses a double cord system to facilitate just that. I wonder if anyone has ever tried putting a SQ corrugated hose/dump on any other brand BC or wing? I'm not sure which brands would match up thread wise with the dump valve, however.

 

[Walter]

There are a number of ways to vent air while using an Air II. In an emergency, the only one that makes sense is the right shoulder dump. If you don't have one, you'll be much safer to get a traditional octopus or a BC with a right shoulder dump. If you reject both those paths, I'd recommend practicing ascents while breathing off your Air II. Once you've mastered that, (meaning it's become extremely easy and you never have any problems) start practicing those ascents while sharing air until you've mastered that skill as well.

 

[redacted]

You make a good point about DR (and others) pull dumps being harder to operate with the AIR2 in your mouth than the SQ. As you probably know SQ uses a double cord system to facilitate just that. I wonder if anyone has ever tried putting a SQ corrugated hose/dump on any other brand BC or wing? I'm not sure which brands would match up thread wise with the dump valve, however.

I checked. The valves are not the same size.

 

[cortez]

I checked. The valves are not the same size.

For some reason I kind of figured that they wouldn't be.

 

[cortez]

You do not have to remove the Air2 to release air from your bc.. Simply cover the mouthpiece with your tongue and push the deflate button. This works find since the the air released out of the exhaust. Works fine for me. There are a couple of other ways but this is the simplest as far as I'm concerned.

Just thought of something... if you are using this technique and you exhale while exhausting, doesn't that push air back into the BC?

 

[Doc Intrepid]

Both the gas from the BC and your exhalation follow the path of least resistance, which is to vent directly out the open inflator valve.

I agree with Walter. If you're gonna use an Air-2, be able to vent your BC via some other reliable mechanism. If you haven't got the correct BC, select another backup second stage option. Remember that depending on the nature of the out-of-air emergency you might be heading up faster than you'd planned, and you might even need both your hands from time to time.

And FWIW, the corregated hoses with the cable running down the inside are poor selections. They may be a good idea theoretically, but are flawed for actual emergencies. I've seen two cases where divers have been ascending too fast, pulled hard on their corregated hose to dump gas from the BC, and have wound up holding the corregated hose in their hands when the base fixture pulled completely out of the BC. The right angle fixtures consist of two pieces, a baseplate on the inside of the BC fabric with a male fitting, and another on the outside with a female fitting, with a thin rubber washer. Yank on it hard enough, and you can pull the entire fitting off the BC.

Not a good idea, especially if you choose to try to breath off some inflater/regulator you've installed on the other end of the corregated hose...