Air2 AND octo?

[aquacat8]

I just added a 5 foot soft rubber hose to my reg, so now I can share air primary donate, as I’ve always done with the air2, but with a longer hose which makes my cave oriented buddies more comfortable in open water as all of us prefer to ascend and descend horizontally, or we could swim next to each other. The five foot hose was suggested at Cave Country: it is what they now use training open water divers (who may later head to cave).

In the past I have shared air with the short hose that came with my regulator, and it was very close, perhaps too close for comfort in some scenarios.

The new hose passes under my right arm around the left side of my neck and presents the reg on the right more comfortably than before to my mouth. The only downside is that I have clunked the reg on the ground a few times; I have to be careful to wrap it and tuck it when stowing. I may add a bolt snap.

 

[johndiver999]

it works
in a stressful situation like sharing air and ascending the last thing you want to do is remove your air source
practice and its easy to control your ascent, similar to using a std power inflator
i'm pretty sure that's why the deflate button is so big on the air2

Not sure why removing the air 2 from your mouth for literally
one or two seconds to dump air is such an issue.

If you don’t want to do that, then use a bc with a shoulder dump. If you want to keep it in your mouth, don’t have a right side pull dump, then just press the deflate button on the air 2 and don’t inhale. This will allow venting of most of the air depending on your position. It is NOT going to force air into your lungs.

The discussion is making it seem overly complicated, use the shoulder dump or remove from mouth and hold high and press the deflate button. This is not an issue at all for the people who actually use and practice ascending with an air 2. Most of the criticism seems to be generated by people who don’t understand the system and/or have never spent enough time practicing with it to master the use of it.

Just do your next 15 or 20 ascents with it and it will
Not be a problem.

 

[HeatCker]

i agree with you johndiver, use your shoulder dump or the air2 whatever works best in the situation

i would like to add..
we get divers from all over contributing here
one mans poor vis is another mans excellent vis
i dive in southern ontario lakes and rivers and for the most part the vis is not all that great
just over 10' is an excellent day, more often than not vis is much less
i'm not saying all ontario locations/diving is poor, ie the st lawrence, lake ontario, toby can all have great vis
in low vis waters i prefer to keep my Air2 in my mouth and use the deflate button or shoulder dump
this allows me to monitor my computers ascent rate and possibly direction up or down if your struggling
in the clear waters of the Caribbean it is much easier to track your ascent visually
in these conditions i would be much more comfortable removing my air2, venting and putting it back in my mouth
i do think conditions play a role in how things are handled and those same conditions effect divers differently
just my 2 cents
incidentally, when i dove jupiter i thought the vis was much better than here, although we did have a few very nasty vis days

 

[caruso]

So I pulled out a bc with an air 2 attached, orally inflated it, put the reg in my mouth and pressed the deflate button.

This wasn't a perfect test since I just squeezed the bc to force air out, so feel free to debate if in trim its possible.

I'm going to be trying it on my next dive, which will be next week in Key Largo. Going to spend some time using the alternate air source while ascending at the end of the dive and I'll report back to this thread with my results.

 

[2airishuman]

Ok, when I first read the just leave it in the mouth mouth and press the button I thought there was no way that would work.
So I pulled out a bc with an air 2 attached, orally inflated it, put the reg in my mouth and pressed the deflate button. There is a chance this works. As long as you dont take a breath while deflating, it should be possible. Unlike standard power inflators, there is an exhaust valve so the air from the bc can exhaust without you breathing it in.

This wasn't a perfect test since I just squeezed the bc to force air out, so feel free to debate if in trim its possible.

Air2s are designed with an exhaust valve that is forced closed when the "deflate" button is fully depressed. This is done so that it is possible to orally inflate the BC.

 

[HeatCker]

i think you are quite right about that, but "fully depressed" is the operative word
a light touch on the deflate button will vent air from the bladder thru the air2 exhaust valve

 

[caruso]

i think you are quite right about that, but "fully depressed" is the operative word
a light touch on the deflate button will vent air from the bladder thru the air2 exhaust valve

This is getting complicated. 2 divers ascending together in an OOA situation and one is breathing through his BCD mounted regulator which he wants to keep in his mouth but if he presses the deflate button for more than a fraction of a second he's going to fill his lungs with stale BCD gas that has been known to cause at least one fatality that I am aware of.

I'd rather use the pull dump

 

[EireDiver606]

The extra hose is still one more hose coming out of the first stage, wrapping around in a loop and ending up under your chin where there is an additional mouthpiece, it's not all that streamlined. As far as your second point, any gear can be used incorrectly that doesn't mean it doesn't work as intended when properly used.

You’ve clearly never dived in this configuration with the correct hose lengths and I don’t mean that as an insult.

 

[EireDiver606]

because it's a trade off for safety and piece of mind.

I think HAVING a proper hose routing setup IS SAFETY, and IS piece of mind.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've read through this thread twice and it really sounds like a lot of divers telling us how to do little things to avoid the inconvenience of a piece of gear that isn't necessary in the first place. I don't want a dump valve on my right shoulder. Merry had one that kept getting stuck under a D-ring, dumping her BC at the surface when she didn't want it to. I also don't use a pull dump. I've seen too many of them break by over pulling. Having a backup reg under my chin doesn't weigh any more than an Air2 so the carry on bag argument doesn't hold water. If I have to share air with someone they get my primary on a long hose and I breathe my backup. I'm free to adjust my buoyancy without having to take the reg from my mouth, press the deflate button softly or any other contortion. I haven't heard one good reason to own an Air2 yet. Eliminating one hose but adding another reg/inflator is not a good reason.