Air2 Pros? Cons?

[friscuba]

I'm more or less a fairly heavy con on them.

First off, I would recommend that anyone thinking of buying one should spend some time practicing using it as an alternate and swimming with someone. It's tougher than with a standard alternate, at least for me.

2nd, and this is a biggie because it doesn't fall into the "if it's ever needed" category. I can't tell you how many people I've seen come on a boat I've been working on and have their Air2s freeflow. It seems as though it happens much more frequently than I can recall other regulators or alternates freeflowing.

Just my opinion.

 

[Web Monkey]

How does everyone feel about the AIR2 system? Me? Not sure I like it. Just something about my buddy ripping my primary out of my mouth in an emergency scares me. I'll just stick to an octo with a 6 foot hose.
Bryan

An OOA diver will likely as not "share air" by ripping the regulator out of your mouth because they don't have any air and you do.

It doesn't matter if you have a whole box of regs clipped off on your BC, the one you're using is the one they want, so you need to be able to get your alternate with great confidence and very little effort after losing your primary.

An Air-2 and it's clones have a few shortcomings, most notably that it takes some practice to be able to breathe from it while managing your buoyancy for an ascent. However one thing they do have going for them is that because it's on a very short hose and you use it pretty much continously to add and release air from your BC, you always know where it is.

This means that when you get mugged for your primary, you know right where your alternate is.

Regardless of whether you choose to use an Air/2 or an octo, you need to be able to calmly handle losing your reg and switching to your alternate.

Terry

 

[KingViper]

How do you store and control a 6 foot hose on an octo? What makes you think that will keep you buddy (or some other OOA diver) from "ripping" your primary out of your mouth?

I'm sorry it's 3 foot not 6....silly me

 

[String]

An OOA diver will likely as not "share air" by ripping the regulator out of your mouth because they don't have any air and you do.

That doesnt tally with my own experience or that of others i know. A UK based forum did a survey of its fairly large user base and again the results didnt agree with that. The majority of uses did "what they were trained" meaning if they learnt to take ocoto they did that, if trained to take primary they did that instead.

 

[Web Monkey]

I'm assuming that your survey participants were BSAC members or similar, which means they probably didn't get the "Learn to dive in 2 days" class.

Terry

That doesnt tally with my own experience or that of others i know. A UK based forum did a survey of its fairly large user base and again the results didnt agree with that. The majority of uses did "what they were trained" meaning if they learnt to take ocoto they did that, if trained to take primary they did that instead.

 

[String]

I'm assuming that your survey participants were BSAC members or similar, which means they probably didn't get the "Learn to dive in 2 days" class.

Terry

My own experience/people if asked yes but the survey and forum i mentioned is maybe a 50/50 split so certainly not agency exclusive. Im reluctant to post a link to it purely due to the fact im not sure of the TOS here - linking to other forums is usually frowned upon.

 

[redacted]

2nd, and this is a biggie because it doesn't fall into the "if it's ever needed" category. I can't tell you how many people I've seen come on a boat I've been working on and have their Air2s freeflow. It seems as though it happens much more frequently than I can recall other regulators or alternates freeflowing.

I tend to find myself tweeking our Air2s more often than our primaries. But that is just as much the benefit of adjustable 2nds as an indication of a problem with Air2s. OTOH, tweeking an Air2 is very simple with no disassembly and the required hex wrench is on the standard scuba tool. It adjusts thru the air inlet/connector. I like to keep mine tuned for fairly easy breathing so a very minor FF is not far off. Many shop tend to adjust them for fairly high WOB to avoid problems. They are a bit more sensetive than something like and R190.

BTW, I have retired my Air2 in favor of a conventional Octo on a bungee because the Air2 and my slung pony were fighting for the same space. My wife likes the Air2 and had opportunity to use it once when she lost her primary and had trouble recovering it. She had no problem finding and using the Air2 while we worked thru the incident.

 

[tjmills]

Not to buck the trend here but I actually happen to like my Air2 on my Knighthawk. I do happen to have a little longer hose on my primary also.

Couple of things that I always review (everytime) with my dive buddy is that if he is out of air don't worry about pulling the primary out of my mouth. IE: I try and prepare for it. I have had it happen (someone testing me) and I wasn't expecting it and there was no problem because the Air2 is so close and easy to find. I have also had my reg knocked out of my mouth and I had no problem grabbing my Air2 quickly until I could find my primary.

2nd is that I always try to practice with my air2 to make sure I know it works and how to use it at least on every first dive.

The one thing I really like is that its always close, never falls out of the "bubble" and can't get lost.

The other thing that I really like about it is that I can stay face to face with the diver and try to help calm them if they are panicked. Now I do realize this can be good and bad in certain situations but if they are pulling on my tank anyway, I would rather have a chance to look them in the eyes to help calm them. Having a 6-7 foot hose doesn't give you much distance anyway and could also lead to more chance of a panic situation if you don't lend that reassurance. IMHO

Now with all of that being said, I haven't had the OOA situation but I have trained and try to practice it whenever I get a chance. I do always keep tabs on the people around me and the air supply they have left which I hope will keep me from ever having to deal with an OOA situation also.

I do feel quite comfortable with it though and will likely keep it in the future.

T.J.

 

[Eagle-scuba]

It never hurts to rent a system you might be interested in and try it out yourself, lots of LDS offer the convience of having different styles of BCD`s for rental use just for this reason...personally, I have used both , and as a divemaster, for training purposes, I use an octo,....

 

[BigJetDriver]

The unit that I dive with came with an Auto Air (Air 2, etc.). I ripped it off as soon as I could.

The cylinders in my unit are way too small to use as spare gas for myself or anyone else. I carry a 40 cubic cylinder with a reg on it for you to use. If you try to grab my mouthpiece, I will fight you and gut you like a fish if I have to. If you manage to grab my mouthpiece, it will flood the unit. Then I will have to use my bail-out, and you will die anyway! Sorry about that.

The Auto Air (Air 2, etc.) thing is just too much to handle when managing an out of gas emergency on anyone's part. (As a further note, I haven't yet had a true OOA in all of the years I have been diving, which, of course, is not to say that it could not happen for some reason on the very next dive! :scared: )