Daedalus
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That comment about intro on doubles having a worse safety record than intro on singles is crap at best. It all depends who is tracking these records and what parameters are used....... did they die, have a near miss, ran out of gas, got lost and gas saved them etc, etc. No one is tracking that to the best of my knowledge, so let's not pretend we know.
My understanding is that no intro diver has ever died on a dual-outlet single tank, despite all the hand wringing over burst disk and neck o-ring failures whenever this debate comes up. All the accident analysis articles I have read involving intro divers were situations where intro divers, in doubles, were performing a full cave level dive.
I still do not see why double tanks are needed for an intro level dive. It is like packing up provisions for a week-long expedition on the Appalachian trail and then going for an overnight hike at O'leno. If someone is so concerned that they are going to get lost and need that extra 5 days of supplies, maybe their first concern should be improving their experience and navigational ability rather than bringing extra equipment to compensate for both. Diving a single tank forces an intro diver to dive conservatively and slowly build experience, which in my opinion is best.