Can I dive without an octo?

[chillyinCanada]

Don't say "only". Twice is *more than* enough

Fixed it for you

 

[Hoag]

Like @Dan G, I have been OOA twice. I did not feel at risk in either of these cases.

The first time, I was on the surface and breathing through my reg till I got back on the boat. The second time, was a shore dive and I was on my way back to the dock. In that one, I just stood up and walked the rest of the way.

 

[Bob DBF]

I would lie down on the pool floor on my right side, with my right elbow on the pool floor and my head resting on the hand--a common attitude of leisure. I tried to look bored. I would then take the regulator out of mouth and lay it on the floor, blowing a tiny stream of bubbles out of my mouth. I would drum the fingers of my left hand on the floor--again looking bored. I would casually look at my watch. I would pat my mouth as if yawning. Then I would pick up the regulator and return it to my mouth.

Watermanship skills as they would have said. @60plus mentioned holding one breath for 30sec to be qualified for scuba training. Both his and your exercises will convince the diver that being underwater without a reg in one's mouth is not a problem in itself, and one has time to make a plan and execute it, panic can wait until later. Unfortunafly, in a lot of cases now, training for that skill has to wait until tech training.

At one time the free diving portion of OW training filled that function, I don't know how much of that training survives.

 

[grf88]

When I got certified one of the exercises was to eat a banana underwater to get you used to not having the reg in your mouth. Not sure I would want to repeat that today knowing what is in the typical pool.

 

[Soloist]

In the current OW course for (I believe) most agencies, the following four choices are listed for emergency ascents in order of preference.

1. Normal ascent. Finding yourself very low on air, you can just go to the surface, breathing normally. In all reality, this would likely be true if you started that ascent as soon as you realized it was getting harder to breathe, which made you look at your gauges and realize things were not going well.
2. Air share with buddy. This assumes your buddy is close enough to share air using an alternate air source.
3. CESA. The depth from which this is recommended is really unclear. The idea is that you will ascend while exhaling and traveling at a normal ascent rate. You will actually dump air from your wing as you ascend in order to maintain a safe ascent rate.
4. Buoyant ascent. This is when you want to make sure you get to the surface. This is only different from the CESA in that you drop your weights. Yes, it is your very last choice.

Great information for new divers to understand emergency assents and the proper sequence to execute them.

 

[El Diablo]

As you can see the devil, I have not singled you out as being special at all. Is there a particular reason you are sharing your vast knowledge of the spare air and quoting me.

Absolutely, It is very clear that you are the special one...

 

[ginti]

@jale

I spoke with the instructor at my club.

So here's the thing:
- PA12 is very uncommon in France; it is possible that shops try to sell it to make more money, but it's very impractical for several reasons (if you want more detail, I can explain), so basically, nobody teaches it
- although no secondary regulator is needed for niveau 1 divers, they often have it; why? Because they usually rent equipment, and shops and clubs basically have only octopus to rent
- in my club, niveau 1 learn how to use the octopus even if they are not expected to by the law (again, if you want more detail, I can explain why they do); but I do not know anything about what shops and other clubs usually do

I believe that this point is nice with respect to this discussion because there is an entire diving federation that does not consider it dangerous for new, supervised divers to dive with only one regulator. But, again, although equivalent to OW and 1* (according to agencies agreement), they are supposed to be supervised, which changes a bit the situation...

 

[jale]

@jale

I spoke with the instructor at my club.

So here's the thing:
- PA12 is very uncommon in France; it is possible that shops try to sell it to make more money, but it's very impractical for several reasons (if you want more detail, I can explain), so basically, nobody teaches it
- although no secondary regulator is needed for niveau 1 divers, they often have it; why? Because they usually rent equipment, and shops and clubs basically have only octopus to rent
- in my club, niveau 1 learn how to use the octopus even if they are not expected to by the law (again, if you want more detail, I can explain why they do); but I do not know anything about what shops and other clubs usually do

I believe that this point is nice with respect to this discussion because there is an entire diving federation that does not consider it dangerous for new, supervised divers to dive with only one regulator. But, again, although equivalent to OW and 1* (according to agencies agreement), they are supposed to be supervised, which changes a bit the situation...

Thanks for the details.
Bl...y French Always trying to be different and not being able to win last night's football (oops, soccer for us readers) game

 

[ginti]

and not being able to win last night's football (oops, soccer for us readers) game

And, when they spoke about other national teams doing well "you haven't met strong teams yet"

 

[captain]

One part of my YMCA course (scuba diver, no other level other than instructor in 1970) involved a game of underwater hockey every pool session with just mask and fins to develop comfort in the water and conditioning. Also gear was tank and regulator, no octo or BC, wasn't yet conceived of yet. Course required circumnavigating the pool buddy breathing. I had started diving self taught 15 years prior to that 1970 course. In 60 years of diving I have never gone OOA. I still have only that 1970 certification.