Can I dive without an octo?

[Julius SCHMIDT]

Second 2nd Stage Scuba Explorer Diving Regulator Hose Octopus Hookah 145PSI AU | eBay

It's not playing fair if you dive without an octo, remember the incident chain

Borrow a spare from your fixer

 

[SlugLife]

I've had scuba-shops give me loaner scuba-tanks while mine are waiting on VIP. I don't know if any scuba-shops would hand you a loaner-octo, but it might not hurt to ask. Or rent one. Or ask your dive buddies if they have a spare. (edit: That ebay-reg as an octo, might be cheaper than renting)

As most others have said, there are no scuba-police. People also dived without octos for the longest time, and it even took a while for dive-agencies to get on board with the idea of octos.

However, I would not recommend it based on your experience level. You need to "master" your current configuration, and be comfortable with it before you start changing things up, or worse taking shortcuts. A lot of scuba-safety advice and equipment is not about what happens in 99/100 dives, but rather what happens in that last 1/100 (or even 1/1000) dives. Most scuba-accidents occur due to compounding problems.

If you absolutely must get in the water, every time I do a major equipment change, I do a 30ft or less dive near the shore. Shallow dives can also be great for skills practice.

 

[ginti]

You need to "master" your current configuration, and be comfortable with it before you start changing things up, or worse taking shortcuts. A lot of scuba-safety advice and equipment is not about what happens in 99/100 dives, but rather what happens in that last 1/100 (or even 1/1000) dives. Most scuba-accidents occur due to compounding problems.

Depending on what you mean with "changing things up", mastering the current configuration may not be sufficient. Keep in mind that standards work well up to the exploration level, so there are not good reasons to improvise and change them. But minor details are another thing, you may think to change them if you need it.

Taking shortcuts is NEVER ok; the thing you described sounds (to me) a lot like "normalization of deviance", which is a monster to defeat in scuba diving, and one of the causes of many accidents.

 

[Hojo in SC]

Murphy's Law, enough said.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Of course you can dive, but you will need to accept the consequences. Even though it is not illegal, I would suspect if you did dive and something happened to your buddy and it related to being out of air, you could be legally compromised as you were not diving with what is accepted to be minimum dive gear for safe diving. Your risk. Personally, if I was your buddy and realised you did not have an ocky, I would not dive with you.

 

[ofg-1]

Go ahead, the only octo Mike Nelson ever had was the giant octopus sucking his face.

 

[El Diablo]

My octo broke and is being fixed(probably takes a week or two).
Can I go without it for week or two?(is it illegal or something?)

Its not illegal but it is definitely extremely dangerous for your buddy as well for yourself in an uncontrolled (panic) situation.
Please go and buy the cheapest (reputable) safe second you can find, a life worth more than 40$.

Dive master here with 20 years experience that ventured on a cave when young and dumb (2002) with no octopus and had to buddy-breathe from 30m (100 feet) depth to resurface…

 

[El Diablo]

Second 2nd Stage Scuba Explorer Diving Regulator Hose Octopus Hookah 145PSI AU | eBay

View attachment 666112

It's not playing fair if you dive without an octo, remember the incident chain

Borrow a spare from your fixer

Just FYI, that thing doesn’t even have a normal 3/8” thread. Please buy from a reputable manufacturer whenever possible, a few bucks worth it

Also, the SpareAir is useless below 30ft.

 

[Dan G]

So I dive with buddies (plural - 2 of them). It’s unlikely both of them would be OOA at the same time, no?

What you are doing is rolling the dice and playing the odds. Redundancy is a good thing wherever we can reasonably find it and you are contemplating forgoing one of the easiest places to find it. Just get a loaner from the shop, rent one, or borrow a second stage from a friend who isn't diving.

No one goes on a dive knowing that something will go sideways. It's not as if you can rationally say, "Well I'll just make sure nothing bad happens on this dive so I won't have to worry about having a backup second stage." That's not how accidents work.

Take this opportunity to learn how to attach hoses to the first and/or second stage. It's easy and a good thing to know.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

If your octo is being worked on, ask for a loaner from the shop that's taking way too long to service a second stage. Unless the tech is not in, they have no parts, or are simply incompetent a full rebuild on most seconds should take no more than 30 minutes. Sometimes scheduling gets in the way. I understand that. I got regs in last friday but was teaching Saturday and Sunday out of town. So it took until Monday to get it done. They went back in the mail to the customer on Tuesday after letting them dry overnight from the water testing.
If you choose to dive without one, you do have to plug the port it was in after removing the hose.
If you do choose to do this and dive, you should inform your buddies, if you have not been trained how to buddy breathe, that you will not be able to assist them.
I still teach buddy breathing. Especially with divers who will always be renting gear. At some locations you have no idea how well the regs have been cared for. I've seen people get handed a reg set and the faceplate fall off, hoses leaking, or some other nonsense and the clueless "diver" just accepted the ops assurance that they'd be fine.
I'd suggest also that you find a new shop and/or an independent instructor and get some one on one quality training. A workshop tailored to your questions and experience would be much better than any specific class.
The questions you are asking indicate that there are some pretty serious gaps in your knowledge related to diving.