Can I route the octo to the left side instead of the right?

[DazedAndConfuzed]

thanks for all the suggestions, from long hose to swivel octo to pony to bigger tank,

Since my wife is going to be the one maintaining the octo, telling her to wrap the octo around her neck is never going to fly. And she usually gets my hand me downs, so no crazy 180 swivel octo for her.

Almost all my dives are all recreational dives with profiles where it is more shallower toward the end of the dive, so if I was really unexpectedly low on air, I can just ascend on my own, but I am there to maximize my BT and/or critters starts showing up toward the end of the dive (which did happen to us, when the hammerheads started appearing when pretty much everybody was low on air and ascended to around 30ft while the DM was still hanging out by himself at 30ft).
My optimal SAC is similar to hers (I'm actively regulating my breathing, she is just breathing normal), but since I am much closer to the bottom than her, she will usually have a little more air left than me (250psi). But since I shooting photography, there are alot of swimming against currents, manipulating of gears, knobs, settings, hanging on, etc that causes me to use large amount of air unexpectedly. And sometimes, when situations arises where adrenaline starts flowing (downcurrent on walls, etc), I might start breathing deeper and faster, she will too, but since she is naturally low on SAC, so remaining air starts to differentiate. Sometimes, in those dives (and other dives), she comes up with 1500psi.

The scenarios are never really in dangerous situations, as said, we can just go up on our own, but we prefer to finish the dive with the DM. When I am in lower air situation, we will just cruise along 10-15ft higher up. Plus, the wife frequently checks up on me, and she will always have the octo ready in her hand if my air is below 500-700psi.

My old computer will remind me when I am low on air at 500psi and the new one at around 700psi. I've only had OOO once when my pressure gauge was not calibrated 100% accurate and I sucked my last breath when it still showed around 75psi. (needle pointing to the top of zero bar, which is real fat, instead of center of zero bar) (that was on an extended safety stop of over 5min..just using the air up, all I did was suck real hard and do the ZZZZ and headed up).

 

[spectrum]

An emergency ascent has no place in your dive plan. Either borrow some air or leave the camera home to get your consumption down or suck it up and end the dive with a reasonable reserve. You are doing a disservice to your buddy and the other divers in the water, not to mention yourself to push the boundaries. You have lots of good options, having your wife stand by to provide ait because you ran out is not one of them!

Pete

 

[Tortuga68]

I've only had OOO once when my pressure gauge was not calibrated 100% accurate and I sucked my last breath when it still showed around 75psi. (needle pointing to the top of zero bar, which is real fat, instead of center of zero bar) (that was on an extended safety stop of over 5min..just using the air up, all I did was suck real hard and do the ZZZZ and headed up).

This, on the other hand, is NOT a good idea

 

[PeterNBiddle]

thanks for all the suggestions, from long hose to swivel octo to pony to bigger tank,

Since my wife is going to be the one maintaining the octo, telling her to wrap the octo around her neck is never going to fly. And she usually gets my hand me downs, so no crazy 180 swivel octo for her.

Almost all my dives are all recreational dives with profiles where it is more shallower toward the end of the dive, so if I was really unexpectedly low on air, I can just ascend on my own, but I am there to maximize my BT and/or critters starts showing up toward the end of the dive (which did happen to us, when the hammerheads started appearing when pretty much everybody was low on air and ascended to around 30ft while the DM was still hanging out by himself at 30ft).
My optimal SAC is similar to hers (I'm actively regulating my breathing, she is just breathing normal), but since I am much closer to the bottom than her, she will usually have a little more air left than me (250psi). But since I shooting photography, there are alot of swimming against currents, manipulating of gears, knobs, settings, hanging on, etc that causes me to use large amount of air unexpectedly. And sometimes, when situations arises where adrenaline starts flowing (downcurrent on walls, etc), I might start breathing deeper and faster, she will too, but since she is naturally low on SAC, so remaining air starts to differentiate. Sometimes, in those dives (and other dives), she comes up with 1500psi.

The scenarios are never really in dangerous situations, as said, we can just go up on our own, but we prefer to finish the dive with the DM. When I am in lower air situation, we will just cruise along 10-15ft higher up. Plus, the wife frequently checks up on me, and she will always have the octo ready in her hand if my air is below 500-700psi.

My old computer will remind me when I am low on air at 500psi and the new one at around 700psi. I've only had OOO once when my pressure gauge was not calibrated 100% accurate and I sucked my last breath when it still showed around 75psi. (needle pointing to the top of zero bar, which is real fat, instead of center of zero bar) (that was on an extended safety stop of over 5min..just using the air up, all I did was suck real hard and do the ZZZZ and headed up).

Dude! You had me totally supporting you and now I'm inclined to reverse my opinion and go the other way. Let me see if I've got this right:

You reserve the ****ty gear you no longer find acceptable for your *wife*? she has to swim higher than you - presumably where there's actually nothing to see because if there was you'd be at that level, taking pictures? you treat the thickness of the lines on your gauge as a good measuring system? You routinely run under 500? it's her JOB to sit there with her octo ready in case you go OOA?

How about you:
Buy your wife the equipment you've always dreamed of owning but have bought yourself yet.
Leave your camera at home.
Dive 10 feet or more HIGHER than your wife.
Dive 20 dives like this without acting like a sullen brat.
Buy her a ginormous diamond for putting up so many dives of this crap.

I still hold that air sharing can be a safe activity if managed properly, but I kinda wish you'd never heard of it.

 

[OldNSalty]

So if this discussion were in the basic diving forum would we be supporting this activity or standing against it?

I only ask this because you never know who is reading. With the exception of the OP, I think those who supported the act are very experienced divers and it is safe for them BUT I am not sure it is safe for the OP or a lot of people....Sorry, I know I am flipping more then a politician on this topic...

 

[Kharon]

So if this discussion were in the basic diving forum would we be supporting this activity or standing against it?

I would stand against it. I think it's stupid and an OOA "accidental" death waiting to happen.

 

[Tortuga68]

So if this discussion were in the basic diving forum would we be supporting this activity or standing against it?

If you mean routing the backup to the left, it's ok

If you mean sharing air down to properly defined gas limits for both divers, it's ok

If you mean breathing your gas down to OOG or expecting your SPG to be accurate to 0 psi, it's not ok

 

[PeterNBiddle]

So if this discussion were in the basic diving forum would we be supporting this activity or standing against it?

I only ask this because you never know who is reading. With the exception of the OP, I think those who supported the act are very experienced divers and it is safe for them BUT I am not sure it is safe for the OP or a lot of people....Sorry, I know I am flipping more then a politician on this topic...

I think it's an emergent behavior that needs to be considered advanced, just like wrecks, caves and tec, which at some point in the past didn't have their own curriculum either.

 

[tracydr]

This is sounding so much like the way my ex-husband used to dive it's scarey.
Run out of gas and grab my octo for an emergency ascent.
I'm sure if you ever asked him about it, he was a fine and experienced diver. Heck, he had about 20 years experience. Doesn't count that he didn't dive for about 15 of those years.

 

[vladimir]

So if this discussion were in the basic diving forum would we be supporting this activity or standing against it?

I only ask this because you never know who is reading. With the exception of the OP, I think those who supported the act are very experienced divers and it is safe for them BUT I am not sure it is safe for the OP or a lot of people....Sorry, I know I am flipping more then a politician on this topic...

We have now diverged quite a bit from the original question.

It should be obvious that air sharing between buddies before they reach their properly determined reserve pressures is a safe practice, and well within the capabilities of new divers. To disagree is to implicitly assume that air sharing is a risky undertaking, even in the absence of an emergency. If that is the case, the open-water training was woefully inadequate.

What should also be obvious is that many of the OP's other dive practices are just bad, unsafe practices, no matter what the level of training. They don't belong in this thread, and they don't really merit their own thread either, because there's not much else to be said about them. All divers are trained to not dive that way.