can someone explain the octopus to me?

[kwinter]

You are so wise Ken... ;-)

Hehe


Garth

Listen and learn, Grasshopper.

 

[Nemrod]

With proper instruction, right? My instructor called the 1st/2nd/alt air source/console setup the octopus because she thought it looked like it. It's so hit and miss with PADI.

Actually she is not incorrect, while it is common now (especially among PADI trained divers) only to refer to the extra second stage as an octopus (alternate) device in the earlier days of this sport this type regulator rigging, the entire combined, assembled unit would be called an octopus (rigged) regulator because it did look like an octopus. Previously, SCUBA divers dove with a single second stage assembled to a first stage and that was it. No SPG, no extra second stage and there was no buoyancy compensator LP inflator hose.

Why where there no other hoses? Because the SPG was not in common or universal use until at least the early 70s and when a SPG was used, it more often was fitted to the tank valve (which had a HP port) or was inserted between the regulator inlet and the valve outlet with a Banjo Bolt adapter. As well, nobody used buoyancy compensators (BC) until the early 70s. They simply did not exist and the very first ones did not have what was then called a 'power inflator' because they were manually inflated by blowing into them. And finally, it was extremely rare to find a diver rigged with multiple second stages on a single first. Most first stages did not even have LP ports and while adapters did exist, it just was very, very uncommon. Divers who felt they needed redundancy would more likely use independent doubles, each rigged with a separate regulator.

So, then, yes, it did look like an octopus to us.

Another item, up until as late as about 1980, it was not uncommon to not have an SPG though most began using them in the early 70s (72-74ish) because instead either our tank valve or the regulator first stage had a J valve reserve mechanism and some regulators (Sonic Air) has audible alerts and there were even tank valves that had a clacker that would alert a diver to being low on air, time to go up, which we did right away, at 60 FPM and we did not do "safety" stops.

So, regardless of the common usage of the term octopus, in the earlier times we did refer to the assembled regulator with all of it's new fangled hoses (SPG, inflator LP hose and primary and alternate) as an octopus rig and the extra second stage was called an octopus alternate or octopus second (stage).

The octopus second is not for redundancy, it is along for the ride for the purpose of air sharing with your buddy. Prior to the common use of the octopus second (many divers did not use octopus seconds until even the early 80s) SCUBA class curriculum included the technique called Buddy Breathing where the buddy team was taught to share a single second stage regulator by alternately passing it from one to the other, sharing it.

So, having been there, regardless of current evolution of terminology, it was common practice to refer to a fully assembled regulator unit with a SPG and a LP inflator for the BC and an octopus second as an octopus rigged regulator

Another thing, PADI speak has putting "device" on the end of everything such as buoyancy compensating device thus BCD. Having come from NAUI and YMCA, I do not recall this "device" terminology, we called them a buoyancy compensator and referred to it as a BC. I now hear people refer to a SCUBA as a device or unit or rig. Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus , SCUBA, does not need Device or Unit or Rig added to it. That is redundant. We referred to the assembled unit as a SCUBA, self contained underwater breathing apparatus, and it included a SCUBA tank, a SCUBA regulator and so on.

I am not old enough like some here to have dove in the 60s and 50s. I took my first SCUBA course in 1966, the instructor (an ex pro football player) did not pass me because I could not swim a half mile in full gear and weights and could not do 50 pushups in full gear. He was not going to certify me no matter what, had I done 50, he would have said 100, I was too little and too young in his opinion. In 1968 he called my mom up and told her to bring me to the YMCA that evening (his being fully aware that I had been diving anyways ), I re-took the course (about 8 weeks long, twice per week, 6 until 10) and was certified. I took advanced in 1972 from YMCA and advanced again in 1976 from NAUI and on from there. If other people remember terminology differently or do not agree, that is fine, this is what I recall and mostly still use.

Oh, I forgot, a SCUBA might also be called a Lung. Here is a Lung, fully rigged for diving. No octopus alternate, no SPG, no BC, ready to rock and roll complete with J reserve:

Notice the simple, single piece webbing on the back pack and also notice that in the copy it refers to it as a "plate" so it is clear, they were Hog rigged in the 50s. and 60s.

N

 

[pauldewitt]

Nice and simple like the hawaiian sea horse.