CESA - why? I'll never run low on air!

[Cacia]

Even over in the solo diving forum diving without redundant air isn't admitted to very often.

In real life, however, I'm not willing to haul along the extra tank, particularly for surf entries,

yea, there is some diving that requires more agility and many don't get it. I imagine strong fast downdrafts on a wall hauling several cylinders... or trying to time the sets and get past the surf zone in steel doubles and all that redundant gear? It's apples and oranges....

My good friend has an AED on the Elesium, I gave him a yoga mat last night cause last time they used it...they were wanting a rubber mat.

The one Alex has is a Phillips and has Lithium batteries that last three years, supposedly. He paid 1,800 dollars for it.

Personally, I think people should worry about getting one for their house first, rather than worrying about it on a dive boat, but I give him lots of credit for the good faith.

If I was a jury member and I heard he had dished out that kind of cash (and no other commercial boat here has), that would weigh in with me.

He exceeds the community standard. PADI still suspended his Master Instructor for not doing the paperwork correctly even though the client's Instructor made a full report and he spent hours with the Coast Guard.

We really expect too much from these guys, if you ask me. It sticks in my crawl that he got eleven divers out of the water, ran CPR, used the AED, and got the guy to the dock in 11 minutes...no extra points for excellence and heroics these days. It's all about the status quo and CYA.

PADI lost a few more points with me on that one.

 

[String]

isn't this the same one where the person then failed to submit any paperwork following the incident ?

 

[Cacia]

sigh...yes.

so flog him. Meanwhile, if I arrest at sea, I'll take Alex.

between the Coast Guard and PADI, there sure are a lot of people with ideas and regulations for the Indians.

I wish they could ask themselves the question "how can we actually help?" Nobody cares if the guy actually lives, they just all care about their paperwork. Same thing when a diver died on my kid's boat. They sat there for 12 hours for drug testing and paperwork. Meanwhile, the USCG couldn't tell the parent's one reassuring word. Escapes imagination.

Tell me, how many man hours of "reports" is reasonable after an incident?

(you were wrong about the EPIRB thing too, Sting. The Coasties said they want people to use them, and that they save thousands of dollars on search and recovery)...even little solo boaters like me. So..I will summon "the whole Navy" thank you.

You sometimes don't know what you are talking about.

But, at least I have you to argue with.

 

[Thalassamania]

(you were wrong about the EPIRB thing too, Sting. The Coasties said they want people to use them, ...

That's not what the Coasties tell us ugly hairy guys.

 

[Cacia]

very funny.
...I hope they don't have my beacon on the black, "do not respond" list.

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm sure that they have your beacon on the "all hands" list.

 

[mikerault]

The one time I did a limited CESA was when my regulator got pulled from my mouth and somehow got jammed behind the tank (still don't know why I couldn't find it) I grabbed my Octo, a combined fill/octo, and started to breath, only to get mostly water and some air mixed, even after purging. I did a controlled assent gasping on the octo.

My buddies had swum on ahead and I really didn't have time to catch them and use their octo while I sorted things out. I don't think people realize most of the time that the OOA condition is going to occur after a full exhale, not when you have a nice full set of lungs.

Anyway, after a few hard turns on the surface the regulator came free and I was able to resume the dive. I have since bought a regular octo for that rig.

Mike

 

[Cacia]

I don't think people realize most of the time that the OOA condition is going to occur after a full exhale, not when you have a nice full set of lungs.

excellent point. Ascending a bit feels good!

 

[Thalassamania]

Yeah, whens the last time you discovered you couldn't get any air while exhaling?

 

[nymbus]

Funny enough... I got to do this in the pool during a session last night. The students of one class were actually practicing the CESA across the bottom of the pool, getting the basics down before we brought them up the line in open water. Strangely enough, (and this is nothing I have ever seen or experienced in 5 years of teaching,) all of a sudden there was a great rush of bubbles coming from my tank. I took a cautious breath, assuming that it was a burst disk or some other such thing, and got nothing but water through my primary. Being a grand 12 feet under, I reached for my octo, which was also full of water, and decided that perhaps it was time to do a real CESA and figure out what the heavens was going on.
On the surface, I quickly unclipped and realized that the hose on my primary had COMPLETELY torn off, allowing water into the first stage, which then drained into the rest of the hoses. Odd. (Better me than one of the students...)
Good times. Anyway... some skills are good to have, not because you'd ever want to use them, but because you might someday be in a wierd circumstance that you might end up using them.

(Perhaps I'll post a different post with pictures of the reg later...)