Distribution block question.....

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Hilarious. Seriously though Subprdude is right on the simplicity part, which is what drew most of us to sidemount for cave diving in the first place. Everything is right in front of your face. You can take it off and put it back on easily. There's no manifold, nothing on your back to bang on thei ceiling (watch the melon, though). In the example, presumably you're diving thirds so your (at least 2/3) reserve is going to be enough to get you out and even if it isn't, you could put that leaky hose reg in your mouth, feather the valve and breath it if you had to.

Also, in the cave scenario, your buddy theoretically has enough gas to get both of you out if everything you had stopped working.
 
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Hard to argue with that...


The logic of the many outweigh the logic of the few, or the one.


With apologies to SPOCK, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan


... however, let's wait and see shall we?
Steve, as an instructor & educator, you know it takes time to read, accommodate, comprehend (i.e. "learn") a new and novel task that you are totally unfamiliar with to begin with. As an example & simple analogy, write down a procedural explanation on CPR and it will come out to be at least a page or two. Someone unfamiliar, reluctant or skeptical about the whole method may simply dismiss the whole process as "taking too much time", perhaps even citing the statistic that CPR has only a 30% chance at best in restarting a heart from full arrest --so why learn it? But just like any acquired skill, after learning it you just do it.

Same thing here --it takes longer to describe in words on how to perform a certain drill or contingency procedure than actually doing it. . . I've accepted and understand the logic behind the Z-system (literally "bought into it"), and this is what I've got to learn in making it viable during emergency situations.
 
Bad analogy...

Is there a better alternative to CPR?






Is there a better alternative to the Z-system? Yeah, pretty much everything else.
 
You guys are taking a safe and simple configuration and making. it complex for the sake of " team " diving. Developing new concepts does not have to start with developing the wheel again. Its done already.
 
Bad analogy...

Is there a better alternative to CPR?
Even by itself, CPR probably won't resuscitate a victim in full arrest . . .but at least it might buy a few minutes viability for an anoxic brain until arrival at an ER Dept. It's still a skill worth learning & knowing and better than doing nothing. . .

Is there a better alternative to the Z-system? Yeah, pretty much everything else.
Maybe for y'all, but not for me. . . ! I'm confident I can learn the skills & contingency drills, and in time automatically perform them on the Z-system --just like I did with CPR annual certification for the past thirty years.

You guys are taking a safe and simple configuration and making. it complex for the sake of " team " diving. Developing new concepts does not have to start with developing the wheel again. Its done already.
I'm sticking with my primacy which is long hose team diving, and content with having to learn & practice new system skills and techniques to support it. . .
 
Even by itself, CPR probably won't resuscitate a victim in full arrest . . .but at least it might buy a few minutes viability for an anoxic brain until arrival at an ER Dept. It's still a skill worth learning & knowing and better than doing nothing. . .

Maybe for y'all, but not for me. . . ! I'm confident I can learn the skills & contingency drills, and in time automatically perform them on the Z-system --just like I did with CPR annual certification for the past thirty years.

None of this makes CPR a better analogy for the Zsystem over other diving "systems".

I'm sticking with my primacy which is long hose team diving, and content with having to learn & practice new system skills and techniques to support it. . .

What you never bothered to realize is that you can still have that, without the Z-system, additional skills, and addition gear/failure points.
 
Hey, as I said above, everyone is entitled to their own configuration. I'll assume for the sake of argument that the Z-thing actually works when you get it all straight. What you have to watch is limiting who you can dive with because of it. The sidemount CCR I dive sometimes (designed by Billy Gambrill) is easier for me to explain to open circuit sidemount divers than the Z system seems to be. Grab the reg with the long hose and stick it in your mouth, the end.
 
Its really a shame something as easy as opening your mouth, removing regulator and replacing regulator is too difficult.
 
None of this makes CPR a better analogy for the Zsystem over other diving "systems".



What you never bothered to realize is that you can still have that, without the Z-system, additional skills, and addition gear/failure points.
Z-system integrates perfectly with my team of SE Asia/Indo-Pacific Wreck Divers; we use scooters to help get down in current on the deep WWII wrecks in the South China Sea (as well as getting out of the way of the big container ships in the busy shipping lanes to Singapore) --another one of the reasons why I went with the Z-system SM is that you always breath the long hose primary in nominal situations. All I have to do when alternating tanks is turn one on and shut down the other --all easily done on-the-fly & on-the-trigger while scootering in open water at depth. i.e. --I don't have to swap/deploy/stow regulators if I went with a traditional/conventional independent SM set-up, which would be much harder to do on-the-fly and on trigger (with a Super Tanker bearing down on me:shocked2: !).

So yeah, I've given it a lot of thought and understand the mechanics & contingencies of the distribution block connections --Z-system conveniently applies to my type of diving. . .
 

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