Dive buddy for air? No thanks.

[dumpsterDiver]

Yes, I think I've posted before about Peter's and my arguments about buddy separation, and the little experiment I did in Maui. I exhaled and swam about 25 feet to Peter, discovering I not only had to swim across but also UP (as I was negative with no air in my lungs) and got his attention and a regulator. I was VERY air hungry by the time I had gas. It was extremely clear to me that I did not want to have to swim that far for air in a real emergency, not at all.
.

This is the kind of real world experience that is so necessary to allow each person to understand thir real limitations and their comfort level. No amount of scuba training is going to allow a diver to swim very far with empty lungs. My risk/reward ratio is about 60 feet, deeper than that I will almost always have a pony bottle. I am much more comfortable diving 170 ft solo with a pony bottle than diving 90 feet without any redundancy. That is my personal comfort envelope.

I've taught my 10-yr old to dive over the last year and he always dives with a 6 cu-ft pony bottle, back mounted, tank on, with a bungi holding the second stage. He has no octopus. I find this configuration simple, safe and provides negligible more task loading than a typical octopus. The configuration provides me a huge margin of warm and fuzzies.

I agree with many people when they state the mantra of "don't use a equipment solution to solve a skill problem". I'm skilled, but my occasional buddies may not be. The only practical solution to enhance my safety is to carry some redundancy. No amount of sklill is going to allow me to breath water.

 

[Kydonia]

A lot of technical courses have a simple skill you remove your reg (and often your mask but that isnt the issue here) and have to swim along a line 10-15m to a buddy where you grap their long hose for air, refit mask then reset.

THAT skill makes you really appreciate just how little distance you want between you and your buddy underwater. It feels a long way. Now imagine you weren't prepared, had empty lungs, tried to breathe and got nothing. Your buddy is 15ft away with his back turned momentarily. You need to get to him and possibly chase him to get attention. That 15ft can seem like 150. You might not make it.

Excellent point.

 

[halocline]

The concept of redundancy for critical equipment in recreational diving breaks down with the rubber O-ring.

Huh...?