Donating the "primary" regulator

[Silverback9]

So you think the best way to deal with a panicked OOA diver, desperate for air, is to get in a fight with him over one of the two perfectly fine regulators you are carrying? Do you think such a fight is more likely to end up with one fatality or two?

I never said a word about "fighting". What I did say, is don't swim around in complete oblivion, and allow a situation to develop to the point of you being surprised by a OOA diver that rips your regulator out of your mouth.

I am a proactive person who has been diving for a bunch of decades, and mostly in pea-soup water. (That's water with less than 5' of visibility for you folks from Rio Linda). You enjoy what you are doing, but you pay attention while you are doing it. Pay attention to your buddy, ESPECIALLY a new "insta-buddy", and don't let things get to an OOA situation. If in a big group, pay attention to those in your vicinity, watch for signs of inexperience, nervousness, breathing rates, constant messing with equipment, inability to control buoyancy. These are all signs of potential problems. Don't let them surprise you.

All of you "Rescue Divers" out there, this can't be the first time you are hearing/reading this. If it is, go retake the course, because either you or your instructor slept through the course.

Now if any of this translates to getting into a "fight" to any of you, well that's on you.

 

[Silverback9]

Why is your only life support in your mouth? I have never had to donate in a real emergency, but I have in practice sessions donated my primary regulator countless times. Every single time I did that, my alternate, hanging from my neck and inches from my mouth, has worked fine. Why do you think your alternate would not work for you?

You crack me up.... Why am I going to donate my 7' octopus instead of my 27" primary?

Gee, now let me see... SERIOUSLY, if you need an answer to that question, I can't help you at all. You are a danger to yourself if you don't understand the need to keep an OOA situation at arm's length.

 

[boulderjohn]

I never said a word about "fighting".

No, you didn't say anything about fighting. You just said that if anyone came near you looking for air, you would use your muscular arm to control them, and, once they were finally under control, then you would donate your alternate. So, you did not say "fighting." You just described a fight instead.

Anyone outside of my dive buddy that chargers into my diving area unexpectedly will be controlled with a rather large arm to their BCD. Once under control, if they need air, I will share my octo. No one is taking my primary.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I was once diving solo, at my safety stop, not moving, so a diver came up behind me and yanked on my fin to see if I was okay. I was hoping it was a steller sea lion. I was disappointed. Without a hand mirror, there's no way I would have been able to detect this. My neck doesn't turn as much as an owl's, so at least for myself, I don't see it is possible for me to know all the time what is behind me. Ergo, an OOA diver could easily come over the top of me and grab my primary. I'm pretty sure I can handle this, as one time photographing a wolf eel deep in its den, but its tail sticking out, I wrote on my slate to my buddy "Poke the tail" (so I could get a better pic - I was joking). I spit out my reg laughing as to the way his eyes went big.

It sounds like some people really overestimate themselves here.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It sounds like some people really overestimate themselves here.

You think?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

You think?

Wee bit.

 

[johndiver999]

I was once diving solo, at my safety stop, not moving, so a diver came up behind me and yanked on my fin to see if I was okay. I was hoping it was a steller sea lion. I was disappointed. Without a hand mirror, there's no way I would have been able to detect this. My neck doesn't turn as much as an owl's, so at least for myself, I don't see it is possible for me to know all the time what is behind me. Ergo, an OOA diver could easily come over the top of me and grab my primary. I'm pretty sure I can handle this, as one time photographing a wolf eel deep in its den, but its tail sticking out, I wrote on my slate to my buddy "Poke the tail" (so I could get a better pic - I was joking). I spit out my reg laughing as to the way his eyes went big.

It sounds like some people really overestimate themselves here.

I don't like to brag, but... I would have poked his tail and might even rendered first aid if you got bit!

 

[boulderjohn]

me. Ergo, an OOA diver could easily come over the top of me and grab my primary.

Three stories about one's ability to perceive the approach of another diver.

Story One
About 20 years ago, I was diving in Fiji, and I ended up diving with a group of instructors and shop owners on vacation from New Zealand. We all had the standard regulator setups. Before the first dive, one of them gave me some joking advice. He pointed at a very obese man, a shop owner, and told me to guard my alternate when he was nearby, because he liked to compensate for his poor air consumption rate by borrowing from others. Everyone laughed.

On the two dives we did that day, I saw him do it twice. He would swim up behind divers (like a tanker plane preparing to refuel a jet in flight), reach around, gently remove the alternate, breathe on it for a few minutes, and then let it drop gently beside the "donor." The diver would eventually realize his alternate had come loose, but he would not know why.

Story Two
During my UTD training days, Andrew Georgitsis started doing something in instructor training that some instructors (at least mine) included in their own training (although I never had it done to me). While a diver was intent on some skill during a training dive, he would come up behind them, reach around to the lower left side and unclip the bottom clip of a deco bottle. Being butt light, the deco bottle would just ride up a little farther under the arm. He would then reach over the top, unclip the top clip, and pull the bottom of the tank away. He would then signal a task requiring the deco bottle, and that would be the first time the student realized the deco bottle was gone. No student ever realized it was happening.

Story Three
In my earlier tech training, that same instructor loved to have us do skills without masks. He would not ask us for our masks. He would come up behind us, reach over the top, and our masks would be gone.