Give up primary or secondary for OOA diver?

[Bob]

In most suitations, when a diver runs out or air, he/she is looking for something to breath on, NOW. I had a diver swim up from behind me and pull my reg out of my mouth, then he signaled OOA. Things were pretty messy for a moment, because this guy was in a near panic. I went on my octo of course. This happened on a drift off Riveria Beach a couple of years ago. The guy just ran himself out of air. Another suitation I found myself in was just this year diving a wreck off Pompano Beach. A lady diver swims up to me and signals low on air. I signal back OK, pull my octo and start to hand it to her, as I was extending my Octo to her, she reaches and pulls my reg out of my mouth. I went on my octo. In both cases we made a nice slow accent, safety stop and surface. While waiting on the boat to pick us up, I cheerfully explained to both, the joys of buddy diving and constantly checking ones air supply with that funny little thing called an SPG. These are my only OOA suitations in 30+ years of diving, but both instances have taught me that divers in out of air or low on air will go for what they see working, and that happens to be the reg in your mouth.
For the record, neither suitation was a OW class, I wasn't paired with either, or supervising the dives. almtree: Bob

 

[J.R.]

Weellllll... I got *3* regs on my rig... (primary, Alt and an Alt on the inflater... which came with the *package deal* I got on the rig)... originally two... (primary and Alt on inflator)... BUT...

As I figured that having the Alt on the inflator I could just hand my buddy my primary and I'd grab the Alt on the inflator... well... discovered two things:

1: The Alt on the inflator ain't *THAT* comfortable for me to breath from... the stiffness of the hose tends to want to pull it from my mouth... ya' gotta' hang on to it pretty well for your own comfort (discovered while practicing with it in the pool... thankfully)... and,

2: I put the molded mouthpiece on my primary... the LDS op gave me one of "those looks" and made a sage comment, "So... will your buddy be able to breath comfortably off of that molded mouthpiece?" The thought that while it was comfortable in MY mouth might well mean that it wouldn't be comfortable for an OOA buddy... hummm... time to re-think.

So I added the standard octo-Alt and now have three...

So... which would I use? I'd hand/offer the octo-alt... let the OOA guy grab what impulse made them feel the most secure in the moment of need... and then we could sort it out once things reach a calm and more relaxing point in the time-line.

If its my dive buddy who has the issue... theoretically I should still be in a calm place (one of us has to be keeping their wits about them and as I'd be the guy with the air... theoretically it should be me...) and, knowing that *I* have all kinds of air it shouldn't really matter to me which reg my buddy grabs...

... like I said, we can sort it out after my buddy gets some good air, a warm fuzzy and a better sense that life is getting better...

J.R.

... btw... a big thanks to Jan (Instructor and LDS op) who pointed this subtlety out to me... in my opinion a good pre-need heads up thought that might well help to keep some future bad situation from getting worse than it needs to be...

... the reg on the inflator will probably stay there... a handy "plan C" if for some stupid reason things go from bad to worse rather than better...