I give up. Stuart good luck with your diving career and I hope you don't run out of people willing to comment on your posts before you really need the information. I have better things to do with my time than argue with a newbie who can't read a comment without taking offence.
I wasn't taking offense at all. I'm sorry that I've given you offense. I just didn't understand your point - unless it was that I don't need to carry an octo. If you re-read your post, you don't see how that is what I would get out of it? If we all agree that we should all have a spare secondary, then what is the point of saying that an OOA situation should NEVER happen? Obviously, you are correct. I SHOULD never need it. Even so, we all carry secondaries and I am seeking advice on the best way to actually rig mine with a Hog harness. And, as you observed, since I'm a newb and I will be diving with another newb or other people that I don't know and could be just as newbish, do you think it's a waste of time to factor panicked OOA divers into my rigging?
For that matter, my life experience tells me that even the most experienced, calm and collected people can really surprise you with their behavior when the sh*t really hits the fan. My life experience suggests that even a person with 1000 dives under the belt might have never experienced an real OOA situation before. And when they do, there is NO guarantee at all that they won't turn into the worst kind of panicked diver you can imagine.
It's like a person who was been competitively shooting for years. Shot tens of thousands of rounds in live action simulators and IPSC matches. But never faced a real life situation where they were faced with an armed bad guy. How will they handle it when it happens for real? Maybe they'll handle it just as well as they do in matches and training drills. But, when the difference is that suddenly and unexpectedly their life REALLY IS on the line, they may just completely fall to pieces. Maybe even worse than a person with very little training because they start off with way more confidence and the onset of panic is more unexpected and makes it spiral out of control.
Divers are still just people and I don't expect that, as a group, divers would fare any better or worse. In other words, in my opinion, out of a group of experienced, skilled, highly trained divers, if every one of them had an unexpected (freak circumstance) OOA, some percentage of that group WILL exhibit at least a few moments of totally uncontrolled panic.
So, seriously and sincerely - not trying to give offense at all - I asked how I should carry an octo on my Hog harness. You posted that I should never need an octo. Were you trying to imply a point that I'm not getting? Or was that really all I was intended to get from your post? That I should never need my octo, period, end of point? I was just reading too much into it? And, really, as I already pointed out I'll be diving with my g/f (new diver) or Instabuddies (i.e. people I don't know), it seems to me that the need for my octo has nothing to do with ME doing my part right. It's about other people (newbs and unknowns) planning their dives, using well-maintained equipment, having sufficient training and experience to remember to check their SPG and to not panic, etc.. That is well beyond my control. In other words, other than limiting myself to only diving with people I know, who are way more experienced than I am (i.e. basically, either not diving or only diving when I pay a DM to be my buddy), I cannot control my need for an octo.
Just curious but is your g/f already certified? If she's just doing a DSD, she might be more comfortable in a poodle jacket if it's a first time in the water. Nothing wrong with BP/W for OW cert, but I was just curious as you're showing a small number of dives yourself.
Yes, my g/f and I went through OW cert together. And we both also did the Advanced Buoyancy Control certification class. We have both done 0 dives since completing OW certification. The ABC class was done in the pool.
However, my g/f did all of her training in a back-inflate model BC and became very comfortable with that and her buoyancy and trim by the end of the ABC class. So, I bought her the exact same BC as she used in all her classes.
I used a jacket style BC for the first day of pool work during OW class, then switched to a back inflate model for the rest. I was pretty open to using an integrated back-inflate or a BP/W. I just happened to get a smoking deal on a BP/W via Craigslist, so I bought that. I dove it in the pool on Sunday to try it out and I really like it, so far.
