How to say "Octopus" in DIR?

[dumpsterDiver]

My wife has a yellow cover on her backup. Everybody we dive with knows enough not to grab it, and anyone not diving with us wouldn't be able to tell it's yellow unless they're swimming below us looking up. I didn't purposely go for the yellow, that's just how it worked out. If her fundies instructor didn't make a big deal out of it, I'm not going to worry about it.

Tom

So what happens if someone you know surprises her (or a stranger) goes for the bright yellow second stage around her neck? Is that situation going to present a problem or endanger either her or the other diver?

As we all know, if something screwed up CAN happen it WILL happen (sooner or later) in the water.

 

[Gombessa]

So what happens if someone you know surprises her (or a stranger) goes for the bright yellow second stage around her neck? Is that situation going to present a problem or endanger either her or the other diver?

As we all know, if something screwed up CAN happen it WILL happen (sooner or later) in the water.

The few DIR divers I've seen with yellow covers put the yellow on their primary reg and leave the backup black.

 

[b1gcountry]

So what happens if someone you know surprises her (or a stranger) goes for the bright yellow second stage around her neck? Is that situation going to present a problem or endanger either her or the other diver?

As we all know, if something screwed up CAN happen it WILL happen (sooner or later) in the water.

There's a popular myth here on Scubaboard that our waters are absolutely filled with divers going OOA and grabbing regulators willy-nilly. Well, maybe I choose better boats to dive on, because my experience has just not carried this out.

Why would someone who knows it's a backup grab it? If it's some grabby stranger, I'm betting they go for the one she's breathing. This is the only picture I could find of her where you can actually see any yellow, and I don't think that little sliver of color that's visible will influence someone.

I've said it before, but if someone is in a position to notice the color of your backup reg, then you're in a position to see them, and if you don't notice a panicked diver swimming at you from below, then your SA is horrible, and you bigger problems.

I know your favorite hobby is nit-picking at others, but if a GUE instructor didn't have a problem with it, then I'm going to take his opinion over yours; and my own logic above either. If you want to be nit-picky, fine, but calling it dangerous is another matter.

Tom

 

[dumpsterDiver]

There's a popular myth here on Scubaboard that our waters are absolutely filled with divers going OOA and grabbing regulators willy-nilly. Well, maybe I choose better boats to dive on, because my experience has just not carried this out.

Why would someone who knows it's a backup grab it? If it's some grabby stranger, I'm betting they go for the one she's breathing. This is the only picture I could find of her where you can actually see any yellow, and I don't think that little sliver of color that's visible will influence someone.

I've said it before, but if someone is in a position to notice the color of your backup reg, then you're in a position to see them, and if you don't notice a panicked diver swimming at you from below, then your SA is horrible, and you bigger problems.

I know your favorite hobby is nit-picking at others, but if a GUE instructor didn't have a problem with it, then I'm going to take his opinion over yours; and my own logic above either. If you want to be nit-picky, fine, but calling it dangerous is another matter.

Tom

You didn't answer my question, instead you defended your color choice and the quality of your buddies. So I will try to answer my own question: If a buddy takes the back-up, then the bungi should pop off and the only "problem" would seem to be that the two divers are now closer than they need to be. Big deal.

If the buddy is calm, then you should be able to switch out the long hose easily enough and if they are panicking.. oh well... it doesn't have much to do with hose lengths and the two of you need to be heading for the surface anyway.

Either way, I have a hard time foreseeing a problem induced by the necklace configuration (or the need to defend a color choice). Is there some extra hidden danger associated with a yellow back-up reg around the neck that I'm not thinking of?

 

[lamont]

Either way, I have a hard time foreseeing a problem induced by the necklace configuration

I think we're all in violent agreement, then.

 

[b1gcountry]

I violently agree.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

LOL I don't know if you DIR people are overly aggressive or overly defensive... I'm just trying to learn about DIR.


I've only been using the necklace configuration for a few years. I witnessing a near drowning due to failure of a solo diver to deploy his back up successfully. That incident was enough to finally make me want to follow the DIR configuration.

 

[John_B]

The few DIR divers I've seen with yellow covers put the yellow on their primary reg and leave the backup black.

When I first setup my old TX50 as a bungeed backup, I went through the same thing. I put moved the yellow cover over to my primary and headed off to a local quarry to give things a shakedown. In the few hours it took to do two shallow dives, no shortage of three people asked me why I was breathing off my octo; the instructor who originally did my OW checkouts, one of his DMs assisting the instructor's current crop of OW checkout divers, and my dive buddy.

DIR is largely a foreign concept around here, so I went back to my OW manual and looked it up. "Depending on the alternate air source configuration, the donor may give the receiver the alternate, or may give the receiver the primary air source and switch to the alternate. The important point is to agree on the procedure before the dive." In the next chapter it says, "Secure the alternate in the triangle formed by your chin and the lower corners of your rib cage". So it specifically says donating the primary is acceptable (I've heard this called the Air2 exception), and no where does it say the alternate has to be yellow. So that's what recreational divers around here and elsewhere are being taught, but still there was this perception/groupthink about where the octo has to be and what color it has to be. So at first I found a blue cover for the primary and moved the black cover to the backup, and suddenly nobody is concerned because the lack of yellow suddenly makes it all OK.

After I had to sell my TX50 and eventually bought the XTX100s (which only come in black, the XTX50s/40s second stages also come in an absolutely hideous shade of yellow) I have both the primary and backup in black. After all, black is the new black.

b1gcountry if that second stage is a R395 or R295, you can get the standard gray purge cover from any Scubapro dealer for just a handful of dollars. That solves the potential problem of OOG divers or internet divers or whoever else expects the "octo" to be yellow.

 

[TSandM]

I've only been using the necklace configuration for a few years. I witnessing a near drowning due to failure of a solo diver to deploy his back up successfully. That incident was enough to finally make me want to follow the DIR configuration.

Although I believe that donating the primary is the best way to donate gas, and I just recently had the opportunity to help out a fellow diver who was low, but not out of gas, my primary use for the bungied backup to date has been to save MYSELF. I've had a couple of falls on entry, where being able to pop that thing in my mouth turned a potentially terrifying experience into a "ho-hum" event.

My primary reg has a yellow cover on the backup, because it was originally a standard octo. If you can get close enough to me to see it's yellow, without me already having my primary reg out in front of me, then I'm on Quaaludes.

 

[ucfdiver]

The last thing any one of us needs is something bungeed around the neck. And that includes the mask. DIR - just saying it doesn't mean they're doing it. SCUBA isn't a spectator sport. These people have made it one.

Calhoun

You and nereas need to hook up, I bet you guys would get along real well.