inflatable pfd for diving

[rctk2]

i have been an avid diver for several years now but lately i seem to have a harder time holding my breath "due to asthma" and anxiety usually kicks in, i normally like to dive in waters that do not exceed 20ft, i do alot of spearfishing at night along the reefs and sometimes outside of the breakers, My question is.....would somthing like an iflatable pfd be a good insurance in the event of an emergency, i normally dive with several partners but at night keeping track with one another can be very difficult. i am looking at a unit called Sospenders: http://www.landfallnav.com/sospenders.html, ifigured in the event of an asthma attack or any other emergency this would be a good unit for back up, what do you think, thanks

 

[ZzzKing]

Are you freediving/skin diving? Rule #1 for scuba is never hold your breath. Also, I've seen a number of folks on here advise strongly against diving with some types of asthma. You should probably consult your physician.

 

[spectrum]

My brother is a boater and was encouraging me to use one for skin-diving. I didn't because I'm in cold water with as much as 26 poinds of weight and dumping that and my wetsuit is my PFD.

 

[rctk2]

i do alot of skindiving with my polespear, i would rather not give up on diving due to asthma nor do i want to have to depend on any of my friends in the event of and emergency, i was hoping that having an inflatable pfd will take some of the worry out of the picture.

 

[O2BBubbleFree]

It might help if you describe the type of emergency you are concerned with. i.e. do you want something you can inflate on the surface, or something that can help you get back to the surface? Would an asthma emergency preclude you from orally inflating a device?

 

[Bob3]

I'm quite fond of my ancient UDT vest, the dang thing is almost as old as I am. & still works fine.
Normally I would avoid anything with a CO2 inflation system 'cuz they always rot out in a couple of years, but in your case having to inflate a vest during an asthma attack wouldn't be a pretty picture.
Here's about the best place to get a vest: http://www.amer-sea.com drop an email to "Mike", he'd even be willing to adapt a vest with a larger inflator tube if you want to go sans the CO2 inflator.
The company is an OEM - they make the BCs for many of the top brand dive gear suppliers & are great folks to work with.
If ya want a genuine UDT vest, we can fix you up with one of the critters too, though they're around $200 - a tad steep when a good commercial grade snorkel vest can be had for around $45.

 

[Bottom Scratcher]

Here is a site address which sells Aqualung swimmers vests. These are the type used by Coast Guard Rescue Swimmers and persons going through Navy UDT/SEAL-BUDS training.

http://www.navyseals.com/store/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=21