selytch
Guest
(afraid of being yelled at but anyway)
People have not always used octopus. To my mind it became "the must" only within past 20 years or so. And it's being marketed as "important safety feature".
But what it really does?
1. It has nothing to do with the first stage failure as may happen with icing or contamination or rusting (relatively common faults).
2. In the event of LP hose rupture/leak the air will still be leaking but you should be able to use the main 2nd stage anyway.
3. Octo is an extra 2nd stage, but how many times did you have selective 2nd stage failure, preventing you from using it?
4. Octo as a backup for your buddy?
a. on a regular open water dives any two (and more) trained divers should be comfortable breathing from one regulator taking turns.
b. on cave/complex wreck diving the standard octo hose length will not permit simultaneous use anyway.
So what I see from this is:
a. using complete redundancy with twin cylinders/twin first stages and independent valves
b. at least using long (4') hose for octo when going wrecks
c. diving with people who know how to dive and not just how to hold a mouthpiece
d. regular octo is useless.
(i guess i'm coming close to DIR but don't need the whole DIR discussion)
Please correct me if I'm wrong.
People have not always used octopus. To my mind it became "the must" only within past 20 years or so. And it's being marketed as "important safety feature".
But what it really does?
1. It has nothing to do with the first stage failure as may happen with icing or contamination or rusting (relatively common faults).
2. In the event of LP hose rupture/leak the air will still be leaking but you should be able to use the main 2nd stage anyway.
3. Octo is an extra 2nd stage, but how many times did you have selective 2nd stage failure, preventing you from using it?
4. Octo as a backup for your buddy?
a. on a regular open water dives any two (and more) trained divers should be comfortable breathing from one regulator taking turns.
b. on cave/complex wreck diving the standard octo hose length will not permit simultaneous use anyway.
So what I see from this is:
a. using complete redundancy with twin cylinders/twin first stages and independent valves
b. at least using long (4') hose for octo when going wrecks
c. diving with people who know how to dive and not just how to hold a mouthpiece
d. regular octo is useless.
(i guess i'm coming close to DIR but don't need the whole DIR discussion)
Please correct me if I'm wrong.