H2Andy
Contributor
selytch: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?
the "octopus" was developed by Sheck Exley for his cave diving. the standard procedure back then when a diver had an out of air emergency was to buddy breathe (like you say).
however, in a cave, buddy breathing really slows your exit down, and what you want to do is get out as fast as possible with what air you have left, now being shared by two divers.
so... enter the octopus and the long hose. now, if one diver ran out of air, both divers would breathe from different second stages without having to stop to switch back and forth
the octopus was then adopted by the open water community, because it's easier to simply hand over a spare second stage that to buddy breathe. why task-load divers in the middle of an emergency? sure, buddy breathing can be done, but why add the extra stick that may break the camel's back?
if you are going to use a backup second stage (i.e. octo), i would recommend maximizing its potential and using a 7 foot hose on your primary, handing that out in an emergency, and going to your secondary. that gives you nice distance between divers.
as to what it really does, there are a few things that it does for yourself as well. here are just some i can think of:
1. if your primary fails for some reason, you can use the backup (octo);
2. if your primary falls out of your mouth and you can't locate it, you can simply use the octo and take your time finding the primary;
3. if the primary hose gets entangled in something, you can switch to your octo, and then work on disentangling the primary hose with the reg out of your mouth.
basically what it does is it gives you flexibility and redundancy ... which, to me,
ARE VERY GOOD THINGS