An Air 2 works fine in some situations, but not well in others.
Thae advantages are:
1. It's easy to find since you use it all the time for inflation - your hand knows exactly where to go when you need it real bad.
2. It stays flushed and reay to use since you use it all the time for bouyancy control, unlike regular octos that tend to get filled with mud, sand, vegetation, etc.
3. It requires one less hose and can in some cases help streamlining a bit.
4. It requires you donate your primary which is a good idea anyway, since in the real world an OOA diver is more likely to steal your primary than use your octo.
5. It works very well with a longer 5 ft hose primary for recreational divers.
The disadvantages are:
1. Having to listen to divers who have never used one in any situation whine about it and tell you, incorrectly, that it is not a good idea in any situation.
2. Anchoring the Air 2 to the short corrogated hose limits the lenght you have to work with and limits head movement.
3. You can resolve #2 to some extent with a longer corrogated hose on your BC or wing, but that can then cause a potential dangly with the longer hose.
4. You have to donate your primary and some instructors are really really stuck in the old "donate your octo" philosophy. These are the same instructoprs who have no clue why a long hose primary is a good idea.
An Air 2 works well for recreational divers where the plan is to immediately surface in the event someone n OOA, particularly in conjunction with a 5 ft primary. The advantage of being easy to find is similar to the advantage of using a bungeed octo, but in most cases an Air 2 is cleaner with no looping hose sticking out and nothing around your neck to clutter things up and in my )probably non politically correct and controversial) opinion, an Air 2 works better than a bungeed octo for a recreational diver.
An Air 2 works very well for a solo diver and in partiucular with independent doubles where it offers an alternate second stage for one of your tanks with no need for an extra hose in a situation where you already have a second stage from each tank.
An Air 2 is not a good idea for a technical diver who may need to swim for a substantial period of time with an OOA buddy sucking on the long hose until an acent can be made. The limited head movement can be a real liability as can the limited perfomance of the Air 2 at depths greater than about 130-150 ft.
Thae advantages are:
1. It's easy to find since you use it all the time for inflation - your hand knows exactly where to go when you need it real bad.
2. It stays flushed and reay to use since you use it all the time for bouyancy control, unlike regular octos that tend to get filled with mud, sand, vegetation, etc.
3. It requires one less hose and can in some cases help streamlining a bit.
4. It requires you donate your primary which is a good idea anyway, since in the real world an OOA diver is more likely to steal your primary than use your octo.
5. It works very well with a longer 5 ft hose primary for recreational divers.
The disadvantages are:
1. Having to listen to divers who have never used one in any situation whine about it and tell you, incorrectly, that it is not a good idea in any situation.
2. Anchoring the Air 2 to the short corrogated hose limits the lenght you have to work with and limits head movement.
3. You can resolve #2 to some extent with a longer corrogated hose on your BC or wing, but that can then cause a potential dangly with the longer hose.
4. You have to donate your primary and some instructors are really really stuck in the old "donate your octo" philosophy. These are the same instructoprs who have no clue why a long hose primary is a good idea.
An Air 2 works well for recreational divers where the plan is to immediately surface in the event someone n OOA, particularly in conjunction with a 5 ft primary. The advantage of being easy to find is similar to the advantage of using a bungeed octo, but in most cases an Air 2 is cleaner with no looping hose sticking out and nothing around your neck to clutter things up and in my )probably non politically correct and controversial) opinion, an Air 2 works better than a bungeed octo for a recreational diver.
An Air 2 works very well for a solo diver and in partiucular with independent doubles where it offers an alternate second stage for one of your tanks with no need for an extra hose in a situation where you already have a second stage from each tank.
An Air 2 is not a good idea for a technical diver who may need to swim for a substantial period of time with an OOA buddy sucking on the long hose until an acent can be made. The limited head movement can be a real liability as can the limited perfomance of the Air 2 at depths greater than about 130-150 ft.
