Octo vs no octo

[Redhawk]

Enough said, get an OCTO. I may not have a wealth of dives behind me but I have studied a lot about diving, I will be working toward my instructor rating over the next year or two. I want to know as much about diving as possible because I have put my wife & 2 kids (11 & 13) into the water, there is no margin for error IMO, pretty much a case of black & white, no grey areas in between. All mainstream dive training teaches the use of OCTO's, when there is a problem down under, the person in trouble will be looking for an OCTO because that is what he/she has been trained to do!

 

[Slonda828]

Enough said, get an OCTO. I may not have a wealth of dives behind me but I have studied a lot about diving, I will be working toward my instructor rating over the next year or two. I want to know as much about diving as possible because I have put my wife & 2 kids (11 & 13) into the water, there is no margin for error IMO, pretty much a case of black & white, no grey areas in between. All mainstream dive training teaches the use of OCTO's, when there is a problem down under, the person in trouble will be looking for an OCTO because that is what he/she has been trained to do!

You raise a good point, you do what you have been trained to do. That is a pretty good opinion, although anecdotal and agency depedant.

I would say that "training" doesn't end when your 4-5 open water dives do. If a diver learns how to buddy breathe, he or she will never be out of gas provided he or she has access to said buddy. Again, keeping your buddy close comes with training.

I use an octo mostly, but sometimes I dive without one (usually on vintage dives). Since this is the new diver forum, I would suggest as a guy who works at a dive shop and has been in divemaster training for a long time to buy an octo and rig it to your first stage. I would also say that you should take the time to train on buddy breathing, using a safe second instead of an individually rigged octo, learning how to receive gas from someone with a long hose, and learning to breathe from your BC inflator by holding down both buttons. When you are OOG, you want options, which come from skills, not dependancy on equipment.