Octopus definition

[Doc]

A what ? Never heard that one before...... Please elaborate, I feel like I've missed out on something.

Okay, thinking hard, demand valve ????????

It is indeed! DV is a "demand valve", pronounced DeeVee by you Colonialists. :14: (at least the BSAC/military trained fellows that I've run into)

It is also thought to be the word "second stage" being pronounced after several Watney's Red Barrel pints.

 

[Nemrod]

Spectrum, thank you for directing to the 2005 thread. There were a lot of interesting comments. I wonder why I didn't find that thread before starting a new one? Anyway, getting NAUI certified, not diving for 29 years, and then getting PADI certified in 2006 left me in a time warp with regard to terms, equipment, and practices. I am getting used to it, slowly.

I do remember a CO2 cartridge (for "emergency ascent") on my horse collar during training; Felix Swan, my instructor called the horse collar a "buoyancy compensator" and warned us to not use the CO2; there was a power inflator on the BC. I think the summer of 1977 was a transition time to the early BC's. Anyway, studying the pictures of old equipment during the equipment specialist course did kind of remind me of the stuff we were using.

Anyway, I am making up for lost time and diving every chance I get with modern equipment, including an "octopus" whether it is the alternate air source or everything hooked to the 1st stage.

Thanks for the comments

BTW, the CO2 cartridge was not for emergency ascents, it was for surface emergency floatation. It carried over into the first power inflate horsecollars as an evolutionary relic because as you may recall the first BCs were oral/manual inflate. These then were given a CO2 inflator for rapid inflation on the surface. Once power inflators came along the CO2 cartridge just went along for a few more years, even into the 80s on some jackets etc before finally being discarded. Amazing how something considered so essential in 1978, a CO2 inflator, is now not even in use. I assure you, pulling the lever on a CO2 cartridge at 100 feet would produce barely a bubble.

Hybrid dual bladder Dacor with upper chamber inflated by small oral tube or CO2 cartridge and lower chamber inflated via large oral tube or power inflator, the upper chamber could function as an emergency BC thus the large dump valve, hard to inflate with the little oral tube, I loved this BC for cave diving, still use it sometimes:

My wife using it circa 1978ish:

A Nemrod oral inflate BC without CO2 from the late 60s or earliest 70s, don't recall exactly:

USD Mae West--not a BC--surface use only inflated via small oral tube or CO2, I got this about 1966:

A regulator is properly called a demmand valve, we used that term I do recall and the tank was a lung as was the outfit called a lung or lung set. There are a lot of terms that have dropped away and been replaced by PadI speak and other silliness.

N

 

[kld223]

Very interesting stuff, Nemrod. The old stuff is a curiousity and is interesting to see to help piece together the story of the equipment evolution. Being a "gadget guy", I cannot help but focus on the gear and I do want to use the correct terms and also have some knowledge of the history. thanks!