OOA question. Who is teaching to give your main unit?

[tgsmith]

Ok....so with that, do any of you excersise your octo, by using it say on a safety stop or any other time? I have on a few occasions breathed mine while on a safety stop (15 feet) or is this just another stupid question?

Not a stupid question at all. In cave diving we always do a pre-dive check in-water. One of them is breathing 3 times off both your regs. Another is an OOA drill. This is important because while practice with a 7-ft hose makes it easy, it only takes one small mistake at the surface in putting on your gear to prevent that hose from fully deploying. So, we're checking both our regs with more than 1 breath, checking for correct deployment of the longhose, and making sure we're still up to par on our OOA drills. It's a great way to stay in practice. When I did a training dive over the winter, a bunch of other divers joined us for tune-up. Guess who were the only ones that were actually able to deploy their long-hoses? This guy, a newb at the time and NOT liking 7ft of hose wrapped around me, and my mentor.

Out in the ocean, we do this on the hang-bar/granny line instead of at the surface. Much more comfortable!

Good question. It's good that you want to check your redundant regulator and is a good habit, but try and incorporate it into a pre-dive in-water check instead.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Ok....so with that, do any of you excersise your octo, by using it say on a safety stop or any other time? I have on a few occasions breathed mine while on a safety stop (15 feet) or is this just another stupid question?

I generally do an s-drill or a modified s-drill before most of my dives.

 

[Wayward Son]

psycho, I'm thinking the way reality tends to work, you're just not going to handle it well when you're tooling along, enjoying your dive without a care in the world & a hand reaches over your shoulder & snatches your reg out of your mouth, LOL

I call a heaping steamy pile of bull squeeze on this guy, troll city.

 

[imasinker]

Not a stupid question at all. In cave diving we always do a pre-dive check in-water. One of them is breathing 3 times off both your regs. Another is an OOA drill. This is important because while practice with a 7-ft hose makes it easy, it only takes one small mistake at the surface in putting on your gear to prevent that hose from fully deploying. So, we're checking both our regs with more than 1 breath, checking for correct deployment of the longhose, and making sure we're still up to par on our OOA drills. It's a great way to stay in practice. When I did a training dive over the winter, a bunch of other divers joined us for tune-up. Guess who were the only ones that were actually able to deploy their long-hoses? This guy, a newb at the time and NOT liking 7ft of hose wrapped around me, and my mentor.

Out in the ocean, we do this on the hang-bar/granny line instead of at the surface. Much more comfortable!

Good question. It's good that you want to check your redundant regulator and is a good habit, but try and incorporate it into a pre-dive in-water check instead.

I always check mine before the dive ALWAYS. I have breathed mine for a few breaths at depth. I just figure once i am at the safety stop all likely hood anyone will need it is less. I was just wondering if anyone else did this, I see some good cautious divers!
Although I may bring my own buddy to dive in texas.....lol

 

[eponym]

do any of you excersise your octo, by using it say on a safety stop or any other time?

Yes, often when just poking along and nothing else is going on, to keep the skill honed. I have a recreational kit with the backup integrated into the inflator assembly, and a somewhat more technical kit with a second second-stage hung near my throat. So it behooves me to practice on both kits, and often.

-Bryan

 

[eponym]

Oh, and per the original poster's questions, I teach diving through SSI, which teaches donating the primary (the one in your mouth). That's what we drill and instll, even though our rental kits still sport a slightly longer hose on the alternate/backup/octo second stage.

-Bryan

 

[Wayward Son]

Ok....so with that, do any of you excersise your octo, by using it say on a safety stop or any other time? I have on a few occasions breathed mine while on a safety stop (15 feet) or is this just another stupid question?

I breath off of mine every time I pressurize the reg. I also on occasion switch to it during the dive. Usually at depth, I'll clip off my primary & do the rest of the dive on my octo.

My intention is to lose my primary to an OOA diver, so my octo damned well had better work when *I* need it.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Usually when we are messing around at the quarry, anyone within our group is fair game for OOA drills.

 

[Wayward Son]

if we're down at 70 or maybe 100 FSW & someone runs out, sure, there's some risk to me. At the same time, how am I going to deal with it if I refuse to help someone & they end up dead or seriously injured?

All of my training NEVER said "cover your own ass, don't take any chances". It's always been "this is how you deal with this situation"

 

[psychocabbage]

I was born, raised, and still live in Texas. I'm also a dive professional with two different certifying agencies. If you think back to you open water class you will realize that the majority of the skills revolve around self help and assisting others in an emergency. It's a natural path to panic that a person will do what ever it takes to get life sustaining air. If a diver comes to you and pulls your regulator out of your mouth, you SHOULD have been taught to assist the panicked diver and give that person your regulator and you take your secondary. If you were taught to defend your primary with a knife instead of assisting then your instructor violated their agency standards and could lose his teaching privileges for producing unsafe divers and an unsafe diving environment. Who was your instructor and what agency does he/she teach for? I would like to notify their agency so that they can take proper administrative actions against the said instructor. It's stupidity on his/her part for teaching divers not to assist a panicked OOA diver and it's ignorance on your part for believing that's how it should be.

Perhaps I am just meaner than you? I know CPR but know with 100% certainty that I would not use it on anyone other than my wife or kids.. Can you say the same? Doubtful. You have something in you that makes you want to help. I do not have that in my character at all. You may find that a flaw. I do not feel the same. Either way. It matters not to me.

In this thread, or in the basic section? I've seen the answers in this thread and agree with you. They are recommending deployment of the longer hose (primary or octo) based on your question. I haven't read these recommendations throughout the "basic" section (But, honestly, I haven't searched it out).

What started these answers appears to be in your original post where you ask "why", then go on to state "No way"... It appears you've asked a question and then stated you weren't going to listen to the answers to your question. That may not have been your meaning, but that is what came across.

So, you either really want to know why it is taught/done, or you meant to "troll" for answers you could "bash". Is that correct? I don't know. It just appears you are asking a question in order to "bash" the answers.

If you also believe experience doesn't make a good diver, you are correct. Knowledge does not make a good diver either. Combine the two and tweak it a little and you do have what makes a good diver...

Correct knowledge, experience and continued practice make a good diver.

Good luck

I didnt make the thread to bash. I made the thread to find out. .The question was answered. I did add that I did not agree and in NO WAY would anyone get my primary.. Its just how I feel about it. Opinions are allowed right? I dont have to agree.. I did thank those for answering.. Its just been going on now..

as for the topic being in the basic scuba, I dont go into any other heading on this site at all.. I just look here.. and then move on to my other boards.. after having read about it so much over the past year, I had to finally ask.