and you are completely wasting the gas vs. at least using some of it for breathing while surfacing....
PADI-Sipping Air Free Flow?
- Thread starter CptTightPants21
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Depends on your 1st. In my world, 2nd stage freeflows are par for the course when winter diving, particularly after surfacing. A little annoying, but not much more. Never experienced nor witnessed a 1st stage freeflow, but then you'd be hard pressed to find a regular set that wasn't cold-water compatible
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tursiops, Sorry, wasn't thinking and was thinking of CESA for some reason. I do also agree with those saying don't breathe from the octo. Why risk it all of a sudden also to free flow if it hasn't already? If you're deep you also don't want to waste any air at all while ascending. If you're at like, 30', no point either in farting with the octo. -- just sip and go.
actually this is untrue.
I've seen many free flows in all kinds of conditions and all but 1 were 2nd stage.
about the sipping thing. Standards have been developed over many years. at the time the sipping tecnique was developed, 1st stage HP seats were like little pucks that fit inside a poppet. It was possible for it to become dislodged, which would allow tank pressure straight to the 2nd stage.
Such a free flow, if you have ever seen one, are very violent. A modern tank valve will flow at over 1000 litres per min. in that case, the free flow will blow the reg right out of your mouth and you won't be putting it back in again. Hence the advice to learn sipping.
The fact off the matter is that regs will seldom free flow like that anymore. I know of one person who has had a modern 1st stage free flow outside of ice diving conditions and it was a a failed o-ring. that too was fairly powerful (this is 2nd hand to me and 3rd hand to anyone reading). The fact that it is so rare may be reason enough to reconsider how this skill is taught but for now we are still following recommendations that were probably more relevant 30 or 40 years ago.
It's just one of those things that becomes a paradigm over time and nobody stops to question it.
R..
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