Primary donate in UK ice-cold water

[L2m]

I'm afraid to ask but - what did you do? Outside of primary donate being Covid-unsafe?

I dunno... I think they just didn't think primary donate was supposed to be a method.

I am truly curious on what you teach in a "one-day" workshop on the matter? A whole day on this skill/technique?

Well it is up to the trainee how quickly they master this. Some found it no problem within 5 minutes, some take slightly longer. But you won't just immediately retrieve from the water right after you get hold to this isn't it? You could always spend a few extra hours in the water to make yourself happy.

 

[L2m]

because customers didn’t want to use a mouthpiece that had been in someone else’s mouth.

I can fully understand these people's concern. However, I think whether you're in primary or secondary donate, you're at the "risk" of using the same reg with your buddy. It is just how long they have been exposed in the donor's mouth.

 

[jborg]

There may be a mix of procedures and expectations... I dive primary donate, and generally only with primary-donate-using buddies or at least those aware of how it works. The other week, however, I joined a dive as a buddy to a quite inexperienced diver doing her first night dive as part of AOW. She was not familiar with primary donate, or BP/W, or doubles, so the "BWRAF" became slightly confusing at times. Anyway, the point that surprised me was that she really wanted to test-breathe my "octo" (i.e., long hose). I suppose this might make sense with the traditional rec setup where approximately nobody else is going to breathe from the octo in question, but it did make me slightly uncomfortable having someone sucking on my clipped-off long hose on land.

So I can understand that if someone thought this was the expected procedure for primary donate, that they would be uncomfortable with it.

 

[L2m]

So I can understand that if someone thought this was the expected procedure for primary donate, that they would be uncomfortable with it.

Then the hard bit is if you should cancel your trip just because no one on this trip wants to use your long hose... especially if it is expensive. Luckily the last trip I had to cut short because of this only costed me a little.

 

[jborg]

Then the hard bit is if you should cancel your trip just because no one on this trip wants to use your long hose...

I'm not sure how to interpret that; I'm having a hard time imagining the scenario where it would lead to a cancelled trip.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Then the hard bit is if you should cancel your trip just because no one on this trip wants to use your long hose... especially if it is expensive. Luckily the last trip I had to cut short because of this only costed me a little.

Who do you dive with? Honest question - most UK boats have no rules, as long as you don’t look too out of place. In quarries, nobody cares as long as you have a buddy. In mines and caves - absolutely nobody cares.

 

[L2m]

Who do you dive with? Honest question - most UK boats have no rules, as long as you don’t look too out of place. In quarries, nobody cares as long as you have a buddy. In mines and caves - absolutely nobody cares.

I'm not sure how to interpret that; I'm having a hard time imagining the scenario where it would lead to a cancelled trip.

I joined my local club and enrolled on this trip, telling the group leader my equipment configuration exactly before agreeing. The trip was a bit badly planned and many dropped out, so we ended up with only two qualified and non-instructing divers, me and another person. All other instructors were occupied with trainees who were doing their first ever open water in life.

We two were asked to buddy up for the first day, but the person found an excuse to instead buddying with her friend instead (an OW trainee) and refused to help me gear up - I usually needed someone to help me clip up my drysuit rings. I ended up buddying with an instructor and two OW trainees and that dive went relatively well - if ignoring the fact we had to pull off very quickly due to one trainee's suit flooded and the other experiencing stress and suit squeeze underwater.

Second day two instructors dropped out due to issues with equipment and the person was told the only option was to buddy up with me as no instructor could be spared. They questioned me grudgingly why I must use a twinset and a wing instead of a single and a jacket. I tried to explain how to use primary donate after kitting up myself and they did not pay attention but instead chatted with another instructor that "I'll just run to you for your octopus instead". My LP hose then disconnected from my long hose second stage - something I did not anticipate as I have inspected this connection part at least 5 times before this dive to ensure nothing went wrong. It shouldn't take more than an hour to fix it but I was absolutely pissed off and that person could enjoy a dive with their friends instead.

I felt this was a little personal between me and that person though, as this was not the first unhappy moment between me and that person. On the evening social before this trip this person told other instructors she felt unsecure with them compass navigation skills. I recently watched the Flowstate Diver's series on this skill and immediately show them Flowstate's video on compass navigation. Instead of watching they used my phone to click into my Youtube's browsing history, which consisted of almost 70% scuba skill and gear configuration videos (I just like learning new stuff and configuring my equipment in my spare time), and asked if "I learnt scuba diving with Youtube".

 

[jborg]

Ah. I guess the scenario where you're going on a dive, there's only one other diver to buddy up with, and they turn out to be an idiot, yeah, that happens. Long hoses typically not required, even. Discovering it on the surface might in fact be better than actually getting to do the dive.

 

[Edward3c]

Then the hard bit is if you should cancel your trip just because no one on this trip wants to use your long hose... especially if it is expensive. Luckily the last trip I had to cut short because of this only costed me a little.

Last year I refused to go in with a diver who was primary donate configured as they couldn’t provide evidence of PD training. Like you they had watched YouTube videos. If something had gone wrong my insurance would have been void.

 

[Wibble]

Primary Donate seems so easy: I grab the longhose reg I'm breathing from and thrust it towards the other diver with my right hand and scoop up my backup on the necklace for me to breathe. Simples.

But... I cannot remember what it was like the first time I did this all those years ago. Subsequent donates were after much practice.