Primary donation

[lamont]

Uhm, the solution here is to test your backup regulator. Do it religiously in the water at the surface before every dive, and at least occasionally at depth, particularly after just having had it serviced (or buying a new one). I don't see how that has any bearing, either way, on bungee necklace vs. octo.

 

[DCBC]

My assumptions are based on my experiences ... as are yours. You come at this from the perspective of a Navy diver and a commercial diver. I come at it from the perspective of a recreational diver and a recreational dive instructor.

I also come at this from a recreational diver/instructor perspective as well. Some of what has formulated my opinion, is from owning a dive charter operation and having to make actual in-water rescues once every week or two. Too many of these involved diver panic and some were OOA scenarios. Secondly, when I was the Diving Officer at DCIEM, I acted as an expert witnesses for various Canadian provinces in a number of diving accidents. Doing autopsies of these diving accidents for the courts allowed me to examine diver behavior outside of my personal in-water experience. Just to clarify where I'm coming from...

The average diver will not be able to do ANY skill successfully unless they practice it regularly ... CESA or otherwise. Having another diver in tow can be a hindrence, a help, or a complete non-issue ... depending on the reactions of that other diver. And even if it is someone you are intimately familiar with, there is no way to know ... for sure ... what those reactions will be until it happens. You can only prepare for what you believe to be their likely responses. This is the reason why regular practice of your own skills are so important.

Yes. Obviously if the regulator given to the OOA Diver fails, you would just switch to buddy breathing. Much of this discussion is based upon the state of the diver pool in years to come. As you know, PADI has prohibited BB instruction. Divers will/are taught to share-air and failing that CESA. As PADI certifies the majority of the divers in the industry, it's likely that divers will not possess the skill any more than being able to breathe off a tank valve with no regulator (which was a common skill-set for NAUI Instructors in the 60's and early 70's).

It is fair under the circumstances to expect that a diver will attempt to hold true to his training. Alternate air-source, if negative, CESA. Of course like you have pointed-out the diver may panic and go for the primary.

We all have to make our own choices.
... which is what makes these conversations thought-provoking ...

Agreed and yes it does.

 

[InTheDrink]

And of course, important to mention that it's often not the conclusions we arrive at that are important, but the process of getting there.

I think this thread demonstrates as much. If every diver gave as much thought into this as some here then I believe we'd all be better equipped to deal with most situations that might arise. Long hose or not

Cheers,
J

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Much of this discussion is based upon the state of the diver pool in years to come. As you know, PADI has prohibited BB instruction. Divers will/are taught to share-air and failing that CESA. As PADI certifies the majority of the divers in the industry, it's likely that divers will not possess the skill any more than being able to breathe off a tank valve with no regulator (which was a common skill-set for NAUI Instructors in the 60's and early 70's).

Personally I like the car tire valve breathing that James Bond did; his dive tank valve and/or cut low pressure hose breathing seemed rather pedestrian in comparison!

It has been a decade or more since PADI made BB "optional" (not required); how many of the last decades OW trained diver do you think had BB training? I think not many.

 

[LiteHedded]

Personally I like the car tire valve breathing that James Bond did; his dive tank valve and/or cut low pressure hose breathing seemed rather pedestrian in comparison!

It has been a decade or more since PADI made BB "optional" (not required); how many of the last decades OW trained diver do you think had BB training? I think not many.

it was covered in my padi ow class

 

[elan]

I was part of my OW class as well 2 years ago

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Y
Personally, if BB wasn't an option in an OOA emergency, I'd do what I have done in the past, remove my BC, give him the tank and do a free ascent. I can't advocate this as a course of action for everyone however.


.

Why would you not breath off the BC inflator? This is a viable Plan C even for standard inflators

 

[Rainer]

This whole CESA thing just doesn't scale to deeper or overhead diving. Nor does donate an "octo". If you're going to eventually get into overhead diving, it's smart to practice how you'll play. If those protocols work at 250' deep, 3000' back in a cave, they're going to work just fine on a 40' reef.

 

[Sas]

This whole CESA thing just doesn't scale to deeper or overhead diving. Nor does donate an "octo". If you're going to eventually get into overhead diving, it's smart to practice how you'll play. If those protocols work at 250' deep, 3000' back in a cave, they're going to work just fine on a 40' reef.

Well sure, but how many people go on to deep or overhead diving? I don't think CESA should be the first option in the event of a trouble but with a lot of the gear i.e the octo many rec divers use them without any kind of issue. That being said I prefer to use long hose but I always had plans to go into overhead diving and given I have started that training now it has been handy to already have much of my kit configured for that.

But for most divers, standard hoses and a jacket BC, etc are used without issues.

 

[elan]

For single tank reef kind of diving I found 5' hose + bunged backup work exceptionally well. No hoses hanging everything is nice and clean. And actually it worked very well for me in one real incident when I had to share air. We had plenty of space in between me and my buddy for maneuvering.

Once I used my wife's octo with the standard hose sold with the octo and the only position in which I could swim by was above her tank. Otherwise the hose just pulled the reg out my mouth.