Scubapro parts for life program update

[Dr. Lecter]

And labeling regulators as lifesaving (I realize you did not directly do this) is very silly. It's the oldest sales-gimmick in the dive shop book, and what it really does is reveal ignorance of the most basic tenants of dive safety.

Not all of us dive under conditions where returning to the surface is part of the contingency plan if air stops coming into our lungs from the reg in our mouth. True, those of us that do dive under conditions where ascent to the surface isn't an option have to have redundancy in our regulators and gas supply. But while no one regulator should be the sole means of life support, a claim that regs aren't life support equipment is still bull.

 

[halocline]

Not all of us dive under conditions where returning to the surface is part of the contingency plan if air stops coming into our lungs from the reg in our mouth. True, those of us that do dive under conditions where ascent to the surface isn't an option have to have redundancy in our regulators and gas supply. But while no one regulator should be the sole means of life support, a claim that regs aren't life support equipment is still bull.

Now, now, be nice, words can hurt too....

Just to be clear, do you dive in a way that a regulator failure would cause your death?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Now, now, be nice, words can hurt too....

Just to be clear, do you dive in a way that a regulator failure would cause your death?

Theoretically speaking, yes: if both of my back-gas regs failed during an overhead (whether deco or steel) dive, then there's an excellent chance that I'm going to die. If I'm carrying deco gas, that's at least one more regulator that would have to fail before I die since I can either switch to that or swap the reg our for the back-gas reg.

Obviously, all that is extremely unlikely. But the fact remains that without a working regulator, I will die -- swimming to the surface often isn't an option. The claim that because one has multiple iterations of this piece of life supporting gear, no one piece is actually important enough to qualify as life support... makes no sense.

 

[redacted]

Obviously, all that is extremely unlikely. But the fact remains that without a working regulator, I will die -- swimming to the surface often isn't an option.

I don't look at a single regulator as "life support" but I do see where the complete kit (including dive buddy) may be considered "life support" under some situations. For the most part, the failure of any one element of that kit is an inconvenience that may require an immediate response. With enough failures, life may be threatened. We use redundancy to reduce the risk of incurring enough failures to put live in danger. For divers who do a poor job of that, a single regulator may be life support. Hell, a single O-ring may be life support. So, what do we do to protect ourselves against the failure of a 2 cent rubber ring that may have been made in China?

 

[Dr. Lecter]

What dive buddy? Other than that, no concerns--your regs are not my regs, so think of them however you like

 

[traveler218]

I talked to a guy yesterday who, while diving at 100 feet had his first stage fail. In his case the Alternate Air Source was useless since it runs off the same first stage. This was also true of his BC inflator. His dive duddy (dive shop dive master assigned to him for the dive) abandoned him, so he essentially drowned. He was very lucky that the boat captain was in the water with gear on and happened to seem him floating at 80ft. The Coastguard told him he was the only drowning victim diver they had ever resuscitated who did not suffer permanent brain damage.

So yes, I consider my regulator as a piece of life saving equipment and think it should be treated as such.

 

[Couv]

....(snip here and there just for fun)......I talked to a guy yesterday who essentially drowned. He was very lucky he did not suffer permanent brain damage......

Sorry about that, but I was waiting for a punch line.....

Perhaps ScubaPro should call it their "Parts for Life Support" program.

 

[akeegan2]

And labeling regulators as lifesaving (I realize you did not directly do this) is very silly. It's the oldest sales-gimmick in the dive shop book, and what it really does is reveal ignorance of the most basic tenants of dive safety.

I can't understand how one can say to anyone who's diving at 120 feet, pushing no deco with a typical sport diver's rig and has a first stage blowout "it is very silly" to think what just broke isn't life safety equipment? And what ARE the most basic tenants of dive safety? Really.

Also, you have no way of knowing who is servicing your regs when you send them back to the manufacturer. One hopes that it would be less of a crapshoot than an authorized dealer,...

Given I've never met an exception tech yet (maybe I'm just not in the right circles,) much, much better than a crapshoot.

Good thing your life doesn't depend on it like they say!

Back to life safety being silly again?

 

[redacted]

I talked to a guy yesterday who, while diving at 100 feet had his first stage fail. In his case the Alternate Air Source was useless since it runs off the same first stage. This was also true of his BC inflator. His dive duddy (dive shop dive master assigned to him for the dive) abandoned him, so he essentially drowned. He was very lucky that the boat captain was in the water with gear on and happened to seem him floating at 80ft. The Coastguard told him he was the only drowning victim diver they had ever resuscitated who did not suffer permanent brain damage.

So yes, I consider my regulator as a piece of life saving equipment and think it should be treated as such.

In that case, what is your plan for when your regulator fails - and it can at any time?

BTW, what was the failure mode of the drowned diver's regulator? Total cessation of gas delivery is possible but very uncommon. Although, the effect is abouit the same as running out of gas and has the same results.

 

[elan]

Treating your reg as a life support on the surface is not dangerous. Its dangerous when you train and build the dive plan based on that assumption