Secondary reg bungee'd around neck?

[timle]

Of course purging the reg will clear it, thats one of its intended functions. However I see quite a bit a difference from me purging the reg when I choose - versus teaching someone to purge a reg for someone else when they may not be expecting it. I was definitely not taught this way. I was taught to keep my hand out of the way of the purge and that training was reinforced in cavern/cave class with the long hose donation procedure (grasp by hose near connection to second stage).

 

[Age]

How I got myself in this position is the subject for another thread and it's a bit complicated, but I was OOA a while back. Not only that, but I had to swim fast for between 10 and 15 metres to another diver to get my air and I really felt air starvation starting to kick in once I arrived and then wait for him to realise that I wasn't joking. Point is that, even in those circumstances I had no desire to exhale until I had a nice yellow reg. in my mouth. It's true I wasn't panicking, but it was real enough.

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

One could argue if you did not have a 5’ hose the regulator might not have gotten away from you….

One also could argue why are you surfacing in an area where there is a high probability of overhead boat traffic without towing a dive flag or shooting an SMB prior to surfacing. With adequate surface markers you could have avoided the boat playing chicken wiht you. The decent could have been under less stress giving you time to find your regulator.

BTW: I am not knocking the bungee I am just playing devils advocate. I do use a bungee myself.

Actually, the 5' hose hadn't been installed when that happened. The length was the standard 24". The boat in question was violating a posted "no-wake" zone. And we were close to our dive buoy. In this case a SMB would have given the beer swilling boat driver something to line up with.

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

Very stupid assumption. My flag and float (and me) almost got run over 2 weekends ago by a 50 ft boat under flat calm conditions. Hell my buddy was IN a 24 ft boat (getting ready to dive) and still got RUN OVER by another boat while at anchor with a dive flag up.

A dive flag isn't a tailsman warding off boats. Sometimes they are drawn to it, wondering what the heck that red and white flag meant.

 

[Thalassamania]

Just about any system for an auxiliary will work fine, the critical concepts are to use a long hose, donate the primary, which is on the long hose, and be diligent and responsible in practicing deployment of you auxiliary and dive control whilst using your auxiliary. That said, I have a set of concerns over the necklaced axillary. If the necklace is secure enough for one to have no concern of it coming loose then there maybe a concern of the damn thing choking you. If it is loose enough to assure you that it can not choke you then there is a concern of where it will actually be when you really need it. This is a problem in design optimization upon who's outcome I'm not sure I want to stake my life. But that's just me, and I'm sure that my best answers create issues that would make other divers of equal skill and experience equally uncomfortable. Like with most things, there are trade offs, you pays your money and takes your chances. Do what seems best and most comfortable to you. Most of all drill and practice 'your emergency procedures 'till you've experienced all the things that can go wrong (and some that can't!).

 

[ScubaSteve2000]

Of course there is a chance that a captain of another boat might be under the influence but these are remote possibilities.…

Well, that's not such a remote possibility. The Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies hand out quite a few "DWI" citations to boaters every weekend. But I digress from the subject of the thread for which I humbly apologise.

So, to get back on subject....Do the bungee thing or you will die (just kidding)

Steve.

 

[rongoodman]

Regarding Thalassamainia's concerns, I form the bungee cord into a loop with zip ties, similar to the commercial necklaces. You can also use a couple of double fisherman's knots. A firm tug will simply pull the secondary free, without detaching the mouthpiece or having it snap back to hit me in the face. I've never had it come free by accident and it's always right under my chin.

 

[Thalassamania]

Regarding Thalassamainia's concerns, I form the bungee cord into a loop with zip ties, similar to the commercial necklaces. You can also use a couple of double fisherman's knots. A firm tug will simply pull the secondary free, without detaching the mouthpiece or having it snap back to hit me in the face. I've never had it come free by accident and it's always right under my chin.

I don't doubt that. It's just that I've been around long enough to see that sometimes approaches to emergency procedures that worked great in testing, were fine during drills and practice, became SOP as a result, failed when they were finally really needed. I'm not saying that this is (or is not for that matter) one, just to be careful and make an informed judgment. I choose, most of the time, to user a long hose primary and a setup that hangs a Oceanic Omega II off the end of my inflator mechanism. I know that solution gives some folks the willies.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Of course purging the reg will clear it, thats one of its intended functions. However I see quite a bit a difference from me purging the reg when I choose - versus teaching someone to purge a reg for someone else when they may not be expecting it. I was definitely not taught this way. I was taught to keep my hand out of the way of the purge and that training was reinforced in cavern/cave class with the long hose donation procedure (grasp by hose near connection to second stage).

Yes...hand the reg off holding it by the hose so that the purge is clear and the OOA diver has access to it.

Additionally, while extending the reg to the OOA diver the mouth piece should be pointed down to avoid free flowing the reg and handing the diver a face full of bubbles.

In keeping with that, I think someone mentioned hitting the purge "as a signal" to the OOA diver? Bad idea and it could be real problems in cold water. Just efficiently hand them a functional reg.

Handing off a primary to an OOA diver...

Grab your primary by the hose next to the reg.
Twist your wrist so the reg comes out of your mout with the mouthpiece pointing down. You're just rotating your wrist here...on a vertical plane or horizontal axis.
Extend you arm like you were going to punch them in the nose

 

[Walter]

If the necklace is secure enough for one to have no concern of it coming loose then there maybe a concern of the damn thing choking you.

This is exactly the problem with whoji's set up. His bungie could easily choke him.