Should octos be yellow?

[SeaHorse81]

I was initially trained in the OOA-take scenario, which always seemed somewhat lacking to me. The donor-control scenario just makes a lot more sense, for all the reasons Jim detailed above, both practical and especially, psychological.

I don't see a conflict with doing one's own training to do the donor-control scenario because if someone signals and you get a chance to do it that way, there are just a lot of advantages to it. If an OOA diver abruptly grabs your octo, you're no worse off in any event. It makes sense to me for the donor to control the situation if possible, which means the donor can still easily roll with other developments if necessary.

And I like the idea of having yellow on the octo. If you control the air and hand off your primary, it doesn't hurt a thing if the octo you then use is yellow. If somebody grabs your octo, they can find it better because it stands out visually. If I had to choose between a yellow hose and a yellow cover, I'd take the hose, because the second stage may be visually obscured behind an arm or something, but there's lots of visible hose to follow to wherever it is. That also helps if it's unexpectedly gone wandering as mentioned in other posts.

 

[nolatom]

Actually, the only time it happened to me was in a threesome, buddy signalled OOA (turned out he was low on air, not actually out). We approached, I had my (hockey-puck, yellow-front) octo in outstretched hand, pressed purge button to show him it had air. He took it. All went well thereafter as we ascended. He had enough air for surface and reboarding the boat.

I don't think yellow had anything to do with it. But I haven't had a real OOA, nor a "stranger" grab either reg.

So if my LDS, who's going to put this on, has a yellow front cheap, then okay. Otherwise, black is good, maybe I'll but a yellow hose on, the black one's 13 years old anyway..

 

[fnfalman]

Does the yellow octopus breath better than the black one?

If yes, then change it to yellow.

If no, then keep it as is.

 

[EastCoastWreckDiver]

I think in an actual out of air emergency your primary is most likely to be pulled out of your mouth. I would say that your alternate should be clearly visible if its yellow, bright green, orange or whatever. I have seen divers with a bright pink alternate before and that worked for them. If your using the long hose setup and your wearing your alternate with a necklace then it reallty doesnt matter. If your longhose is taken switch to your alternate and get some space between eachother try and get the diver calmed down and relaxed. If your alternate is taken try and calm them down and switch the alternate with your longhose. Safety is the most important issue here not the color of your equipment.

Always remember to dive safe and have fun!

 

[John_B]

80% of new divers are trained using the Yellow Octo alternate on holder method.
Q: Do you want your rig different than what those 80% basically understand, or use something they never seen before, especially when they are in a panic situation.

...

Usually it's that; once a year, out of shape, un-maintained, careless and haphazard diver that is not even your dive buddy, that has the OOA.

Let me play devils advocate for a minute...

So my configuration is supposed to conform to this training standard under the auspices that this random, once-a-year, careless, haphazard diver (who isn't even my buddy!) is going to remember his training well enough to look for a yellow octo -- when he couldn't remember his training well enough to pay attention to his dive time, depth, and freakin' pressure gauge?!?

When I first moved to the Hogarthian configuration, I put the yellow octo cover on my primary under the assumption that such a random OOG diver as in your example would look for yellow. Then every PADI/SSI/SDI diver I came across gave me stern instruction that I shouldn't be breathing from my octo for God's sake! At which point I replaced my yellow cover with black cover, and learned to stop worrying and love the long hose configuration.

Natually, YMMV.

 

[Nemrod]

In clear and tropical water yellow persists to as much as 90 feet, at least 60 feet and I have observed yellow as being yellow (perceived) at much greater depths. The brain knows what color something is even if the eye does not, the brain is a powerful filter. This photo was taken at about 60 feet, no flash, and the diver is nearly that far away, yet, you can clearly see the yellow hose.

N

 

[Peter_C]

The idea that the OOA diver will just grab the one in your mouth is repeated regularly on threads like this, but I have never seen any evidence that this is in fact the most common occurrence.

Now you have!

 

[cnar]

I use a neon yellow spiral hose wrap protector for my octo. This way its easily visible or distinguishable at depth. I also wrap my primary but I use blue for that. As mentioned many a time, prep is important so going through this with your buddy before the dive helps. The other help is to prevent the OOA problem in the first place. Proper air management and being aware is essential to have a good outcome. Be aware of your air and our buddy's.

I like to check on my buddy's air from time to time because I myself was once low on air and ran out during surfacing. That situation was purely my fault and I have no plans of repeating it or allowing a buddy to do the same.

 

[Culcuhain]

I didn't pay $700 for my regulator to give to the idiot that runs out of air. They get the $80 Octo.
We can solve this problem pretty quickly and go all old school and not have Octos and just revert to the Share Air Drill. Problem Solved.

 

[oldschoolto]

I didn't pay $700 for my regulator to give to the idiot that runs out of air. They get the $80 Octo.
We can solve this problem pretty quickly and go all old school and not have Octos and just revert to the Share Air Drill. Problem Solved.

I could never understand someone spending BIG money on a life support piece of gear and then go CHEAP on their last chance/it's got to work gear..
I want my go to save my life as good as it gets.... In any sport... I saw it a lot in packing parachutes.. $1800 main and a old worn out $200 reserve to save their life....

And the OOA clip shows a clueless scared diver not working to problem, and not following good training... She was NOT OOA She had a simple loss reg from a failed mouth piece... All she needed to do was spit-out the mouth piece and go to her own octo... OR simply retrieve the regulator and put it in her mouth without the mouth piece... And I have yellow wrapped hoses on both the wife's gear and mine... In fact there are both the same conshelf 14 supreme main and octo set-ups.... The yellow hose makes the octo very easy to find if the OOA diver is coming from the rear of the unknowing donor diver... I train this with my wife as a OOA option... And the yellow looks good..

Jim....