solo divers' vicious circle?

[ClevelandDiver]

Thank you for that mental image!! And now I have a new name for my old Dacor knife. It's now a dive machette!
As for cutting the hose, if I thought that my buddy had been largely at fault for the out of air incident and he cut my hose, he would be treating me to a new set of hoses.

It also answers the question as to why they needed those dive machettes back then. Imagine trying to saw through that hose with a Z knife or shears. One flick of the matchette, and you're through the hose.................

Just make sure not to cut off your dive buddies head in your desparate quest for air. If his head falls off, then you have to make sure to switch to the now vacant mouthpiece or you will get a lungfull of water when you suck on the exhaust hose.

 

[Creed]

It also answers the question as to why they needed those dive machettes back then. Imagine trying to saw through that hose with a Z knife or shears. One flick of the matchette, and you're through the hose.................

On a serious note, my new old Dacor knife would have little trouble cutting small branches which would be a pain with the rinky-dink little dive knife I bought when I started diving. The only complaint I have is that the sheath is monstrously big. I am starting to design a new one.

 

[duckbill]

On a completely unrelated topic.... I borrowed an OLD scuba book that had a wild suggestion for donating air with a double hose. CUT the exhaust hose near the reg and have both divers inhaling off the hose and exhaling out their noses. They said it was safer and easier than buddy breathing. If I saw Nemrod coming at me with a big old dive knife/machette in his hand giving the out of air signal, I would think he was signalling that he was gonna slit my throat!

Too funny! What a laugh I got. It seems it would be faster, safer, and easier to control freeflow to buddy breathe the standard way. I've never heard of this before, and I, too, am curious if anyone remembers that being taught, and why.

Also, for anyone following this thread, I found the owner of the (military) dog tags I found while diving the river. I looked up the name on the tags in the phone book and there was only one listing under that last name. I made a visit to the address. Turned out the boy lost them about two months ago while swimming after jumping in from the rope swing. They belonged to his deceased grandfather and grandmother (one tag for each) and were from WWII. He was overwhelmed and said he thought he'd never see them again. Who says SCUBA diving doesn't benefit the community sometimes?

 

[Nemrod]

I have thought about the H valves and Y valves and it may work. I do much the same thing on my double 50 rig with the double hose on the center post and on the left BACKWARD post I run a Voit MR12 single hose for my backup duty, spg and inflator hose. Good for open water diving and works very well. This rig provides a pretty high level of redundancy, not like the tech rigs, but more than enough for open water sport diving. I use a vintage Dacor horse collar with this particular set up. The dual 50s are to negative to dive sans BC. I could run a modern wing as well--but that is not vintage. This rig has been improved upon since this pic. I have since added a 50 inch hose with swivel for the Voit so I can route it below my arm--under my arm---and then up to my neck. I have also added a quick release bungee so I can donate this regulator, if diving with a buddy. N