Question Solo, Shallow, Senior, Sunset, Safe second…

[Wibble]

Yes. Also if you get your reg kicked out of your mouth and for some reason can't retrieve it, you have th octo right there (I bungee my reg around my head so it can not come lose).

Head for the surface? 6m/20ft is shallow.

It’s a different mindset where risks are different from diving with others or deeper.

 

[Doby45]

Head for the surface? 6m/20ft is shallow.

It’s a different mindset where risks are different from diving with others or deeper.

Or simply do what you were taught in OW and place your OTHER reg in your mouth. This is literally NOT rocket surgery.

 

[lowviz]

Well, yah. But you start putting too many hoses onto a simple non-swivel primary reg and you get a halo of hoses just waiting to be snagged. Your safe second comes with a threat...

 

[Darnold9999]

Or simply do what you were taught in OW and place your OTHER reg in your mouth. This is literally NOT rocket surgery.

Or do what some of us were taught in our first scuba course - go to the surface. The chances that your “other reg” is going to have air if your primary doesn’t is pretty low. Yes it might fail, but if I’m solo at that depth I probably wouldn’t even bother going to the alternate if my primary fails. Just go to the surface.

I prefer a thinking diver approach rather than dogma. Don’t need a second reg on your main tank diving solo, that reg is for your buddy. So if you don’t want to attach it don’t. Personally I leave it attached as I don’t want the bother of adding it back for a non solo dive.

 

[Doby45]

I prefer a thinking diver approach rather than dogma.

Dogma is literally what you are advocating for. "Reg doesn't work, I am just going to the surface, cause that's what smart "thinking" divers do. LOL

Smart thinking divers would go to the alternate/octo reg. I have seen primary regs fail in a number of ways that would not automatically make you discount another readily available reg attached to your tank. But you just go right ahead with your "smart/thinking" ways and bolt to the surface.

 

[lowviz]

I have seen primary regs fail in a number of ways that would not automatically make you discount another readily available reg attached to your tank.

I have only seen one such failure, a diaphragm that was improperly gasketed. It pulled loose a bit and became a wet breather, but it did behave otherwise.

I would be very interested in your other failures. Not calling you on it, just damn curious...

 

[Darnold9999]

Dogma is literally what you are advocating for. "Reg doesn't work, I am just going to the surface, cause that's what smart "thinking" divers do. LOL

Smart thinking divers would go to the alternate/octo reg. I have seen primary regs fail in a number of ways that would not automatically make you discount another readily available reg attached to your tank. But you just go right ahead with your "smart/thinking" ways and bolt to the surface.

I will definitely do it my way. I am extremely comfortable going to the surface from 20 feet. Don’t care what you do. Not bolting at all, quite comfortable free diving to 60 feet - so calmly surfacing from 20 feet is not even a stretch. Having said that, in almost 1,000 dives I have had a reg fail exactly once. Alternate started to free flow and iced up at five feet (solo dive). Surfaced and called the dive. Had a buddy have a reg fail - at five feet. She thumbed the dive we surfaced and fixed the issue and we continued the dive. Remember this is a shallow solo dive, not deep and not a buddy dive so your OW training does not necessarily apply.

You can do what you want, but to insist that everyone should “follow what they learned in OW” is trying to put a one size fits all solution designed for buddy diving onto something that simply doesn’t fit. On a solo dive you want a redundant source of air. Shallow, no entanglement hazard the surface works. Otherwise (even shallow), doubles or a pony work. A second reg attached to your tank doesn’t work as redundant air so no real need for it. If you have it and your reg fails and you want to try your alternate go for it. I’m not going to bother I am switching to my alternate air first. Shallow that’s the surface if I am not carrying a pony. Otherwise that is my pony. I might futz with the alternate reg (if I have one) after that but probably not. Likely I am calling the dive.

 

[Ana]

The posts above are a great example of the "my way is the only way" i dislike so much and makes me keep the dive "community" at arms length.

Why? Why is better to do one or the other from freaking 20' or less? If one way to solve the issue is better for person A and the other way is better for person B... Then we have two ways to solve the stupid problem, why go further?

Personally in over 3 decades and more than a thousand dives, no reg (1st or 2nd) has giving me real issues, breathing wet sometimes yeah; mouthpiece brakes or separates, that too. To me those aren't real problems... Unless other things start to happen i would just continue and make sure to fix it as soon as the dive is complete.
Now my diving is in warm waters... Hearing of freezing regs feels just as unreal as a fairy tale.

Some people apply solutions that are effective for them, just because they are different to our solutions it doesn't mean theirs are not valid.

 

[Wibble]

My take is that it's up to the individual diver to work out what's best for them. If, following their analysis, they decide to dive with one regulator, that's their choice. As long as they've thought it through, all's fine.

The OP implied that 1) his dives were shallow, 2) he's happy doing freediving deeper than that.

It may suit him, it may not suit others. It's not for us to criticise his choice.

 

[USdiver1]

To the point:

I’ve given my tech gear to the kid (and others) while keeping all my best pristine regs for myself.

I have thick skin, almost all comments welcome…

Perfectly natural way to dive ++, but what regs are you hoarding? Inquiring minds want to know.