spare air advice

[OceanicRocks]

How true. Spare Air give about 1 min more to realize you're gonna die

ok that was funny... but seriously, if you ned air than ou get to the surface first. than you get to a hospital for decomp. sickness. in all likelyhood you'll still be alive.

I do realize now that spare air is a POS. But in an emergency situation I would rther be with 1 mors CU FT than nothing. That much longer that I can ascend slow.

Here is a though... say you are at 50 ft deep and have the spare air POS. that will get you to your safety stop depth where you will have 30 seconds... N its not3 minutes but is it not better than nothing? I'm still going to look into a pony... Size weight will be a determining factor as I know myself if itscumbersome its will stay home. I only dive on vacations. This is why I like the tank mounted style as they will be out of your way. just a thought!

 

[dannobee]

You wanted prices, so here's a pony bottle:

http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/CategoryID_962/Context_954/Sort_Stock/DescSort_0/AQUTP.html?Hit=1

And here's a cheap but good reg:
http://www.leisurepro.com/Prod/Cate.../DescSort_0/Filter_1=437/MRSMR12XR.html?Hit=1

You'll be into it for about the same as the big Spare Air, but you'll have a LOT more air.

You could add an SPG for about $60 if you wish. Also, you could use a bigger "pony" as a stage bottle later on if you progress into tech diving, or sell the rig for not much less than you paid for it.

 

[Damselfish]

I can see this... scary story BTW. 800 PSI wow. Now I remember burning 500 PSI in dive class simulting free flow. You forget thesethings.

I am afraid that if I do ascend at 30 ft./sec the boat might leave. I will sertainly be the last in the waterthat is for sure. Seriously what does one do? I like to be a safe diver. is this even possible when diving on vacation?

If you're serious about this, sounds like you need to dive with better groups or better operators. Ascend slowly, set a good example, and if anyone asks why you're slower maybe they can learn something from you.

The boat usually does not leave the second people are out of the water, they always have to do a couple things, let people settle a little (not be staggering around the deck in gear), pull up ladders, whatever - and any decent dive op should be watching for folks and will see your bubbles by the boat. And hopefully they do a tankcount/rollcall/whatever method to make sure everyone is on board. You read about places that don't, and you read about people getting left, but this is really pretty rare and I have never dove with any operator where I could see that happening.

 

[Scuba-Jay]

Ive enjoyed reading this thread. The spair air argument is as old as life itself (or at least as old as spair air has been an option!) I for one would say that any air (even 1 cf) is better than no cf. If you are talking worst case, you are out of air with no buddy in site. In that case, even if your SAC is high, you could take a breath, CESA, take another breath, CESA again and end up on the surface, alive. As one of the other posters said, I'd rather be floating on the surface bent and alive than floating at 40 feet not bent and not alive.

The other (and more probable case) would be runnning out of air and out of quick contact distance from your buddy. In that situation, spair air should provide you enough gas to swim over to the big air sourse (your buddy).

A pony is always going to be a safer option than spair air (more gas = more breathing) but lets not discount the benifit of these little tubes of the good stuff!!

J

 

[JeffG]

I do realize now that spare air is a POS. But in an emergency situation I would rther be with 1 mors CU FT than nothing. That much longer that I can ascend slow.

Maybe you should get two Spare Airs. Put one on either side of you for balance and plus you get the added benefit of having more gas.

 

[dannobee]

Maybe you should get two Spare Airs. Put one on either side of you for balance and plus you get the added benefit of having more gas.

Maybe he can get a thermo 200 bar manifold and double them up? :11:

 

[Damselfish]

like moonie-size doubles.

 

[TwoBitTxn]

My advice

1) Stop posting on the boards. For each one of your questions click the search button and read at least the first page of threads that pops up.

2) Take a rescue class.

3) Find a group of divers that are willing to mentor you and develop your dive skills. Dive locally.

4) Buy all of your basic gear. Don't buy a spare air, or pony. You don't need either one. You have neither the experience nor the training. Once you get both, you will realize it is a waste of money.

5) Running out of air under water is alot like running out of gas in your car. The most common reason is a significant failure of the operator to follow training.

You worry too much. Go diving.

TwoBit

 

[John_B]

The other (and more probable case) would be runnning out of air and out of quick contact distance from your buddy. In that situation, spair air should provide you enough gas to swim over to the big air sourse (your buddy).

In that case the diver has already made two catastrophic mistakes (running out of gas and not being in reasonable contact with his buddy) in addition to picking a bad buddy.

So he should compound that by digging out the spare air probably from his BC pocket where he stowed it? Hopefully he can get to it in a helluva hurry, hopefully he doesn't drop it, hopefully there is some breathable gas in there, hopefully all the chaos doesn't cascade into further problems or cause panic? And then you want him to use his 2.67 or however many breaths (and exactly how many breaths are in that little thing?) to swim over to his inattentive buddy? For real?

Why not solve the gas management and buddy skills problems in the first place, instead of throwing additional equipment at it which maybe isn't going to help him anyway because of his inexperience and the extra task loading it will create?

John

 

[trucker girl]

Unfortunatly my wife does not dive so my buddies on vacation are all strangers. The ultimat question is that you never know what a stranger will do at depth with only say 800 PSI in his tank. you really are on your own.

CORALCRAZED... if you can make it through this thread without being totally turned off to SB due to the tone of posts in this AND ANY spare air thread...

Scubaboard is a GREAT place to meet dive buddies. I found SB last summer and doubled my dives from the previous 4 years. I just got back from a dive vacation (to Tobermory, Ontario, Canada- not exactly the tropics...) with a group of SBers.

There were a few insta-buddy seekers on the boat. I trusted every person in our group, though. We dove together over a weekend at a local quarry before our trip and on shore dives the day before our boat dives. It's good to dive with a group of trustworthy strangers!

My husband does not dive- which leaves me in the same situation you are in. But the great thing about SB is that you can feel people out BEFORE you dive with them. Plus, you can check up on people to make sure they aren't weirdos. Well, okay, that's a loose term. I'm a weirdo, but I'm a normal weirdo, so it's okay. I checked up on Notso_Ken and Steve_Dives with Ber Rabbit before I dove with them. I didn't know Ber at the time, but after reading her posts and realizing that she has a good reputation on this board, I decided she was probably a reputable source. Now I know that SHE is a weirdo (said with love).

That has nothing to do with the Spare Air argument, and I hope that you don't take any of the posts as slams on you. If you do a search, you'll see that ALL Spare Air threads go down the same ugly road. It's not you. Spare Air brings out the worst in posters...