Spare Air: some thoughts

[elan]

no, that would be "sell a lie, take away hope and leave the people in fear"....and don't forget to spend the money you swindled to buy a new jet for your get away.

:d

 

[vladimir]

Let me see if I understand the argument for SpareAir so I will know whether to buy one for myself. A SpareAir is "Better than Nothing" for me provided that:

Actually, for a traveling diver, these prerequisites aren't that hard to meet.

I refuse to go to the trouble of purchasing or renting fully redundant gas equipment such as doubles;

Usually not an option.

I refuse to purchase and carry a pony bottle;

Especially with stricter luggage limits, a diver is lucky to fit all his basic gear under the limit, especially with a camera. This is why I sold my epirb.

I refuse to sit out any dive where I don't trust my so-called buddy, and I refuse to restrict myself to diving with trusted buddies;

My trusted buddy is not willing to fly to the eastern recesses of Indonesia with me on the week that I have vacation--which is generally the case.

I refuse to restrict myself to dives where I feel comfortable executing a CESA should I find myself unable to access my gas and alone at the same time;

I do restrict myself to this depth--I wonder how many others do.

I refuse to follow the DM or guide around and rely on their gas

Steadfastly--I'd rather drown.

and/or I refuse to dive with a DM or guide I can trust.

How can I trust the divemasters at the resort in eastern Indonesia that I've never met?

All that said, I still don't see the need for a spare air, but I can see where a traveling diver might opt for it over a pony, which would weigh a lot more and potentially cost hundreds of dollars in over-weight luggage fees.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

For a traveling diver, these prerequisites aren't that hard to meet.

I travel. So I would say that some traveling divers make these choices.

But they aren't prerequisites. The word "prerequisite" suggests some force of the Universe outside of our personal choices. So again I would word it that some travelling divers make choices thyat lead them to believe that a SpareAir is better than nothing given the other choices they have made.

All that being said, there is no need to defend your choices. Rock on.

 

[shoredivr]

Spare Air is one piece of equipment I regret buying.

 

[Papa_Bear]

A crutch can be a useful tool, I guess, but most will tell you better to get off the crutches and start walking! It is a crutch! Most healthy people don't need crutches, so is your training so bad that you need a crutch to make up for education and planning????!!! I read above "What happens when you suddenly run out"! Holly smokes batman where was your training that allowed you, with all the great tools today, to run out without knowing? Again poor planning! It is cheaper and safer to become a better diver!

 

[Puffer Fish]

I guess maybe it's sympathy for the subset of folks that fall for the marketing without REALLY knowing what they are getting. The conditional "given the right set of circumstances" part of your post is kind of the crux of it. I used to have a client that marketed a cholesterol drug - it wasn't very effective but it was safe, well tollerated, and cost less than Lipitor, etc. The dirty little secret of our marketing strategy was that the positioning was essentially "Brand X is the cholesterol drug for patients who don't really need a cholesterol drug."

We sold billions!

Forget the tech diver in me, I guess it's the crass marketer in me that has a problem with what is effectively a positioning of Spare Air as "a redundant air supply for people who don't really need a redundant air supply." That or the age old "promote fear, sell hope" aspect of dramatizing a problem and scaring the uninformed into buying your brand.

I'm OK with a someone who's an experienced diver who understands their training and what a SpareAir does and doesn't offer them making an informed decision to buy one. It's the newb who's poorly trained, doesn't know gas management, and buys one on-line thinking "cool - more bottom time" that makes me nervous.

Gotta go do a Scuba Review. Will be sure to emphasize gas planning and CESA!

I have to admit being amazed that anyone would suggest CESA over any other option.

We used to train people by actually doing them from 60 ft...but have enough people do them, and every so often someone will make a mistake.

I've done them in practice from over 90, and seen a very skilled navy diver do one from 125 ft.. but unless one practices doing them, they can be very dangerous. Doing one at the wrong point in a dive is a great way to get a DCS hit.

If I had to choose between a spare air and and CESA at say 50 ft.. I would choose the spare air.. and a nice leasurely swim to the surface with a couple of minute safety stop. While I really think someone needs something a bit bigger...I can understand why someone might have one.

Regarding "buddies"... I have seen insta-buddies actively swim away from their "buddy" when they had an issue....and I seen them help. But depending on one is something I would suggest again.

Odd thing though, of all the equipment failures I have had or seen, I've never had or seen anyone else actually use one for that purpose, but I used to say that I had never seen a tank o-ring blow in the water, and this year, have seen 3.. so one day, I may get that dreaded first stage lockup..and have that "buddy" that swims away...and If that did happen, I would be thankful for any air I had, no matter how small.

 

[vladimir]

I travel. So I would say that some traveling divers make these choices.

But they aren't prerequisites. The word "prerequisite" suggests some force of the Universe outside of our personal choices. So again I would word it that some travelling divers make choices thyat lead them to believe that a SpareAir is better than nothing given the other choices they have made.

All that being said, there is no need to defend your choices. Rock on.

Just discussion, Reg. The thread's original premise is that the type of training and diving we do colors our viewpoint on the Spare Air issue. I am examining the vacation diver's point of view. I use the word "prerequisite" to mean something required before you would use a Spare Air. It is a prerequisite, in your post, that a diver make those choices before a Spare Air makes sense, if I understand you correctly. I believe many do make those exact choices.

As I said, I don't use a Spare Air. I stay fit, plan my gas usage, monitor my gas supply, and I don't worry about 5-standard-deviation events like neck o-rings blowing at the deepest point of my dive.

 

[Papa_Bear]

BTW, an empty tank at 60ft is not at 10ft! And again what about monitoring your gas, that is the best option! A blow and go is the last option, but still there! It is all in your training and confidence instilled by that training! Lets not forget experience based on that training as well!

 

[idocsteve]

Spare Air is one piece of equipment I regret buying.

I bet it's because of what you've read about it subsequently to purchasing it that changed your mind, not because it failed on you when you needed it most.

 

[iztok]

I really do empathize with people who travel alone. I can't imagine, honestly, what I would do if I were to arrive in Indonesia without a dive buddy. I'd have a couple of options -- keep the dive shallow enough that I was sure I could self-rescue from anything that might happen, try to cobble together an equipment configuration that would ensure I could self-rescue, or try to identify a buddy in a group of unknowns that I felt I could count upon as a teammate.

But honestly, the dives I would do with 3 cu ft of extra gas fall into the first category -- they are dives where I felt confident of self-rescue, no matter what, and without the extra gas. So I would have hauled a cylinder and a regulator to a remote site for essentially no real benefit. Any dive where I wouldn't be sure of self-rescue, 3 cu ft would not be enough gas to make me feel any better.

I don't have a good solution, which is why I'm happy I don't travel to expensive, remote destinations without a known diving companion.

I travel alone. Not because I want to but because I do not have other choice. My wife doesn't dive and I don't have anyone in my family/friends circle that I travel and dive with. There are few diving acquaintances I dive with locally and I join LDS that organizes little bit distant (but not to distant) trips.

However I do travel on business a lot. And I try to see if I can schedule my travel so I arrive a day or so earlier and use SB or DMX to find a local dive buddy and see if I can catch a dive there.

Sure it is not ideal but it is better then not diving. Depends on the situation I will bring all my gear except tanks and weights. I will rent/borrow those. When I planned dive with some UTD divers in LAX area I wasn't worried. When I planned dive in Monterrey, CA area I wasn't worried as I did have prior communication with my dive buddy. On the other hand when I traveled to Thailand I also brought my pony bottle (19cf) with me and dove with it on all my dives. I worked hard to further my education through training before that trip and that I complete my Rescue class before.

So in my opinion I am "forced" to invest more time in my personal training to offset for the fact that I do not have a luxury of traveling with a buddy.

I am not sure if this rambling makes any sense but this is how I think.