Spare Air-worth its weight in gold

[beautybelow]

actually, I loved blowing things up underwater with M80s when I was a kid.

 

[Thalassamania]

Not that I'd bet my kid's life on it, but children and animals tend to exhale quite naturally when ascending. I remember a story that Chuck Shilling used to tell to make that point. They took several dogs from the dog lab at Harvard down to the Submarine Escape Tower in Groton. At 100 feet they put the dogs out the bottom of the roving bell and the dogs surfaced. None embolized. Chuck thought that might have been because they were "Harvard" dogs ... but he was willing to expand his theory to cover mammals in general, including human children ... basically organisms that were not afraid of what was doing on (to the best of my knowledge Chuck did not repeat the experiment with children).

Which brings up my memories of when I was a little kid (four and five). We had an upside down bathtub moored in the bottom of a lake that was filled with air. We'd snorkel down to it and breathe. Bunches of us did this and no one ever though about embolism or had any problem. I guess Chuck was right.

 

[pescador775]

Touching story, thalassamania. However, if something goes wrong with the spareair stunt it is 10-20 in prison.

 

[OH-JJ]

actually, I loved blowing things up underwater with M80s when I was a kid.

true but your average light does not work underwater

 

[Leadking]

Why are everyone's undies in a knot? The kid is wearing a float vest!!! He can't burst a lung. Seaquest sold a like device with the dive industry's backing. No wonder the industry has no future. Keep the thing under lock and key and play with adult supervision.

 

[spectrum]

Why are everyone's undies in a knot? The kid is wearing a float vest!!! He can't burst a lung. Seaquest sold a like device with the dive industry's backing. No wonder the industry has no future. Keep the thing under lock and key and play with adult supervision.

I thought the same but re-read the post. For this exploit he was sans flotation, breathing at greater than 1 ATA.

Please take measures to make sure this never happens again. Then speak with your OW instructor for an explanation why this advice is being given.

Sometimes as parents we want to give the kids a step up but it's not always prudent.

Pete

 

[rds912]

This is why people tend to shun the know it all's. First of all I am confident in my skills as a diver and a parent. Second there is no need to consult my OW instuctor as I am sure my medical knowledge far outweighs his. so let us take a few points here.

1. The spare air has a current vis and is filled by a LDS(so yes the air is clean)
2. He is NEVER in the pool without me, and when he had the spare air.he was within arms reach.
3. His lungs cant explode, before your lungs could expand to that point your natural instinct would have you spit out the spare air, also it is a demand reg so it does not force air into your lungs.
4. Its called supervision!!!!! no m80s, no sneaking the spare air, and in the 2 minutes I might be in the bathroom my gear is stored locked in the garage in a locker, there are 3 locks and a door alrarm on the sliding glass door to get outside then a lock on a gate with an alarm to get to the pool then disable the in pool alarm.
5. It is not greater than 1atm he is in 3ft of water, he just has to stand up and his head is out
6. he is only under for 45-60 sec at a time with me under with him(I am holding my breath) I am sure none of you held your breath under 3 feet of water for more than 30 seconds when you were kids, maybe you all should have died then.
7 LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE

 

[Ken abucs]

3ft of water is about 1.1 ATM which is greater than 1 ATM.

 

[OH-JJ]

This is why people tend to shun the know it all's. First of all I am confident in my skills as a diver and a parent. Second there is no need to consult my OW instuctor as I am sure my medical knowledge far outweighs his. so let us take a few points here.

1. The spare air has a current vis and is filled by a LDS(so yes the air is clean)
2. He is NEVER in the pool without me, and when he had the spare air.he was within arms reach.
3. His lungs cant explode, before your lungs could expand to that point your natural instinct would have you spit out the spare air, also it is a demand reg so it does not force air into your lungs.
4. Its called supervision!!!!! no m80s, no sneaking the spare air, and in the 2 minutes I might be in the bathroom my gear is stored locked in the garage in a locker, there are 3 locks and a door alrarm on the sliding glass door to get outside then a lock on a gate with an alarm to get to the pool then disable the in pool alarm.
5. It is not greater than 1atm he is in 3ft of water, he just has to stand up and his head is out
6. he is only under for 45-60 sec at a time with me under with him(I am holding my breath) I am sure none of you held your breath under 3 feet of water for more than 30 seconds when you were kids, maybe you all should have died then.
7 LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE

I agree with almost everything, but as Ken pointed out already, any thing under the surface is greater than 1atm.... Just picking nits.

 

[rds912]

sorry I was not counting the 1 atm already exposed to so yes you are correct at 3 feet tou ADD 1/10 of an ATA so when you put your head under 1 foot of water in your bath tub you ad about 1/30 ATA watch out dont want to get bent, you people also realize that when you go up in altitude you lose atmospheric pressure. as usual some of you took what was supossed to be a light hearted poke at the spare air and a little fun with my child and turned it arround into a technical debate that has no merrit. GET A LIFE