spare air

[Crush]

That sounds pretty scary and dangerous. I think I'll skip your class. I hope you have good insurance.

Adam

I'll take your class.

 

[DCBC]

That sounds pretty scary and dangerous. I think I'll skip your class. I hope you have good insurance.

Adam

No problem Adam, my course isn't for everyone. I've certified thousands of divers and over 100 instructors over the past 39 years. I have yet to need insurance protection. No one that I've certified has been injured diving, to the best of my knowledge. I hope you can make a similar claim after a similar number of years. :mooner:

 

[BDSC]

That sounds pretty scary and dangerous. I think I'll skip your class. I hope you have good insurance.

Adam

After assessing your diving skills, he just may not let you take his class!

 

[Hatul]

No problem Adam, my course isn't for everyone. I've certified thousands of divers and over 100 instructors over the past 39 years. I have yet to need insurance protection. No one that I've certified has been injured diving, to the best of my knowledge. I hope you can make a similar claim after a similar number of years. :mooner:

You have no shortage of defenders on the board. Can I ask you what organization you license with, and do they approve such exercises?

Adam

 

[diver 85]

I missed out on this one early---but I'll say it anyway---'here we go again'.....

 

[Jax]

I missed out on this one early---but I'll say it anyway---'here we go again'.....

Why don't we have a "Spare Air Forum", to which all these threads could be relagated? ( and researched! )

 

[ScubaSteve]

To put things in perspective, I regularly teach an OW class to do a 50' CESA (emergency ascent) and my Advanced classes do 100' on one breath of air. If I had a Spare Air, I would feel very comfortable to do a 250' free ascent on a decompression dive to my staged cylinders. Unless I was diving in an overhead environment, there is NO reason why I would need a pony bottle to do a safe ascent (but I have carried a pony many years ago during wreck penetrations).

A number of divers today dive much deeper than they can do an emergency ascent on one breath of air. It doesn't matter if you need two or three breaths to attain the surface by CESA; either a Spare Air or a Pony will give you enough gas. If you want the luxury of breathing all the way and dive relatively deep, a pony is a good choice for you. One has the luxury of more air with a pony, the Spare Air offers less bulk. It comes down to the type of diving you do and what you feel most comfortable with.

When you find yourself in need of air and don't have any, either choice would be a welcome one. Is there anyone diving without a redundant air source that wouldn't welcome a few more breaths of air to get to the surface? Diving in an overhead environment is of course another story.

I usually agree with you Wayne, but this is a post which I personally cannot agree with. You are claiming that breathing off a spare air at 250' FFW or FSW will guarantee a safe ascent? Have you done the math? Is this a 3 cu.ft or 6 cu.ft spare air? You are guaranteeing that a spare air will have sufficient gas in it to get any diver to the surface safely. While I agree that a 100' CESA might save "your behind" (not your's specifically ) in an emergency, I was not aware that any agency was teaching it (if you say yours does then I believe you).

I think that posts like yours here lead way too many new divers to believe that carrying a tiny bottle such as a 3 cu.ft spare air will make them a safe diver. It does nothing to make them any safer. Your post leads the reader to believe that there is more than enough air to get them to the surface which you cannot support IMO because every person and situation is different.

I do NOT advocate the use of spare air for scuba diving however I do agree that every additional breath (1-3-80-500) that I can have will get me that much farther in the direction that I want to go.

 

[BDSC]

You are claiming that breathing off a spare air at 250' FFW or FSW will guarantee a safe ascent?........ You are guaranteeing that a spare air will have sufficient gas in it to get any diver to the surface safely.........

My take on what Wayne said was HE would feel comfortable doing an CESA in that situation. I don't see where he advocated or implied that just anyone could do it.

 

[ianr33]

if i had a spare air, i would feel very comfortable to do a 250' free ascent on a decompression dive to my staged cylinders.

:d :d

Is this you ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChZapfN5s-8

 

[ScubaSteve]

My take on what Wayne said was HE would feel comfortable doing an CESA in that situation. I don't see where he advocated or implied that just anyone could do it.

I suppose you are correct on the 250' number however my point still stands based on the part that I bolded.