Thoughts on breathable inflators?

[JohnnyC]

It goes BEHIND your neck, not wrapped around your neck.

In order to choke you, your second stage would have to be completely removed from your mouth, and pulled so far to the left to constrict your airway, that the only way it could happen would literally to be a James Bond style underwater fight. Oh, and you would have to be pinned and immobile, otherwise the tension would simply spin you, at which point the problem has solved itself.

There's a substantial difference between what amounts to institutional recidivism, and optimization based on years and years of experience, and thousands of hours of what essentially amounts to manned testing. You also have to understand, institutions often maintain practices of lesser efficiency, or non-optimal practices, because the ability to provoke institutional-wide change is not feasible, whether it's due to financial reasons, timeline reasons, etc. This doesn't exist (for the most part) in the recreational diving world.

 

[doctormike]

What is the functional difference between a 5' and a 7'? Is there a good reason to choose one over the other?
I'm in the Air Force, so I've seen thousands of people be wrong over and over again . That said, I really am willing to explore this option.
I've now been told that my concerns about being noosed by my reg hose around my neck are unfounded, but why? Why is it not possible to be choked by a reg hose? I have seen people go twice around their neck with the thing, and their only defense is that they can easily slip it over their heads. The underthe arm and around the back method looks better, but I still need more than "this is how pros do it". That logic is dangerous in my world.

I have seen a lot of tech divers, but I can't ever remember seeing anyone loop the hose around their necks twice. I think that you may be envisioning this incorrectly.

The standard tech/GUE way of doing this is that the long hose runs straight down from the first stage (right post if you are diving doubles) along your right side, loops around something on your right hip (can light battery, reel, or a piece of PVC pipe cut for that purpose), goes up across your chest from your right hip to your left shoulder, around the back of your neck and into your mouth. It isn't wrapped around your neck at all.

Shorter people sometimes use a 5' hose, for me a 7' hose fits perfectly with this routing and anything shorter would be restrictive. People who don't want to have anything on their right hip will tuck the hose looop into the waist webbing, but I think that having it looped around something on your belt is more secure.

When you want to donate, you just grab your primary regulator with your right hand, dip your head down and pass it directly to the victim. I can't imagine how you could be choked by the hose with this configuration.

 

[dulinor]

That's a good point - if you have a problem with your Air2 at some resort, you might end up having to just rent one of their regulators and now you aren't diving the way you had trained. With a standard backup, you can pretty much fix anything by swapping hoses or second stages.

That happened to me on my last LOB trip. Leak on the SS1, the boat loaned me an Octo and I pulled the inflator hose and dove without a BC for the rest of the week. (Since they couldn't take things down to a regular inflator.) Needed a new housing for the SS1, replaced under warranty (thanks Atomic!) but I'm throwing in the towel on the integrated unit.

I think some of the concerns are a little overblown - but net net, I'm going back to the more straightforward system (Primary Donate but only a 40" hose. Mostly because I don't want a long hose flopping around a boat deck [and I'm sure I'd forget to clip it off at least once] and I don't ever see tech in my future. If I have to be uncomfortably close during a direct ascent, so be it. No deco stops or obstructed egress expected.))

Split fins and a power inflator - it's amazing I'm not dead.

 

[TooManyHobbies]

I have seen a lot of tech divers, but I can't ever remember seeing anyone loop the hose around their necks twice. I think that you may be envisioning this incorrectly.

The standard tech/GUE way of doing this is that the long hose runs straight down from the first stage (right post if you are diving doubles) along your right side, loops around something on your right hip (can light battery, reel, or a piece of PVC pipe cut for that purpose), goes up across your chest from your right hip to your left shoulder, around the back of your neck and into your mouth. It isn't wrapped around your neck at all.

Shorter people sometimes use a 5' hose, for me a 7' hose fits perfectly with this routing and anything shorter would be restrictive. People who don't want to have anything on their right hip will tuck the hose looop into the waist webbing, but I think that having it looped around something on your belt is more secure.

When you want to donate, you just grab your primary regulator with your right hand, dip your head down and pass it directly to the victim. I can't imagine how you could be choked by the hose with this configuration.

What I've seen a couple times at the local quarry, and maybe it's being used for ground transport or people are wrong or lazy, is that instead of going down to their hip, they just pop the whole thing over their heads. I'm glad to hear this is incorrect, but hopefully you can understand my warriness based on this visual.

 

[kelemvor]

That happened to me on my last LOB trip. Leak on the SS1, the boat loaned me an Octo and I pulled the inflator hose and dove without a BC for the rest of the week. (Since they couldn't take things down to a regular inflator.) Needed a new housing for the SS1, replaced under warranty (thanks Atomic!) but I'm throwing in the towel on the integrated unit.

I think some of the concerns are a little overblown - but net net, I'm going back to the more straightforward system (Primary Donate but only a 40" hose. Mostly because I don't want a long hose flopping around a boat deck [and I'm sure I'd forget to clip it off at least once] and I don't ever see tech in my future. If I have to be uncomfortably close during a direct ascent, so be it. No deco stops or obstructed egress expected.))

Split fins and a power inflator - it's amazing I'm not dead.

I've alternated between bringing an extra air2 (if my wife isn't diving, I just grab hers) or bringing the hose adapter for a standard inflator + a standard inflator. You're right that you can't assume destinations will have spares of something that not the very most common thing. So I bring my own when I travel.

Why not just oral inflate with the ss1? Seems like that would be preferable to not having buoyancy compensation. I've tried it with my air2 and it works just fine. I assume SS1 would also be capable of oral inflate.

 

[alvinsuper]

1. Replace the octo and stick with a normal rec setup. I'm kind of "meh" on this idea. Some octos seem nice enough, but I've gotten the impression from fellow divers that this is going out of common use. The hose sticking out my right side is cumbersome sometimes.

It's not going out of common use, why are your buddies suggesting that? If your dives are OW rec type and you clip your octo diligently, then imo it's a perfectly functional setup, tried and proven and widely known. If we're talking overhead environments, of course that requires a different configuration.

It all depends on the kind of dives you do and plan on doing. I may have missed that information in the op or the rest of the thread. However, remember that SB is not representative of the practices and dive needs of the majority of divers. The preference for the long hose in the suggestions itt is justified if you plan on going technical one day, but if you're staying OW rec for the foreseeable future, then the long hose is more hassle than anything else, in my humblest opinion (s***storm incoming in 3,2,1...)

 

[grf88]

I have also seen the hose looped around the neck twice and this was during a technical training course. Obviously the instructor did not know what he was doing.

 

[dulinor]

OK yes, technically I would oral inflate when needed but in practice just did it at the surface while waiting my turn at the ladder. This was in Cayman and deep enough into the week that I had my buoyancy basically down. Don't recall if I ever needed to juice the BC underwater but would have been only once or twice if so.

My wife wasn't interested in the integrated air when we got our gear - she just wants her stuff to work the way she was trained so she doesn't have to think about it. Which I don't understand AT ALL... So mine was the only one on the boat (Atomic SS1 - there were some Air2's). I had all the parts to revert back to the standard inflator - in my storage box in the garage. So, lesson learned.

Now I have a Deep6 set and plan on throwing the service kits into the travel box just in case.

 

[kelemvor]

It's not going out of common use, why are your buddies suggesting that? If your dives are OW rec type and you clip your octo diligently, then imo it's a perfectly functional setup, tried and proven and widely known. If we're talking overhead environments, of course that requires a different configuration.

It all depends on the kind of dives you do and plan on doing. I may have missed that information in the op or the rest of the thread. However, remember that SB is not representative of the practices and dive needs of the majority of divers. The preference for the long hose in the suggestions itt is justified if you plan on going technical one day, but if you're staying OW rec for the foreseeable future, then the long hose is more hassle than anything else, in my humblest opinion (s***storm incoming in 3,2,1...)

That's probably just a misconception. I'd bet cash that his LDS requires the instructors to wear specific gear. That would be why the instructor went out of his way to mention that when diving for fun he dos not use the air2. Instructor might even have been risking his job in telling the student that.

I'd be surprised to hear that even 1% of divers use air2 type devices. I like them, but they're far from being the most common power inflator.

 

[Soloist]

For recreational diving a 40” primary hose with a 90 degree elbow has worked very well for me. Very straightforward use of standard hose lengths if using the 29” for the necklaced secondary.

DGX 90 Degree Swivel Adapter, LP 2nd Stage: 9/16-Inch M x 9/16-Inch F