Vortex Incident spin off / Buddy Breathing

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

Since this thread has kinda spun off.....................here is something to think about.

Many divers, tech and recreational, are going to sidemount. Independent doubles are still around some too. In the rare instance that a hose blows, or a high pressure seat, and you lose gas in one bottle, you only have one reg left as there is one second stage on each bottle. Though it is highly unlikely, but it could happen, now a recreational diver arrives with no air as he used all of his. He is a single tank diver and has no air. You blew a hose, had a catastrophic free flow, whatever, but you are down to one bottle yourself. I guess the other person is gonna die because it seems most are vehemently against learning the option of buddy breathing.

Sidemount has redundency and the above hypothetical situation should not happen, but given the right set of circumstances it could. While buddy breathing sucks, pardon the pun, so does dying, embolising and getting bent. If you dive with rental gear or do not service yours properly, that awful option may just save your life.

While I agree there are better options, and buddy breathing should be a last, last resort, I feel that at least learning to buddy breath (sometime in your dive training) is something that may be of use in an emergency one day. A working secondary, independent bottles, a stage, a buddy bottle, are all options, but if you don't have them, what are you going to do? You should bring every (training related) option available with you on every dive.

Your thoughts?

 

[wjefferis]

I was watching an episode of The Sea Hunters (father and son diving team) a while ago and I got to see how buddy breathing saved one one of their lives or at least a terrible case of the bends. They were diving deep looking for a U-boat. On their way back up the team stopped for one of their planned deco stops. During deco, the father's deco reg free-flowed uncontrollably. The father tried to fix the reg, but it had a catastrophic failure and he had to just shut it down. They were forced to buddy breath for the remainder of there fairly long deco. If they didn't have the skills to buddy breath that may have been the fathers last dive.

Buddy breathing is an important skill. I think it sucks that PADI is cutting the skill because it may impede their assembly line scuba diver certification metality. I hope they at least make it manditory in their advanced class (doubt it). I am glad I was taught how to buddy breath. I have had to demonstrate that skill in several different classes that I have taken. During one of my classes I went into the water without a mask or any gear on what-so-ever. My buddy had on full gear and we had to maintain buddy breathing while he took off all of his gear and I put his on. I know that this isn't a skill that one would ever use in the real world (hopefully). It did however, make me very comfortable with buddy breathing.

I believe that buddy breathing should still be taught. There is definately a need for knowing how to do the skill, even though everyone now dives with a back-up regulator (octo). I will most likely be taking advanced NITOX/Deco procedures in the future. I am glad I already know how to buddy breath. Who knows, one day I may find myself like The Sea Hunters on a dive with mandatory deco and my deco regulator craps out........

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Especially good to know for decompression diving with hotter mixes. Could easily keep you from a really really long hang.



Its another tool to utilize, sure there are other options(usually), but you never know when those options will run out.

 

[SkimFisher]

Legitimate question:
Recreational divers are sidemounting? Where? Why?

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

Yes, in OW(its even a PADI cert if you like cards), various reasons including bad ankles, knees, backs, further redundancy, and the ease of having valves at your easy grasp to handle... pretty much whatever.

 

[SkimFisher]

Makes sense. I have heard it's easier on the back and knees. Figured that probably had something to do with it.

 

[wjefferis]

Legitimate question:
Recreational divers are sidemounting? Where? Why?

Most people you see sidemounting are cavern/cave diving. However, I have talked to many who sidemount all the time even on typical OW dives. I have even seen some folks on SB take their sidemount rigs to tropical destinations. They just attach some weight to the resort's AL 80's and off they go. The reasons are pretty much as bugman explained.

 

[Mark Michaud SELAUSAR]

Legitimate question:
Recreational divers are sidemounting? Where? Why?

Jeff Loflin is the PADI Sidemount Guru these days. He is travelling all over the world teaching recreational sidemount. It is catching on here and there, maybe not as widespead as cave diving but it is catching on.

PADI Sidemount

 

[jviehe]

Since this thread has kinda spun off.....................here is something to think about.

Many divers, tech and recreational, are going to sidemount. Independent doubles are still around some too. In the rare instance that a hose blows, or a high pressure seat, and you lose gas in one bottle, you only have one reg left as there is one second stage on each bottle. Though it is highly unlikely, but it could happen, now a recreational diver arrives with no air as he used all of his. He is a single tank diver and has no air. You blew a hose, had a catastrophic free flow, whatever, but you are down to one bottle yourself. I guess the other person is gonna die because it seems most are vehemently against learning the option of buddy breathing.

Sidemount has redundency and the above hypothetical situation should not happen, but given the right set of circumstances it could. While buddy breathing sucks, pardon the pun, so does dying, embolising and getting bent. If you dive with rental gear or do not service yours properly, that awful option may just save your life.

While I agree there are better options, and buddy breathing should be a last, last resort, I feel that at least learning to buddy breath (sometime in your dive training) is something that may be of use in an emergency one day. A working secondary, independent bottles, a stage, a buddy bottle, are all options, but if you don't have them, what are you going to do? You should bring every (training related) option available with you on every dive.

Your thoughts?

Its unneccesary to teach buddy breathing in OW class as proper planning will make it so you never have to do it. Of course, they can learn it on their own if they want and its pretty obvious how it works. The time would be better spent teaching them how not to run out of air, and the better options they have were something unplanned to have happened. And of course to work on bouyancy.

In the example above we would have to beleive that its possible two divers are diving together, and that at the same time the sidemount diver loses a reg, another diver loses their air as well. Possible yes. Probable no. If you teach according to everything that might happen, it would no longer be practical to dive.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I think you'll find that most of the people who die underwater, drowned. Sometimes people run out of gas for whatever reason, buddy breathing is just another tool to help fascilitate a safe ascent.