What do you do when your inexperienced insta buddy is set up for Air2.

[mockney]

Hey All,

Just a quick topic for you. I had a dive recently and needed a buddy. On the boat they allocated me to a chap nice guy don't get me wrong but a couple of questions later I discover he's under 20 dives and I notice his set up is Air2. Now I personally consider Air2 to be a very dangerous set up attempts to fix a problem that doesn't need fixing whereby if I need his help in an out of air situation I take his primary reg and he goes onto this short hose badly breathing Air2 and then he's also supposed to control his buoyancy on ascent etc etc. Its a horrible solution.

Anyway, I am concerned when I see his set up I know its not likely to happen but should I need his support I can see someone with little experience could easily panic where I am needing him to provide me with air. I said nothing other than agreeing that if this situation does arise he's expected to hand me his primary and go to his Air2 to which he agrees. The dive went ahead without issue, was good fun actually he was a good insta buddy in the end but I did consider later whether I should have said I was not comfortable diving with someone in that configuration and requested an alternate insta buddy with a proper occy.

What's your thoughts?

 

[lexvil]

I would just enjoy the dive and not worry about what others do.

 

[growcurlyhair]

i personally think that if you can't recommend/convince him to pick up a spare octo to plug it in (quite low effort?), if you're in a OOA emergency, you have to just grab the primary and ram the Air2 into his mouth?

doesn't seem like the nicest thing to do, but he should have agreed to have the octopus on.

I think on dives, buddy responsibility is quite important..?

But i'm not too sure either

 

[-JD-]

1) Pony

2) IMO the safe perspective is that an instabuddy should be considerd a responsibiliy only and not insurance. Better to be positively surprised than disappointed and dead.

ETA:
That makes this easier.

I would just enjoy the dive and not worry about what others do.

 

[Centrals]

A functioning "Air 2 " is not going to kill any diver.
I would not worry it myself.

 

[johndiver999]

The op has been reading too much Scubaboard. Air2 works great and is very safe for those who practice actually using it.

If you wanted to see for yourself, why not ask him to practice a simulated air share on the first ascent of the day. Perhaps tell him that you will do the same. So you both use alternate air sources.

If he dies a horrible death you get assigned a new buddy for the second dive without even asking! It really is the perfect dive hack!

 

[lexvil]

All dives are solo dives, sometimes with other people.

 

[FF / EMT]

Convince him your setup is better and his is inferior and going to kill someone, and do it in the most arrogant way you can…


I try not to point out things on boats unless it’s dangerous, there’s plenty of ways to dive, if it bothers you, card up with the solo diving cert or bring a buddy that dives how you do

 

[rhwestfall]

Oh joy, more Air2 urban legend dog piling.... The waters of this planet should be grotesque with all the dead bodies....

 

[Anbaric Cog]

First thank you for doing a proper buddy assessment. When I asked my last insta-buddy what he would do in an OOA emergency. He said”…oh it’s okay I never run out of air”. He had not seen a second stage on a neck bungee before so I figured it was pretty much a solo dive anyway

I used an AIR2 for many decades with no problems. It didn’t breathe as easily as my primary secondary but it was okay. Also I always knew where it was and breathed off it on every dive. I saw many octopuses dragging along the sand and their owners never breathing off them and struggled to find the damn dangling things!

It’s a tool and if the diver can use it I don’t mind