What is an octopus?

[spectrum]

This is more of a history of the term question...

Though I'm new diving I've had a fascination with the sport for as long as I can remember. Once upon a time regulator sets were simple, first twin-hose then single hose with a single second stage. Along the way spgs were hung on hoses and some of them grew nto consoles. Then someone got the idea that hanging another second stage on there would be handy so enter hose number 3. Bouyancy control devices got more spophisticated and so a 4th hose was added to make the addition of lift just a button push away. And lastly drysuits became more common and for some divers this meant a 5th hose.

My perception had always been that the whole ganglia of hoses was where the octopus idiom came from since that's what it looks like.

In practice the term has come to represent the safe second.

I'm asking the veteran divers (or language scollars) where the octopus term really originated.

Pete

 

[Mike Veitch]

Tis located in the Mollusca Phyllum, Cephalopoda, Octopodidae...
for example: Octopus cyanea, the most common form of tropical Pacific reef octopus.
This classification was created by a Swede named Linnaeus who created the two name classification of Latin names for all living things

ie its Latin!

Ha ha ha

Sorry bout that but someone was going to do it, mine as well be me...answered "where the term came from?" and "what is an octopus?"

As for regs? who knows...

 

[Xizang]

I believe the "octopus" was pioneered by scheck exley (?). but im not sure if the use of the word "octopus" in reference to the alternate airsource was also coined by him.

 

[verybaddiver]

hmm, very good question and i'm in no way skilled or knowledgable to answer it unfortuantly :/

i did find this site though:- http://www.geocities.com/k_o_dionysus/scuba/intro.html

That suggests the whole reg/backup/1st/spg/inflators are together called the 'octopus'. From this i'm guessing it's just a slang term thats become mainstream to reflect the wrong piece of equipment?

Yes it would indeed be a interesting thing to find out why the back up second stage is called a octopus, simply because it means very little sense :>

 

[Walter]

Pete,

You are correct.

 

[derwoodwithasherwood]

I was similarly confused when I first heard other divers referring to the back-up second stage as the "octopus". When I was originally trained (NASDS), that was referred to as the "safe second" and the whole conglomeration was the "octopus". I have no idea why or when the change occured.

 

[artusor]

I'm glad you asked that question. I've been wondering myself. Ideas anyone?

 

[gjmmotors]

I want to say it was Hal Watts.
But im not certain.
-gm

I'm glad you asked that question. I've been wondering myself. Ideas anyone?

 

[CIBDiving]

I think you're correct in how the name came about - My first words when I saw a second stage, a safe second, an SPG and an inflator hose ( I'm not sure about the inflator - it's been a long time) all sticking out of a first stage was - "That darn thing looks like a friggin octopus!". At the time most first stages were rather small and unobtrusive so the effect was greater, and I was still diving a Aqualung mistral .

I doubt that I was alone in that observation.

 

[String]

The entire tangled mess of hoses, first and second stages, inflators etc are/were the "octopus" but its commonly used these days to refer to the spare 2nd stage.