Why donate my Primary?

[Jay Roy]

An Open Water Diver should NEVER donate the primary as first choice.

Why not use a gear configuration that will carry with you thru all levels of diving? As I said before, bungied backup and long hose, 5 feet or greater on the primary reg is the only logical choice...

 

[ckharlan66]

If you are an open water recreational diver, you should learn and practice sharing with your Alternate Air Source, which should be a full second stage regulator. If you are thinking of dive master, you should get the AAS on a longer hose, 40”, and route the second regulator so that the hose enters the first stage from the opposite side of your primary.

An Open Water Diver should NEVER donate the primary as first choice.

An Out of Air Diver will rarely go for the mouthpiece in the mouth, they will go for the closest and most available air source. By putting your alternate on a 40” hose and routing the hose from the ‘other’ side, you can pass the alternate off long before the possibly panicked diver can reach you or your gear.

Leave the long hose, primary passing to the troglodytes who developed it. They developed their system to meet a very specific need, practice against that need and supposedly dive with teams of divers that are never susceptible to panic.

I’ve posted more on this in the past, and this subject is a full chapter in my upcoming book, so I am not going to elaborate on this much more, because it is time for me to go diving.

I understand you are quoting the agency training here but I respectfully disagree. If I am out of air I I don't care what type of configuration the person I am asking for air is in I would like to reg with the pretty bubbles coming out of it as those bubbles are the only thing on my mind at that moment.

Especially if we are both horizontal then we are eye to eye and the golden triangle is the hardest part to see.

Chad

 

[SteveAD]

maybe training standards should be changed to say that the octo should be found in the golden triangle, at the right butt cheek of dragging in the sand, that way there would be less confusion when it isn't where it belongs. I donate my primary (which is always where it belongs) and then switch to my air2 (let's not start a fight on that I'm comfortable with it and that's all that matters) which is also always where it belongs.

 

[Web Monkey]

Actually, you can't hand someone your "BC Integrated Secondary" It's only for you, not them. The hose isn't long enough. It only reaches your mouth, not theirs.

Although a long hose is nice for caves and wrecks, on a normal OW dive, if someone gets or takes my reg, I want them close enough to grab so I have a little control over the situation.

The last thing I want is a freaked out diver 7' away dragging me to the surface by an LP hose.

Also, for all the complaining people do about the Air-2 and it's friends, if you need an alternate, it's nice to know that it definitely works, is probably already in your hand, or can be found immediatley because you use it probably a dozen times during each dive.

Terry

You are welcome to dive any way you want, Fred, but I will hand over my primary on a long hose( but not 7' long) rather than give OOA diver control of my bouyancy by handing them my BC integrated secondary.

IMAO, the only 'right' way to share air is the one you discussed with buddy during dive plan.

 

[Jay Roy]

The last thing I want is a freaked out diver 7' away dragging me to the surface by an LP hose.



Terry

In regards to that one, I avoid diving with anybody who is going to turn a simple gas share situation into a bolt to the surface....I might go as far to say that if having to breathe off of someone elses 2nd stage is enough to freak you out, it might be time to sell the dive gear, buy a guitar and join a band, before somebody gets hurt...

 

[Diver Dennis]

It is very difficult to tell how anyone, even an experienced diver, will react in an OOA. I can't tell until it happens, which was twice last year.

 

[Jay Roy]

It is very difficult to tell how anyone, even an experienced diver, will react in an OOA. I can't tell until it happens, which was twice last year.

I guess thats why I only dive with one guy......

 

[Diver Dennis]

I wish I had just one buddy winger but all my diving is done in a resort setting so although I dive solo most of the time but I do pair up or stay with groups sometimes.

 

[halocline]

This is a topic which seems to inspire endless discussion; most of it pretty useful, but some of it based on logic that simply does not work; this is especially the case when analogies from cave and/or deco diving are used to formulate hard and fast "rules" for OW rec diving. For example, the bit about donating your primary because you want to make sure that the OOA diver doesn't get deco gas or a reg that's turned off....well, in OW rec diving, there's never deco gas, and there's amost never independent doubles, so that line of reasoning does not make sense. If you want to apply cave techniques (that you've been trained in) to your own OW diving, fine, but saying that they're better for OW diving (and with divers who have not received this training) because they apply to tech situations is simply false.

That said, there are lots of things that tech divers do that can benefit rec diving, and I think a slightly longer hose on whatever reg will be donated is one of those things. Regardless of your donating technique or manner of dealing with an OOA diver (hanging on, or keeping your distance) having more hose to work with will never be an impediment.

But, a bungied alternate on a really short hose could turn into a problem, because it assumes that the OOA diver will go for the reg in your mouth. Most OW divers are trained to go for the alternate when OOA, and so it's perfectly reasonable to expect some OOA diver to grab at the donating diver's bungied alternate; after all it's not far from where PADI trains you to keep your alternate. If you're tech or cave diving with other divers that know all about the bungied alternate, fine, but less than 1% of regular OW divers are going to know what this is.

One aspect of rec diving that must be considered in the great air-sharing debate, particularly in a resort area where there is a high percentage of divers with little experience and/or poor skills, is the unpredictability of those around you. So, I think it's probably best to have a set up which will allow you to successfully donate either primary or alternate. Personally, I have a standard length hose on my primary and a slightly longer (I think 36") than average on my alternate, but I'm considering going for 48" on that. If I were to get mugged for my primary; okay, it's maybe a little tight, but acceptable, and if an OOA diver comes at me asking for air, I can easily give him/her my alternate which is attached to my right chest D ring with one of those "bungie clips" that release the reg just by pulling, and there's a comfortable hose length for us to ascend together with.

BTW, it's fine to discuss an air sharing plan with your buddy, and if you're only diving with a trusted buddy, great. How about all those times you're in a resort area with a bunch of "just out of the OW class" "never did anything like this before" crowd? Those scenarios are hard to avoid if you want to dive in some of the more beautiful tropical locales, and I suspect they're also more likely to produce any sort of OOA situation, considering how many divers there are in close proximity, many with rental gear, etc.

 

[Jay Roy]

I wish I had just one buddy winger but all my diving is done in a resort setting so although I dive solo most of the time but I do pair up or stay with groups sometimes.

Well, that comment more applies to here at home..But I've found myself a few times set up with an insta buddy down south...
I was in Cuba in March with my usual buddy in tow....On a few of the dives, the DM asked us to break up our team and each of us buddy with a less experienced diver...We did it, but I thought it was his job to watch everyone..but hey, I try to be a helpful guy once in a while