Inflator-integrated octopus

Captain's log. On StarDate Wed, 4 Jan 2006 08:58:38 -0500 received comm from
"Lee Bell" <pleebell@bellsouth.net> on channel rec.scuba.equipment:

: at least tried this sysgtem and many are still using it, even for their open
: water diving. While I, at least temporarily, have given up the long hose,
: my alternate, like Alan's, is necklaced, tied, around my neck.

With your current configuration do you still donate your primary? How long is
your primary and how have you fitted it to you?

martin

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Captain's log. On StarDate Wed, 4 Jan 2006 08:58:38 -0500 received comm from
"Lee Bell" <pleebell@bellsouth.net> on channel rec.scuba.equipment:

: at least tried this sysgtem and many are still using it, even for their open
: water diving. While I, at least temporarily, have given up the long hose,
: my alternate, like Alan's, is necklaced, tied, around my neck.

With your current configuration do you still donate your primary? How long is
your primary and how have you fitted it to you?

martin

--
Martin Törnsten - http://martin.tornsten.com/


_________________________________________
Usenet Zone Free Binaries Usenet Server
More than 140,000 groups
Unlimited download
http://www.usenetzone.com to open account

"Martin T" wrote

in message news:rqo2s1d9qjmtql0scqrpl4e9i4l77eqfc0@4ax.com...
> Captain's log. On StarDate Wed, 4 Jan 2006 08:58:38 -0500 received comm
> from
> "Lee Bell" <pleebell@bellsouth.net> on channel rec.scuba.equipment:
>
> : at least tried this sysgtem and many are still using it, even for their
> open
> : water diving. While I, at least temporarily, have given up the long
> hose,
> : my alternate, like Alan's, is necklaced, tied, around my neck.
>
> With your current configuration do you still donate your primary? How long
> is
> your primary and how have you fitted it to you?

I have always donated my primary. Prior to 1991, I only had a primary. I
learned to dive without an octopus or BCD back in 1962. Because either my
family or I had a boat the entire time, I had little reason to change. In
1991, my wife got certified and, when I tried to accompany her on her open
water dives, I was turned away. They didn't allow anyone to dive without a
BCD and octupus. So I went out and got one of each, actually two of each.
I bought them for her too. I got a SeaQuest BCD and Air Source. As I've
mentioned, with the combination unit, it only makes sense to donate the
primary. Around 1999, I adopted the long hose and necklaced alternate. To
this day, I like the long hose slightly better in the water, but it's more
of a pain on a crowded dive boat than it's worth in the water.

So, in answer to your questions, yes, I still donate my primary. My primary
hose is whatever the standard length primary hose is and it is configured
and routed accordingly, looped off to my right, over my right shoulder and
into my mouth. My alternate is on the shortest hose I could get that would
allow me to have full head movement. I think it's 22 inches, but don't hold
me to it. That may be the length of my high pressure hose.

Lee

"Martin T" wrote

in message news:rqo2s1d9qjmtql0scqrpl4e9i4l77eqfc0@4ax.com...
> Captain's log. On StarDate Wed, 4 Jan 2006 08:58:38 -0500 received comm
> from
> "Lee Bell" <pleebell@bellsouth.net> on channel rec.scuba.equipment:
>
> : at least tried this sysgtem and many are still using it, even for their
> open
> : water diving. While I, at least temporarily, have given up the long
> hose,
> : my alternate, like Alan's, is necklaced, tied, around my neck.
>
> With your current configuration do you still donate your primary? How long
> is
> your primary and how have you fitted it to you?

I have always donated my primary. Prior to 1991, I only had a primary. I
learned to dive without an octopus or BCD back in 1962. Because either my
family or I had a boat the entire time, I had little reason to change. In
1991, my wife got certified and, when I tried to accompany her on her open
water dives, I was turned away. They didn't allow anyone to dive without a
BCD and octupus. So I went out and got one of each, actually two of each.
I bought them for her too. I got a SeaQuest BCD and Air Source. As I've
mentioned, with the combination unit, it only makes sense to donate the
primary. Around 1999, I adopted the long hose and necklaced alternate. To
this day, I like the long hose slightly better in the water, but it's more
of a pain on a crowded dive boat than it's worth in the water.

So, in answer to your questions, yes, I still donate my primary. My primary
hose is whatever the standard length primary hose is and it is configured
and routed accordingly, looped off to my right, over my right shoulder and
into my mouth. My alternate is on the shortest hose I could get that would
allow me to have full head movement. I think it's 22 inches, but don't hold
me to it. That may be the length of my high pressure hose.

Lee

If you have an inflator-integrated secondary air source, can you adjust
your bouyancy and breath through the octopus at the same time, or do
you have to take it out of your mouth to adjust your bouyancy?

Is it better (easier or safer) to have your octopus seperate from your
BC inflator?

On Tue, 03 Jan 2006 17:33:11 -0800, Mick wrote:

> Is it better (easier or safer) to have your octopus seperate from your
> BC inflator?

Yes.

"Mick" wrote

> If you have an inflator-integrated secondary air source, can you adjust
> your bouyancy and breath through the octopus at the same time, or do
> you have to take it out of your mouth to adjust your bouyancy?

You can increase your buoyancy without taking it out of your mouth, but,
depending on your attitude in the water, you may or may not be able to
reduce it.

> Is it better (easier or safer) to have your octopus seperate from your
> BC inflator?

This is largely a matter of personal preference. There are, however, a
couple of real issues:
1. Most, possibly all, combination units use a larger size low pressure hose
connection. Not all of the larger sized connectors are the same. This
becomes an issue if you have an equipment malfunction and need to use rental
or borrowed equipment.
2. Some of the smaller units are more difficult to service than a standard
second stage.
3. Some of the combination units are noticably lower performance than a
standard second stage.
4. Using a combination unit limits what you can reasonably donate to your
primary.
5. Some combination units come with hoses short enough to limit head
movement while using them. Those that don't can be hard to secure.
6. The buoyancy issue you've already mentioned.

Having said all of that, I used the Seaquest version for years without a
problem. It came with a longer hose. My wife still uses one. I only
changed when I went to a plate and wing configuration which offered no
convenient way to control the longer inflation hose.

Lee

I almost got a combo inflator-secondary to reduce the amount of "stuff"
hanging off me, but was convinced not to for this one reason:

Image you and your buddy at 80ft. Your buddy is 50ft away when he runs out
of air, beginning the process of freaking out and turning blue. By the time
he gets to you, he goes straight for your primary regulator because you're
supposed to breath from the secondary combo. But you may not be ready for
him to yank the primary from your mouth. Now you're freaking out also, you
grab your snorkel, computer, or whatever else you can find before finally
getting the secondary combo in your mouth - at which point you immediately
suck in a lung full of salt water. If you don't routinely check out your
secondary maybe it doesn't even work. Now there are two people freaking
out.

Of course none of this happens if everyone keeps their head. And I'm sure
there are other situations where a combo is better. But this one reason
really swayed me to go the more traditional secondary route.


"Mick" <micknewton@direcway.com> wrote in message
news:1136338391.393685.217680@g43g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
> If you have an inflator-integrated secondary air source, can you adjust
> your bouyancy and breath through the octopus at the same time, or do
> you have to take it out of your mouth to adjust your bouyancy?
>
> Is it better (easier or safer) to have your octopus seperate from your
> BC inflator?
>

In article <1136338391.393685.217680@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>,
Mick <micknewton@direcway.com> wrote:

€ If you have an inflator-integrated secondary air source, can you adjust
€ your bouyancy and breath through the octopus at the same time, or do
€ you have to take it out of your mouth to adjust your bouyancy?
€
€ Is it better (easier or safer) to have your octopus seperate from your
€ BC inflator?
€

I had a Sherwood Shadow for a long time, but the one time I really had
to use it I discovered the limitations of it. The BC I was using at the
time could dump just through the inflator hose or with a shoulder dump.
Inflating the BC was no problem, but dumping air required me to take
the regulator out of my mouth. Not a big deal, but also not the best
situation. A BC with another dump valve would have helped, but
ultimately I decided that the better system was to use a necklaced
backup (and a long hose).

Lee Bell wrote:
> You can increase your buoyancy without taking it out of your mouth, but,
> depending on your attitude in the water, you may or may not be able to
> reduce it.

Okay, you can keep it in your mouth while adding air to the BC, but can
you breathe normally at the same time?

Is there any way that air from the BC could be inhaled by the diver
accidentally, maybe by pushing the deflate button?

I'm trying to get an idea of how these things work.