octo inflater for a dive master or instructor?

[Hollywood703]

Originally Posted by davepoff

I prefer the seperate octo. In a Padi OW class you are taught to look in the triangle from the chin to ribs for the octo to grab. Plus I would prefer to breath from my primary when sharing air

This is true to look at the triangle...(why i put one on for class) however, they also teach you to know your buddies equipment before you dive as well....If you cant work their equipment......you need to take time and go over that before you enter the water. I make sure and mention to all my buddies that I use Octo/inflator, and go over it quickly

[WaScubaDude]

I don't like the octo/inflator at all. In most OOA situations you will need to ascend fairly soon thereafter, and has anyone really tried adding and dumping air to the BC while holding on to a DB and breathing from the octo/inflator?
Not so pretty good in MNSHO.

I really think an regular octo on a 5ft hose, or dir config with long hose primary and octo on the necklace is the very best in an actual emergency.

[PsychDiver]

As an instructor you don't need an octo/inflator. Most rental gear that students use have a regular second and an octo/inflator is more in the way than useful. Having said that, I have both an octo/inflator and regular second that I teach with. This is my primary setup and I like the redundency even if it is overkill. But because some students buy their gear with an octo/inflator I have it. Plus, I am not a fan of changing my gear for instructing and personal use. I think it is safer to have a setup you are very familiar with. In a stressed situation you need to be able to automatically fall back on your training. If you train one way and dive another you are adding an element of variance that may make a difference in how you respond.

[kauai diver]

All excellent advice ! Thank you all so very much for your input. I have decide to go the way of a standard octo, I plan on doing alot of advanced open water classes, it seems like the better choice.
Happy New Year to all !

[Mycroft]

Don't listen to some of the above advice, they are speculating, while I have actually DONE it.

I had an OOA situation with my buddy in an OVERHEAD environment. Since I dive a long primary hose, my buddy took my primary and I went to the Air II. I lose points for style because I had to take the Air II out of my mouth to unloop the long hose to the other reg.

I then swam side by side with my buddy to the exit, using my Air II for inflation with no trouble at all.

My buddy knew to go for my primary, because I taught him that when we started diving together. Otherwise, I would have taught him to go for the Octo.

(After this, he switched to an Air II as well.)

And one last advantage for an Air is that the inflator is now serviced with that reg, while most inflators get overlooked until they fail.

[somewhereinla]

I personally think those things are dangerous.
First, at least half the people I know who own one have had some problems with them, especially where the BC hose and the Air2 connect. The other problem in the pressured Inflator hose is very hard to disconnect and reconnect under water. And last and most important, all the standard emergency procedure are design around the assumption that you have a standard Octo. and a standard BC system. I remember when I took Rescue, the few people that had the air2 or similar device were problematic as you were never sure which button did what, in a real emergency such a scenario could turn into a disaster. This is also why all tech. divers have exactly the same gear configuration, so that one always know where everything is and how to work it.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by somewhereinla

I personally think those things are dangerous.
First, at least half the people I know who own one have had some problems with them, especially where the BC hose and the Air2 connect. The other problem in the pressured Inflator hose is very hard to disconnect and reconnect under water. And last and most important, all the standard emergency procedure are design around the assumption that you have a standard Octo. and a standard BC system. I remember when I took Rescue, the few people that had the air2 or similar device were problematic as you were never sure which button did what, in a real emergency such a scenario could turn into a disaster. This is also why all tech. divers have exactly the same gear configuration, so that one always know where everything is and how to work it.

And as I said before to a similar post - BS.

The only time such a thing is dangerous is when it isn't used very often - by which point the diver is going to be dangerous with whatever they use. The rescue class I was in had NO problems with Air IIs.

What is dangerous is a bunch of tech divers spouting off that only certain equipment can be used without ever using the equiment to know what they are talking about.

[somewhereinla]

No need to be defensive here, I can only report about what I know and what I have seen first hand, diving weekly, here in South Cal. where, admittedly, the surf tend to be rough on diving gear. Oh and by the way I am not a tech. diver either... All I have stated is factual. I have seen this past year at least 2 divers, one, a friend of mine, aborting their dive because their Air2 was broken.
That said, I don't mean to say that all Air2 type devices are junk nor do I insinuate that sooner or later they will break. I think they are fine for most divers but to answer the originator of this thread, I don't feel they are appropriate for a dive master or an instructor or anyone that dive several time a week all year around.

Dive safe.

[Matt P]

Gotta admit I get nervous when I'm paired with a buddy who has an AirII. I don't want them trying to pass that thing off to me. I always ask insta-buddies what they're going to hand me in an OOA situation. Still get a little nervous that they may passoff the AirII in the heat of the moment if I don't know the diver.

[CODMAN]

This brings up an important point! If you have any non-standard equipment (I have an airtrim BC with inflator on the side), you must make sure your buddy knows it and how to work it so he doesn't get a bad surprise in an emergency situation. This means a quick briefing before the dive if you have an instabuddy. By the way, this is also true for signs!!! If your buddy isn't familiar with your use of signs (like an instabuddy), you need to revise them before the dive. I always do this and fellow divers frequently give me stange looks... You'd be surprised how often I've found that for the same sign, an instabuddy had a different interpretation than me!

If you take these precautions, I don't think this type of gear is dangerous at all.

Just my 0.02$