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Question about air sharing (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 week ago by The_Terrible_Humbaba@slrpnk.net to c/scuba@mander.xyz

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Would you share the main stage, or the secondary stage?

I just got my open water certification from SSI, and I think I remember my manual saying you should share the main stage, and use the secondary yourself - also called the octo, I think? But when I dived with my instructor, she taught me to share the secondary.

My instructor is certified under both SSI and PADI (maybe others), and when I looked it up I did see some people mention that sharing the secondary/octo is the PADI way, and sharing the main is the SSI way. Is that true?

Which way were you taught? Which would you do? If you're an instructor, which way do you teach? And more importantly, why?

To me, how my instructor taught me makes the most sense, because what you hear in most rescue situations is that you have to make sure you are safe first so you can be in a position to help; so it follows that you should keep breathing out of your main and share the secondary (instead of interrupting your breathing to switch).

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[–] trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I'm not sure what SSI teaches now, with PADI I learned to donate the octo.

With GUE I learned to donate the primary.

Their reasoning is that when someone is out of air you should give them one that you're 100% sure is working as they're probably running out of breath.

I've seen too many divers drag their octos through the sand/sediment to not agree with them. If I'm out of air I'd rather not get a mouth full of mud first. Besides that, if someone is starting to panic they're likely to take the primary from you anyway because it definitely works and is the easiest to find.

This is also the reason that agencies that focus more on tec diving prescribe having the primary on a long hose for easy sharing and the secondary on a shorter hose hanging on a necklace for easy access. That way you're also sure it's not dragging through the mud.