Quote: (Originally Posted by
Drmike)
I think everyone is missing the main advantage of a BOV.
Having a bov promotes an earlier bail. which I believe is a big safety feature
I found when diving without a BOV the percieved hassle of bailing to OC (closing dsv, spitting it out, locating and fumbling for offboard 2nd stage reg and shoving it in me gob) the large stress raiser of having to come off the loop, was enough to encourage me to delay bailing until I was VERY sure I was having a problem.
The longer one delays to bail the higher up the CO2 spiral ride to death we are and the harder it is to recover - and if high enough we cant recover (and likely cant even bail)
Hear Hear.
There is *absolutely* no doubt that I. for one, am alive today because of a BOV, for exactly the reasons cited. I have ZERO doubt that I would be dead without having had one. And this from someone who has had an alpinist mindset since the beginning...
In my incident, I was totally task saturated at 200 (feet) on an anchor line in a strong current.. had only one hand to use (letting go of the line there a hundred miles offshore with the current and deco I needed to do = death), and it was *all* could do to turn the knob. No shit. If I had needed to grab an offboard reg, even without closing the DSV... I would be dead today. C02 comes on so fast it's positively terrifying. it's the ONLY thing I fear diving.
You ALSO need an OC regulator hanging... for caustic cocktails, etc. You *need* both, for this sort of diving anyhow.
Live and Learn. Hopefully....
IMHO, this ought to be a non-discussion.
Dave