Air Buddy

[scubadown]

Has anyone tried the Air Buddy?

http://www.airbuddy.com/

It looks like a pretty cool device but....

 

[londonsean69]

Are you mad?? :duh The task loading in making something like that viable is crazy.

As with any Out Of Air (OOA) situation, you have 2 choices, donate your eg, or donate your octo (Or AirBuddy).

Option 1 - Donate Octo - Will an OOA diver, on the verge of panic, be able to effectively brath from something they have never seen, let alone used before??

Option 2 - Donate your primary, you use secondary - Diver still has to clear reg, you need an octo length hose (Streamlining)

This is akin to teaching divers to breath from their BCD inflator (which can be done, try it, just press both buttons)
They quote zero maintenance as a benefit, personally I like to know that my equipment is as up to date and well looked after as possible.

I practice various OOA drills, including buddy breathing and even breathing off a cylinder (just cup your hand over the valve and treat it like a free flow) I do these so that in the unlikely event my buddy is stupid enough to run out of air I have an automatic reaction to the problem.
I have my alternate on a necklace around my neck, it doesnt freeflow there, and I breathe the long hose. In a real OOA situation, the OOA diver will grab the reg out of your mouth, its not how it happened in training, but this is the real world. When this happens I drop my head, the hose comes away from me and my mouth is left hovering above the alternate.

Very sorry to piddle on your parade but this is another one of those 'inventions' that looks great until your down at 35m, with 1m visibility and a hand comes out of the gloom, snatching the reg from your mouth. You don't get a warning, no big OOA signals here, they just take - Trust me, it has happened to me, and both of your breathing rates go through the roof till you settle down.