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Spare Air as freediver / spearo back-up?

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Jouskari

Well-Known Member
Nov 10, 2006
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I´ve been thinking about this idea for a while now, but never had the opportunity to test it myself. Not testing and posting it here always presents the risk of people using the idea without proper understanding... and accidentaly killing themselves. Well anyhow...

Spare Air manufactures a open complete open circuit minibottle meant as a "bail-out" option for scuba divers. However I think that a Spare Air could also work as a back-up for rec freedivers / spearos if caught by a net or accidentaly exceeded planned bottomtime.

Spare Air Models - 300 Standard & Nitrox and Model 170 plus Part and Accessories

Especially this thread really troubled me:
http://forums.deeperblue.com/united-arab-emirates/90163-spearfisherman-dies-dubai.html#post839273

Obviously it is not big enough for giving loads of extra bottomtime. But if it would be kept easily accessible It could give 5 or 10 breaths of extra air for the diver to stay conscious and escape the situation. Also if inserted during acent it could work as a precaution against SWB. Perhaps it could be strapped around the neck with elastic rubber tubing for easy access. And spareos could of course paint it in camo.

The big risk would though be lung barotrauma. Recreational freediving or spearfishing usually happen at 10 - 15 m so the volume of increased gas would only double but this could still rupture a lung. Missuse could lead to potential lung damage, but in the end I think the Spare Air could perhaps do more good than bad. I´d rather take the risk of lung barotrauma instead of SWB.

Any thoughts?
 
It seems that it could add safety if properly used. I just had a conversation about it yesterday with a very experienced dive instructor who has also held world records. She cautioned me that when you use it you have to keep using it until you surface.
My other comment; while experimenting with Spare Air I discovered that it doesn't seem work if you are head down.
 
Pure oxygen could work better than regular air, since it offers more operating time and doesn't expose diver to dcs risk. With no dcs risk diver could take few breaths and come up holding breath / exhaling. Pure oxygen is toxic in depth but, as i have understood, wouldn't still create sufficient cns load to cause any symptoms in such short time.

But please don't take my word as granted, someone with more knowledge could share information.
 
Personally I think it brings more risks than safety. The main problem is that it creates a false feeling of safety, stimulating you so to push more to your limits. In the same time most people who black out, often do not feel it coming, so will not think about breathing from the SpairAir bottle. And when you get into real troubles, where you could get some use of it, you may be too much in panic to really use it. Just think how often freedivers who get into troubles really use the possibilities they have to improving their chance to survive: dropping a belt, removing the mask, or using the knife when entangled? Frankly told, not very often. When you start feeling to be in troubles, you already do not have any rational thinking. And when you take a breath in panic, you can easily die due to a barotrauma when ascending, because the supply is rather limited, and you'll reflexively hold your breath.

You better dive with a real buddy.
 
Reactions: Erik
IMO a bad idea. Catch yourself in some fishing line and it's highly unlikely you'd reach for your Spare Air. More likely that you actually snagged the fishing line WITH the Spare Air strapped on your leg or wherever!

On the other hand, if you made it a habit by training to react properly, then you have a better chance, just like in martial arts. Once limbic system kicks in we don't make rational choices- we can train to react in safe way but it is still not rational prefrontal cortex thinking- it's training.

As trux said, the con of any safety gear is that humans will naturally push harder ie: SpareAir, buddy/safety divers in a competition, or brakes/seatbelts/airbags/perfomance tires.

I guess I'd say that if I was to go with a SpareAir, I'd probably spend some time before each session training myself to pretend I needed it and go through the motions of taking it out of its holder and put it in my mouth. But even then you'd still have to deal with the embolism issue. If you are a regular scubadiver then you may react appropriately and breathe, but it's a gamble.
Cheers,
Erik
 
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Reactions: trux
Here is my ''Speros view'' on the little tank.

There is no ''free diving'' if you have a SCUBA bottle on you body.
One is just a SCUBA diver that is not using the gear.

I love freediving and I also enjoy SCUBA diving, each has it's place.

There is a sport called Free Solo Climbing (no ropes) not to be confused with
Rock Climbing. ( use of ropes and safety lines).

A good test of the theory would be to go to Northern Cali and get some abs ''freediving'' with any SCUBA device strapped to your body and be met on the beach by F+G.

When I lost gear in a deep cave, I traded my gun back on the boat
for a steel 72 that I am certified to use. I would do the same to save the meat of a fish i could not recover.

Here is my spero freedive guidlines.
#1 Get freediving training from a reputable organization and follow their advice.
#2 Use common sense and don't push your luck, your life depends on it.
#3 Carry the most important safety equipment - a knife
#4 Drop your weight belt if you need extra floatation
#5 Don't use compressed air unless you are SCUBA trained
#6. Get a Freedive vest from Terry Mass as I will when funds permit.

Cheers, Don
 
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Reactions: Doc Bass and Jonny250
I don't think it would be very useful for spearfishing.

Having said that, I do have one that I use when freediving with my Scooter. I use so little energy with my scooter that I'm not worried about not being able to grab it in time. The idea would be to user it if I had a catastrophic failure at depth-- such as the scooter flooding.

Whatever you do, don't use pure 02 in your spare air. If the toxicity doesn't kill you then filling it with pure 02 might. If you want to fill it with pure 02 you need to change out all of the internal rubber components, 02 clean the tank and parts, change out the grease to something 02 compatible, and then fill it with only pure 02 or hyper filtered air. All of this must be done to prevent explosions.

If you really want to add in some safety dive with a buddy. If you have cash to burn look into getting a freedivers safety vest- and a buddy.

Jon
 
Reactions: Erik
Ahh, the philsophical crux; thanks Paul. True enough. We're either freediving and walking the danger line using our minds and bodies, or we're scubadiving, period.

I remember about 10 years ago when Pipin did his deep no-limits "freedive" which involved taking a breath on the way down off of a cylinder. A stunt, and maybe interesting, but not freediving.
 
Good points and I totally agree on the knife. My main idea though was that the diver should not ever need to breathe from it unless there where no other option. It would just be there as a back-up when every other mean fails. Eg. inserting it into your mouth on starting from the bottom. This way if you pass out from a SWB (DWB) you probably still have a dry airway and perhaps wake up on the surface. As always, proper training beforehand would ofcourse also be cruicial for the diver to act properly in a situation.

But as I said I´ve never fieldtested it, so It might just be to bulky to work or even be handy. So really need to get one and test it out to see if it actually has any practical use.

I also understand the philosophy of the diver being responsible for himself. But at the same time I think many aspects of freediving procedures lack common sense redundacy in case of emergency. Parachuters have a back-up right? Airplanes have two motors or the capability to fly without one? Terrys vest is the best thing that has happened in years and adds a "plan b" for freedivers / spearos. Unfortunately its +1000$ and not readily available.

The idea for using a spare air became more concrete when I did some small scale apnea cave diving in Egypt in January. Getting caught on the way up or just passing out due to SWB near the surface could really fast have led to a bad situation. I´m still here because I kept my dives to some degree conservative (the only smart thing would have been not entering the caves). But how about next time?

Good point Jon. Never use any mixture of oxygen in a device that is not clearly marked to handle it and without the understanding of the gas dynamics applied to it.
 
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Jouskari said:
Terrys vest is the best thing that has happened in years and adds a "plan b" for freedivers / spearos. Unfortunately its +1000$ and not readily available.
Click to expand...

I agree with all above, and like Don Pauls's rational. But just a quick note on the FRV (Terry's vest): it is available, costs 2,870, I will be wearing mine before the end of the month. I worked out with the cost of fish fillet (I only feed my friends and family, gifting, I never sell fish) it will be paid in 70 to 80 dive sessions
 
Reactions: Don Paul

That's awesome your getting the FRV, what a wise decision.

Cheers, Don
 
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