Snorkling with emergency air tank

Anyone who has ever tried Scuba diving knows about Spare Air, an independent backup system that gives you a couple of minutes of air to get out of emergencies.

Suddenly an Australian company has begun marketing practically an identical device as a recreational device, complete with lots of photos of beautiful women enjoying the freedom of breathing underwater without a lot of gear to cover up their bikinis.


Dangerous?



Modern SCUBA gear has a lot of redundancies that took underwater breathing from highly trained Navy divers to the common folk. Many overweight people enjoy SCUBA because it releases them from gravity. I am a little nervous about the idea of turning emergency backup systems into over the counter recreational devices sold to people who can use them even if they are drunk or in bad physical shape.

Perhaps as long as you aren't too deep. Safer than deep diving of any sort probably.

How long does it last?

The cost per minute of air must be prohibitive. Are they disposable or refillable? I also think the depth limit that the small bottle and regulator would reliably function at would be pretty shallow.

How much does it cost?

I like this myself. 45 minutes underwater.

Quote: Pacomartin

Suddenly an Australian company has begun marketing practically an identical device as a recreational device, complete with lots of photos of beautiful women enjoying the freedom of breathing underwater without a lot of gear to cover up their bikinis.

Yes, I've noticed that beautiful women are often used in marketing campaigns. I'm quite in favor of it. Even casinos use photos of young attractive females with low necklines and high hem lines. I fear however that the "target market" is more likely to be the overly rotund guy so desperate for calorie intake that he is stuffing himself with a burgerat the water's edge.

>>>>Dangerous?
Well, marketing fire extinguishers that are more toyliike than functional is dangerous. Marketing survival bars that taste good is dangerous. Just about any product is dangerous in some fashion. Any bare-bones rather than bells and whistles product probably has an inherent danger but also an inherent safety feature. Its the old one legged stool theory. If you go sailing without flotation gear or life rafts, you may get to be unlucky but you are also likely to become a better sailor than those who rely on 'the iron sail' too much or who make decisions based on their knowledge of survival gear being on board. A stripped-down purely functional item without redundancies and super sensitive measuring gear may induce a few to venture into danger but it will induce many to engage in simple enjoyment of a sport otherwise not available to them.

Power steering is more dangerous than manual steering in a few situations. You going to change your car because of that?

Quote:

I am a little nervous about the idea of turning emergency backup systems into over the counter recreational devices sold to people who can use them even if they are drunk or in bad physical shape.

Hey, fat drunk old geezers need some fun in their lives too. I can attest to that.

There was an ad in Mexico in the 70s, I think with Anthony Quinn, with the catch phrase "If the things that are worth doing were easy, everyone would do them." (I forget what the ad was for).

Now things worth doing are getting easier all the time. Safer, not so much.

Quote: Ayecarumba

The cost per minute of air must be prohibitive. Are they disposable or refillable? I also think the depth limit that the small bottle and regulator would reliably function at would be pretty shallow.

How much does it cost?

A Spare Air kit is $280. I am not sure what the Snorkl will cost in Australia. There is already a product with the same name being sold in USA, but it is a fancy snorkel mask.

The Snorkl is refillable, but I am willing to bet if you don't have compressed air from a SCUBA tank, you can't get them that full with a hand pump. Depth limit is 10 meters and estimated underwater time for marketing is 10 minutes. Real time is extremely variable depending on a lot of factors.

It is very difficult to get the bends in 10 meters of waters, and you would have to use dozens of SNORKL tanks.

But just as a matter of physics compressed air expands to double size from 10 meters to surfacing. I would think a ruptured lung would be the greatest danger facing untrained and possibly drunk free divers. When you are in a panic situation people tend to not want to exhale as they feel they are giving up precious air.

Remember you have no gauge. Decades ago, SCUBA divers regularly dove without a gauge. When they ran out of air, they would reach up to their tank and open up a reserve tank which would allow them to safely surface. My friend told me that the worse feeling is reaching up and discovering that your reserve tank is already open and empty, so you must surface in a controlled fashion without any new air.

As a "spare air" system, you would only use it an emergency.

BTW, you can teach children how to free dive with a snorkel. You can see more things than just floating on the surface. Free diving involves a simple technique of surfacing correctly and emptying the scuba before you breathe in air. Since you are breathing air at the surface it is not compressed.

If you want to carry a "Spare Air" in case you get clothing caught on coral, that isn't such a bad idea, but I wouldn't use one for fun.

Is there any value in your rebreathing some of your already breathed air? I was just thinking, if you exhaled some of your air into a gravity neutral underwater bag, you could potentially get some use out of it until you got to the surface. Seems better than breathing water.

The "Air Buddy" is a single person version of what used to be called SNUBA.



Although you are still breathing compressed air with SNUBA, in theory there is less possibility of a panic surface. The diver is much less likely to try and keep the compressed air in his lungs by holding his breath which could result in a rupture.

With SNUBA they usually try to restrict you to 40' of diving. You have to stay under for about 2.5 hours before there is danger of contracting the bends. If they let you dive to 80 feet that time would be only 30 minutes.

"Resort certification" for SCUBA is usually limited to 60' of diving. A resort certification course is very short and you can only go with a group from the resort paired with a dive buddy.