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Yes you can switch them underwater and they will still function, no it won't do them any good and may cost you some money depending on the reg and type (piston vs diaphragm). What I have read of the WKPP/DIR/HOGARTHIAN crowd seems to refer to switching out the second stage as opposed to the whole regulator. This is accomplished by having the hose connection of to the second stage only finger tight - no it won't leak! Shortly before the "earth's crust cooled", when I was still teaching diving (circa 1973-1980) one of the shops (NASDS) that I taught for had an exercise that all open water students performed during their certification dive: While kneeling on the platform in 30-35 (ffw), remove tank assembly place in front of yourself, turn off valve, start buddy breathing with your buddy, remove 1st stage from valve (while still buddy breathing), replace, turn air back on, return to breathing off your own reg tank assembly, put back on, now have your buddy do it. I objected on philosophical grounds (comes naturally, I have a minor in philosophy) that one should not subject one's life support equipment to unnecessary abuse just for an exercise (one could, for example, turn off the valve, buddy breathe while doing needle point or playing solitaire, whatever - why flood your first stage just for grins!) The owner of the shop said (with a grin), we sell Scuba Pro and this doesn't hurt our regs, in fact, it shows how good they are! Now days no one would do this exercise in an OW class (they don't even buddy breathe)! Of course when I started diving in 1962, the "check out dive" included "doffing" all gear except mask and fins, leaving equipment with the instructor, making a "free assent" from 20-25 (ffw), swim back down to the instructor and "donning" gear. (See pages 258-260 "The Science of Skin and Scuba Diving", 1st edition, publ. 1957). On Wed, 24 Mar 1999 01:39:26 -0700 Brian Nadwidny <nadwidny@ho*.co*> writes: >Today I was discussing some of the various philosophies for equipment >configuration at my local diveshop. One of the things that I mentioned >was >that I had seen the idea of switching regs from tank to tank >underwater in >case of failure. Well that brought about much laughter and derisive >comments that regs can NOT be switched underwater. They said, among >other >things, that the sintered filter would be fouled and wouldn't allow >enough >gas to pass to the first stage for it to function correctly. > >From what I've been reading over that last few months, UW switching of >regs >from tank to tank is part of the DIR philosophy so I just assumed that >it >was not a problem. So what I want to know is, has anyone switched a >reg >from tank to tank underwater? What happened? > > I have an old reg that I'm willing to sacrifice in my quest for >knowledge >but I thought I would ask here first. > >Thanks in advance for any information > >Brian >Canada >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to >`techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to >`techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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