help please

[diverswife]

my husband is just getting back into diving after a few years and i want to get him some regulators but not sure what to get im looking second hand realy he is using a drysuit and dual bladder wing so in my infinate nowledge (lol) am i correct in tinking he will need 5 low pressure ports on his regulators any help is appreciated
luiza

[Ed Howarth]

Is he using twin cylinders or a single?

Ed

[diverswife]

single for the moment

[ChristianG]

single for the moment
Which means a single regulator, for which he needs:

• High pressure port for his pressure gauge - unless he's using an air-integrated computer.

Low pressure ports for:

• Primary Second Stage.
• Secondary Second Stage (Octopus/Long Hose/whatever).
• Feed for his suit.
• Feed for his twin bladder "thingie". Some qualifications here:

a) Twin bladders are mostly thought to be superfluous if used with a dry suit since that would normally be the secondary inflation device if the "thingie" bit breaks.
b) Therefore the second bladder feed hose would be left loose - but can be plugged in in the (highly unlikely) event that the primary one has a catastrophic failure. A slight leak, even a major leak, is not a catastrophic failure, simply a nuisance which may require re-orientation in the water.

You'll note that I (entirely personally, many would beg to differ) am not enamoured of twin bladders. IMO they add extra complexity to what is essentially a bag to hold a tank, no more, no less and if you're diving dry, why the extra bulk of the twin BCD when the dry suit can/would replace the secondary BCD device? Again, only in case of catastrophic failure.

I am, however, concerned about the length of time that hubby may have been out of diving. A refresher course might be a good idea? :D

[diverswife]

firstly christian thank you for your concern by no stretch is my husband just going to go and jump in with no gradual return or refreshing of his skills. he has always taqken his diving very ssereusly.

cost is a reasonable issue for us atm and the reson he has gone for the wing is the fit he has always struggled with the other style in regards to its fit.
the dual bladder i beleive was only a coincidence when he bought the wing as he has a standard jacket too but looking for a better option.

Back to the regs so in essence he could have 4 low pressure ports and leave the second bladder unused as he is using a drysuit

[paul_c]

frankly a apexks DS4 with atx 40s is possibly the cheepest and one of the more reliable purchase regs.

over second hand where a service would be adivsed at least.


as to duel bladder. they arnt that much larger and i like haveing the redundancy, but i do dive wet.

[northern_diver]

Might be clever and sneaky to get him a subscription to a diver mag, and get a free diving watch/torch in the process (both are VERY good, use them myself/know others that do)

Your husband can then look through and see what he wants and you could ask sneaky questions like 'so, anything look as good as it was when your 1st did it?'...answer 'oh yeah, this is great and this is cool as well, would get one of them...'

Then you got a set of regs he actually wants, without the guessing and such and for only about £35 12 magazines and a nice gift, would suggest the torch first as more handy than the watch more often than not at 1st.

While the website is a bit naff, its a good deal, most will second that.
http://info.divemagazine.co.uk/gift_subscription/
Hope that helps

john

[Ron MacRae]

Diving regs are a very personal thing. It's hard to know what someone will like.

One of our club has poseidon regs, many people like them. He lent them to me on a dive and I hated them. I much prefer my Apex regs but others hate them too.

Might be better to come clean and ask and/or give him the money to go pick.

Ron.