Mon Jul 26, 2010 12:05 pm
I also didn't have any octo training in my first scuba class back in 1977, we were taught buddy breathing (which PADI has now officially dropped - circa 2010 - after having made it optional for the last 15 years).
I do seem to recall that octo use had been going on in the cave diving community since the 1960s, as part of their equipment redundancy practice. Don't know if it was later taken up by manufacturers as part of a safety / required equipment push, but it seems to me that the change in first stage LP ports increasing from 2 to ? corresponded with development of both the octo and the power inflation hose for BCs. On earlier first stages, I recall the "splitters" that would enable a single LP to become two or three. ScubaPro used to manufacture its Mk VII first stage with only a couple of LPs, and everybody had a splitter on them. Weighed something like 5 Lbs, but it lasted forever.
Too DAAM Many double hoses, It's not a hobby, it's an addiction.