As new divers, just started studying for open water certification (only did up to first pool dive training thus far), my wife and I decided it would be fun to take our first actual scuba dives with a PADI Discover Scuba excursion in Nassau Bahamas during our last cruise a few weeks ago. Studying my iTouch PADI OWC course, I learned “I am responsible for my own safety” and “there are many dangers in diving but they are manageable risks”. Also having twice read the book Diver Down which discusses real life stories of experienced divers who in most cases didnt survive their last dive and how to learn from their divers errors, I decided it would be smart to not rely completely on a buddy breath in an emergency and to have a personal bailout plan as a little added “insurance”. Do you remember there are 23 different equipment fail scenarios in which a scuba diver can suddenly have a catastrophic air loss at depth and need backup air to surface? Can you completely trust that your dive buddy will always be close enough to help you in a sudden emergency or may they be distracted enjoying their dive or too far away from you to offer immediate assistance as you struggle to get their attention? Times ticking…. and you cant hold that last breath waiting for your buddy. Can you completely trust your life to rented equipment that you arent 100% certain is maintained properly? I noticed a few different air leaks from the rental equipment (one diver had a tank valve leaking a small stream of bubbles, another had air leaks at a regulator hose connection, and a third diver had some air leaking from a BCD low pressure hose connection). I personally wasnt given enough weights to properly balance my buoyancy (they ran out of weights, it was a very busy dive day). My lower half body kept floating up higher than my upper body. Awkward swimming experience but another lesson to buy my own gear! However, I still felt a peace of mind knowing if my wife or I suddenly lost air at 40 feet, we had a back up to get to the surface that didnt depend on anyone but ourselves – our Spare Air! Even though we witnessed some questionable equipment flaws that needed attention, we still had an awesome and enjoyable experience! We even saw a large Black Tip Reef Shark swimming only 15 away as soon as we arrived at bottom on the reef! What an awesome first dive experience we would have missed out on if we had turned the dive early seeing all those air leaks underwater or if we had not dived at all worrying about our equipment failing! We didnt use our Spare Air on this dive but the peace of mind it gave us strapped to our BCDs in easy reach helped us to have a much more enjoyable experience and I will never scuba dive without it!!! I feel good depending on myself in a personal emergency instead of leaving it up to someone else. Spare Air is the greatest parachute a diver can carry in addition to his dive knife!!! I am not in any way affiliated with a Spare Air company or Scuba.com but Im definitely a customer and promoter of this awesome product!!!
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