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Comment by jakear | Hacker News Reader

You don't dive with two regulators? I haven't been in a while but I fairly distinctly remember having two regulators per person, that way if one fails you don't have to immediately fall back on passing regulators back and forth breath-by-breath. The backup isn't a particularly nice regulator, probably reusing the mechanism your vest uses to inflate, but better than nothing.

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I would refuse to dive with anyone who isn't carrying two regulators. Sharing a respirator is feasible...but it requires practice to do well and significantly impairs your ability to move around or accomplish other tasks.

Backup dive computers are much less common and most people use their buddy as their backup computer. It is much safer to surface without a functioning dive computer than it is to surface without a functioning regulator.

Second stage is duplicated but the first stage is still a single point of failure. The backup for that is your buddy.

Which is precisely why I would refuse to dive with someone that doesn't carry two second stages.

Regulators come in two stages; you carry a backup second stage for someone else if their system fails - but you don’t carry two first stages (the part that screws onto the tank).

We do carry two first stages, but mostly only in colder water when there's a chance the first stage would freeze (water under 15C or so?) :)

You get air tanks that have 2 mounts for first stage and the octo goes into the separate first stage, giving you two independent setups.

I've only seen crazy swiss people do that though.

Wow - I stand corrected. That's super interesting. I've done mostly tropical diving, preferably in a shortie. Maybe one day I'll get dry suit certified; but I didn't enjoy diving in Monterey CA in 10C/50F water in a thick wetsuit.

In sidemount diving, each diver carries two completely independent tanks & regulators, one on each side of their body.

While it is used primarily in cave diving because it is more streamlined and less likely to collide with cave ceilings and features, I find it also quite comfortable for recreational dives with a pair of AL40s.

It’s also a fun conversation starter with other divers who are curious about my gear!

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