Whats all the fuss about Spare Air?
Oh boy, time to break out the asbestos suit. Spare Air has brought about alot of debate on rec.scuba and rec.scuba.equipment, fortunately the on-going flame wars have touched UKRS only lightly. A Spare Air is a “bailout bottle” available in sizes as small as 1.2 cu ft, and as large as 3 cu ft (The cubic foot being the, somewhat quaint, way the Americans size their cyniders). The bottle has integral regulator that must (for older models) be switched on before use. Bailout bottles can cost between £120-200. A Spare Air should not be mistaken for the emergency bottle often found on UK made Stab Jackets (such as the AP Valves models), which in theory can be used (after proper training, and only in an emergency!) to inflate the Stab Jacket at depth and bring you to the surface. So why does the Spare Air come in for so much flack from the USENET community? Well, its the generally held belief that the Spare Air doesn’t hold enough gas to be an effective bail out option for the sort of diving
