AIR2???

Hi - I wanted to take a couple of minutes to explain what an AIR2 is and how it is used. An AIR2 is a combined alternate air source (regulator) and low pressure inflator/deflator on a BCD. The idea of the AIR2 is that is replaces the normal alternate air source (second regulator) that people carry. The advantages are that it removes one more hose from your regulator, making you more streamlined, reduces overall weight and integrates all of the functions into one piece of gear thus reducing the potential failure points in a regulator system.

The AIR2 concept was created by Scubapro in 1979 (and was later copied by a number of manufacturers). AIR2 is currently in its 4th generation.

When Scubapro designed the AIR2, they found that the standard low pressure inflator hose found on BCDs could not deliver enough air at deeper dives in an emergency and so they designed a inflator hose that could deliver about 5 times the amount of air to the diver. This is an important distinction between manufacturers, note whether the standard low pressure inflator hose is used for other integrated octo/low pressure inflator combos.

Even though the low pressure inflator hose is not standard, there is one major positive about it - the collar around the air chuck is much larger and easier to remove than that of a standard BC hose.

The current generation of AIR2 has some cool features. It has a fixed venturi assist to help you breathe, fully one hand operation to make it easy to switch to and ascend with while holding your buddy, is SELF-FLUSHING (just press the purge button in water and it will flush the whole system out and of course comes with free parts for life.

So how is this used. If you have a buddy that runs out of air, they come up to you and you hand them your primary reg out of your mouth while you put the AIR2 into your mouth. The curve of the BCD inflator hose is perfect and long enough to make it comfortable to breath from. As you ascend with the out of air diver, you can inflate or deflate as needed while breathing from the AIR2. The AIR2 is positioned so that all of the AIR will come out of your BCD when you press the deflate button. As you reach the surface, keep the AIR2 in your mouth, inflate your BCD and hold your buddy up while they orally inflate or drop their weights to get positive.

If for some reason you have to orally inflate your BCD on the surface, the AIR2 works the same way that a normal inflator would, simply take a breath, and while pressing the deflate button, blow into the mouthpiece.

If you are considering an AIR2 and have never used one before, I strongly recommend you do some air sharing exercises with your buddy or an instructor. When we sell an AIR2 to somebody that has not used one before, we throw in a free pool session to get them fully acquainted with sharing air drills with ascents.

If you would like to see an AIR2, let me know. Greg