Unpopular opinion: talking to a retired diver at the harbor made me rethink my whole bailout plan
I was grabbing coffee near the docks in San Pedro last week and ran into a guy named Walt who did sat diving in the North Sea back in the 80s. I mentioned I keep my bailout bottle on my back like I was taught, and he just laughed and asked me how fast I could get to it if my umbilical snagged on something. That one question messed with my head, because honestly I had never timed it, I just assumed it would be fine. He said on his crew they practiced reaching their bailout blindfolded in under 9 seconds and if you could not do it you did not get in the water. I went home and tried it in my garage with a stopwatch and it took me 22 seconds fumbling around. Now I am rethinking where I mount things and I want to actually drill it instead of just assuming. Anyone else here practice bailout reach time, or am I the only one who never thought about it?