In 1996 I was traveling for several months in Southeast Asia, and while visiting Vietnam, I had the opportunity to do some diving offshore in the city of Nha Thrang. I had been a diver for over ten years and I tried quite a few different rigs, bit imagine my surprise when gearing up for the dive off a dive boat, I was presented with a two hose rig. What? I’d never even seen one, except for maybe "Seahunt" with Loyd Bridges as a child on television. Well, my Vietnamase Divemaster, (not really sure about him having any real certifications) assured me it was perfectly safe, had been used by the Russians when they were is occupying Vietnam in the 80’s, and in that it was a shallow dive, about 45 feet, I went for it. Now the duct tape on the hoses did give me a little cause for concern, but I’ve had to make an emergency assen from 90 feet in Grand Caymen only a year before (high pressure hose split and blew completely off), so I felt pretty sure I’d be ok.

Well, this thing was hard to breath on, every breath a struggle, yet, I had a good dive, saw some pretty cool fish and came back to my hotel to meet a few new friends and drink left behind Russian Vodka and swap stories of our days travels.

Moral of this story, even when diving in a developed destination with modern equipment, it came to me a pretty good rule of thumb about diving with rental equipment. That being, stop about 30-45 feet down and spend a few minutes just putting the gear through its paces. An emergency swim to the surface from 45 feet is a lot easier then 90. I know, and while I made that assent, it was not without a lot of nerves.....