Convenient, High- Performance Octopus

As we advised in July, be sure your octopus regulator can deliver sufficient air while two divers are breathing off the same tank. Sometimes people buy a cheap second stage for an octopus or use an old regulator for an octopus on a new purchase. A British government agency has cautioned that older second stages, or "ones where performance may have degraded," should not be used.

If you're looking for a replacement octopus, consider the new Apeks Egress, which is distributed by Aqua Lung (760-597-5000 or www.aqualung.com ).

The Egress has been designed as a left- and righthand second stage. Diver magazine's technical editor, John Bantin, recently reported, "Its great advantage is that you can stuff it into your mouth any way up and still breathe from it. As such, it accommodates panicking out-of-air divers, tekkies, left-hookers and anyone else you might run into under water." Bantin added, "A regulator of this type makes hesitation unnecessary before you stuff it in and heave."

Trimmed in yellow like most octopus regulators, the Egress even has a yellow mouthpiece for easy identification. This brings up another Apeks product: colored mouthpieces that can help divers keep track of different gas sources. Apeks is selling these in the U.K. in packs of five (black, yellow, blue, green and red). Divers can set up their own color-coded system, with, say, black for the primary regulator, yellow for the octopus, blue for a pony bottle, green for a deco bottle, etc. Tech divers can use them to differentiate between gas mixes. So far, they don't seem to be available in the U.S.