Ever Had An OOA Situation?

[USMC Diver]

During a Deep Assault Training Course (Sort of like an AOW/Deep speciality/Multi gas/multi level dive) my student was trailing behind me. We were doing a sloping beach ascent at about 20fsw after having been at max bottom depth of 180fsw, anyway, we had completed all our deco obligation and were preparing for the final beach assault when I get the tugging on my fin. Have you ever seen a Marine OOG but trying to act in-control and macho? It is pretty funny the colors he was turning. He gave the sign for OOG and proceeded to stare at me in the most "I am going to die way". So I gave him the Octo and he took my octo (regular rec setup) and we proceeded to storm the beach (in training).

It was pretty funny though when his head looked like it was going to explode. Well, it probably wasn't so funny to him...but...needless to say, he fail the course and had to repeat it and he bought the beers. Too funny.

That is my only OOA/OOG experience in my 14 years if Diving.

 

[Brian1968]

Tekk Diver once bubbled...
So.. How many of you out there in "ScubaLand", have actually had an unplanned OOA situation while in open water..?

Let's hear it.

Has anyone ever had a planned OOA? Those are the ones that I think would worry me.

 

[Diver0001]

Brian1968 once bubbled...


Has anyone ever had a planned OOA? Those are the ones that I think would worry me.

I was helping with rescue training once and one of the students was a friend and a regular dive buddy of mine so I decided to play with him a bit. They were doing search patterns to locate a lost diver and I was waiting in 5 metres of water when they found me so I simulated that I had a deco obligation and refused to surface with him when he thumbed me. He tried again so I wrote on my slate "NO WAY! I'M IN DECO" and showed him that. He gave me OK and proceeded to wait. After a min or so he hadn't checked my guages so I grabbed my SPG gave it a shake, threw my reg out of my mouth and gave him the OOA sign. His reaction had a huge chuckle-factor but he dealt with it ok. Then he wanted to surface again as soon as I had his octopus so I waved the slate in his face again and made him wait another minute before I thumbed it...... I don't know if he learned anything from that but *I* really enjoyed it.... LOL

Obviously I wasn't OOA but I acted it well enough that he really thought I was so that sort of 1/2 qualifies I guess. LOL.... I still laugh when I think about the look on his face.

R..

 

[sunnydiver]

My AAO was from my buddy at 15 feet on our way back. We where already aware that he couldn't make it so I was ready to give him mine octo so we could complete our dive. It was much more beautiful to swim under water then above. So, I don't know if I have to consider this as a real AAO situation , we choose to finish our dive with one tank and we already where like for 4 min at 15.

But I am happy that I never experienced AAO at 90.

But in our group another a guy experienced AAO when he started to hyperventilate.... somewhere at 90!! He had a 15l. bottle on his back and in less then 15 minutes, he sucked it completely empty. His buddy (girlfriend), helped him out. He told to us that he wasn't anymore aware for what was happening and thought that he wouldn't make it!! (scary thoughts!!). They ascent a bit to fast, they didn't make no any safety stop. But luckily for them (and us) they didn’t get bent. After this he stopped for two days with diving.

 

[SCUBAMedicBill]

Well, I only had one OOA incidents in 25 years, which of course was not smart, but definitely enough. I was doing a night dive and was already in route back to shore. Of course on the way I came across forest of seaweed and about a million and one lobsters. As I looked and pondered the thought of grabbing some, my air ran out. Luckily I was close to shore and I had a spare pony bottle, so I just changed regulators and told the lobsters "I'll be back".

But a friend of mine had a little scarier OOA experience. He was doing some cave diving in Florida and was about 80' down and was in the cave quite a way. I'm not sure if he was alone, of his buddy was with him. He was using a J valve on his tank and when started to feel that low air resistance, he reached back to hit the J valve for that much needed reserve. Well, during a travel through the cave he must have hit the valve on a rock and was already in reserve. He made a hasty CESA to the surface, of course after making his way out of the cave. He luckily did not suffer any problems from the ascent, and needless to say he never relied on the J valve again.

Stay well and dive safe

Bill

 

[radagalf]

I was setting up the floats and the underwater 100 foot line for the navigation dive of an Advanced Open Water course. Set one float, strung the reel 100 feet and attaching it to the bottom of the other float when I took a breath, and encountered some resistance... OK this is not good. I have about one minute of work left to do here.

So I basically did a non-swimming CESA breath, all the while finishing securing the reel line to the bottom of the float. Took my next breath which gave me about half a normal breath and no more. Finished the job and looked up, headed up, performed a perfect CESA.

Needless to say the float depth was 20 feet, so I wasn't all that worried about being able to perform a CESA.

 

[NJDiveGirl]

baenglish73 once bubbled...
My wife/dive buddy had a 1st stage fail (I think) somewhere around my 20th dive. We've done about 50 dives together now.

SITUATION:
She couldn't breathe off the primary or backup.

Had a similar situation - my buddy (boyfriend) and I were diving the Duane at night at about 100ft. I was breathing thru my reg when suddenly I was getting more water than air. I decided I wasnt going to panic and grabbed my pony reg and began breathing off that. I signalled over to him and I grabbed his BC while he grabbed my and we slowly ascended - did our 5 minute safety stop and upon surfacing were almost immediately picked up by the boat (my guess is its tough to get lost at night with an HID light to signal them! But thats another story).

mY point - I dont really want to depend TOTALLY on a buddy for air - knowing I have a pony bottle with me certainly gives me added comfort and extra air!

 

[sealkie]

On a night dive in the Galapagos my primary reg hose ruptured - I was till getting air and started a normal ascent being ready to turn it into a CESA but my buddy had heard the bang and grabbed my leg and pulled me back - I took his reg - we man handles 2 cameras and 2 lights into a manageble position - did the asent + safety stop - no big deal at all

 

[DeputyDan]

She is 12 and it seems "to me anyhow" that she checks her gauges after every breath.

When she hits 1500 psi she is checking mine as ofter as she checks hers.

I don't say anything (better safe that sorry) and its her comfort level.

And yes I know there could be equip. problems - I just had to comment.

 

[Dive4Life]

I have never had one, but I had a buddy who came close once. The guy had burned all his air going down the anchor line in some wicked current. He had just gotten AOW certified and it was his first night dive without an instructor. Anyways, he decided to kick like a bat out of hell on the line instead of just dragging himself hand over hand. Yeah, the current was so bad there was around 120 ft of scope. The guy almost burned all of his air by the time we hit the bottom and he didn't bother to stop and check while he fought his way down the line. We got to the bottom and he looked at his spg, and realized he was below 800 psi, the dude flipped and forgot where the line was, it was only 20ft away with a strobe going, had to escort him back to the line and go up with him, I just kept my octo in right hand while fighting the current on the line just in case he did run out. We got to the surface and he never ran out. It was close enough to ruin my dive though. Always check your SPG frequently, even during decent.