If you have had an OoA emergency or come very near to having an OoA - I am interested in knowing the cause. Also, if you have direct knowledge of other individuals' OoA situations (who are not on this board and will not answer for themselves) and know for certain what the cause was, feel free to answer poll based on that situation also.
Out of Air Emergencies - what are the principal causes?
- Thread starter dlwalke
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jdb
Guest
I was diving with friend last year who ran out of air on our safety stop, his guages said he still had 700psi left.
I was diving with a guy (many years ago) who had a much higher SAC rate and I never checked HIS air (which I should have - especially after I hit 1kPSI) and he ran out. This was in the good 'ol buddy breathing days, and suddenly we were BOTH in an OOA situation. After about ten rapid breaths on my reg, I forced it back from him and he made a WPA (Wild, Panic Accent). Only 25 feet deep so all were OK, but I learned the importance of checking my buddies air as well as my own to avoid OOA situations.
I was doing a pretty conservative dive, helping a buddy instructor with an AWD class. I knew I was getting out of air, but the dive was about to finish and I decided to stay and breath from someoneelse if I ran out of air (of course after comunicating the situation to the ionstructor and a DM buddy). I did run out of air, started sharing air with my buddy, and we both run out of air at about 12 meters. We surfaced quicly without many problems.
I was on my second or third 100+ foot dive, ever, and I consumed more air than I thought. I probably would have been fine but rather than argue during a rather surgy safty stop I spent those 3 minutes breathing off of my buddies tank saving what was left in mine for the rest of the ascent.
It was my fault for not watching my gauges closely enough and for having inadequate experence at those depths.
It was my fault for not watching my gauges closely enough and for having inadequate experence at those depths.
I had a new dive buddy for my AOW class. He had a much higher SAC than I did and ran out of air while I had 1100 psi still left in my tanks. He didn't panic and did a controlled swimming ascent and does a much better job of keeping track of his air supply now. The only comment on that is that I was next to him and he didn't give me a clear out of air signal. We could have shared air so that he could have done his safety stop.
His previous dive buddy has/had poor buoyancy control and went through air pretty quickly, so my dive buddy thought that I was on the same "schedule" as him. I didn't think to ask him his gas supply as the other student in the class had regulator problems and that thought occupied the minds of all of us. We were looking out for her. I am now far more conscious of my buddy's gas supply due to this incident.
His previous dive buddy has/had poor buoyancy control and went through air pretty quickly, so my dive buddy thought that I was on the same "schedule" as him. I didn't think to ask him his gas supply as the other student in the class had regulator problems and that thought occupied the minds of all of us. We were looking out for her. I am now far more conscious of my buddy's gas supply due to this incident.
Didn't run out, but came very close. I was a pretty new inexperienced diver (still am), and was diving with a much more experienced "Master"-certified diver (so I was pretty much letting her take the lead) off a 6-pack out of Key Largo. When we came up, the boat was much further away than we had anticipated necessitating a long swim back - mostly underwater. I clambered onboard with somewhere around 200 PSI remaining. It wasn't until I got back on the boat and was removing my mask etc., that I realized it wasn't even the right boat. The muffled laughter from that boats passengers and the less than muffled scorn of the captain of our boat upon our return were worth the lesson learned. I've now invested in a compass and a big-ass safety sausage, and will soon be taking my AOW with a special personal interest in the navigation section.
I'm assuming that it was an SPG and not a computer. Any knowledge or guess as to what the nature of the mechanical failure was, or even could be. Had it not been maintained properly, was it ancient, had it suffered some sort of physical trauma earlier?
jdb
Guest
I don't remember exactly what was wrong with the SPG. My friend had just brought his equipment in to be checked before a dive trip we were going on, said something just didn't seem right with the gauges, Shop guy checks it out and says everything is fine. It was just some kind of freak thing with it. The pressure read correctly untill somewhere around 1500lbs then it started showing more air than you actually had. He knew something wasn't right so the OOA didn't hit him by suprise.
Kayla
Contributor
the only problem I have ever had was while I was getting my OW cert. We were practiving skills... and something went wrong.... and the reg didn't make it back into my mouth before I hit the surface. Thank God we were only in 20 feet of water! I look back now and see where I made mistakes, and I can be sure that something like that will not happen again!
Kayla
Kayla
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