Yup. The dude on doubles was diving thirds.novadiver:
Out of Air Emergencies
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One OOA. At 60', my dive buddy went totally dry. Calmly tapped my shoulder, and showed me his guage !!!!. I still had about 1700 psi so I gave him my long 7' primary, I got the bungee octo. Went up just fine. Would love to dive with him again except next time, tell him to signal to me when he is down to 1/3 (ok, ok, we already went through this debate about 1/3 or not 1/3 on the board so no need to beat a dead horse 
).
).
I have heard stories of OOA divers ripping regs from someone's mouth and now a few others. This is anohter reason to practice things at your safety stop, besides what else are you going to do hanging there.
Eric
Eric
Was he diving double Spare Airs??? How the hell do you breathe doubles dry?jonnythan:
Only ever had one OOA event.
I was diving with a brand new openwater diver that I had never met before that morning,
She was diving with her brand new pony bottle her boyfriend had gotten for her...
After a (longish for a new diver) surface swim to our descent point she proceded to breath off her pony bottle untill it ran out after about 10 minutes at 60ffw. She immediately switched to her new pony (really her main tank) and signalled me she was OOA.
As she seemed calm at that point, I took a moment to look at her hoses and guages and realized what had happened.
Here is where I did a DUMB thing... Rather than agree with her thumbs up and call the dive RIGHT THEN, I showed her the 2 guages while attempting to explain the situation. When she saw the pony guage on ZERO, her eyes got very big and she grabbed my octo with one hand and my BC with her other hand.
We made a slow, controlled, 'textbook' free ascent including a safety stop.
When we discused what had happened at the surface, I found out that she though her main tank guage was stuck when it showed full and she couldn't get any air from it (as she was really breathing from the pony at the time).
When I showed her the zeroed out pony guage, I basicaly convinced her that BOTH her tanks were empty.
I learned some very valuable lessons that day.
1: NEVER use the same 2nd stage brand/model for a pony bottle as your main tank primary without having some unmistakeable method of identifying it in low visibility conditions. Even 2nd stages that have similar size/look should should be clearly identifiable.
2: Always carry some method of underwater communication like a slate and pencil in a pocket in order to 'say' things that don't have standard signals (or prearranged, nonstandard ones ).
3: Resolve problems at the surface. What may be simple and obvious to you may not be obvoius AT ALL to your buddy.
The person I dove with that day told me that when her air ran out she was OK going to the pony bottle. When I showed her the empty pony guage was the point where she got scared. She said the main reason she didn't panic was that I stayed absolutely calm and made only slow controlled motions througout the entire event. (This was about her 4th-5th dive after openwater cert.). If I had acted scared at any time it's possible I may have been faced with a paniced diver.
I was diving with a brand new openwater diver that I had never met before that morning,
She was diving with her brand new pony bottle her boyfriend had gotten for her...
After a (longish for a new diver) surface swim to our descent point she proceded to breath off her pony bottle untill it ran out after about 10 minutes at 60ffw. She immediately switched to her new pony (really her main tank) and signalled me she was OOA.
As she seemed calm at that point, I took a moment to look at her hoses and guages and realized what had happened.
Here is where I did a DUMB thing... Rather than agree with her thumbs up and call the dive RIGHT THEN, I showed her the 2 guages while attempting to explain the situation. When she saw the pony guage on ZERO, her eyes got very big and she grabbed my octo with one hand and my BC with her other hand.
We made a slow, controlled, 'textbook' free ascent including a safety stop.
When we discused what had happened at the surface, I found out that she though her main tank guage was stuck when it showed full and she couldn't get any air from it (as she was really breathing from the pony at the time).
When I showed her the zeroed out pony guage, I basicaly convinced her that BOTH her tanks were empty.
I learned some very valuable lessons that day.
1: NEVER use the same 2nd stage brand/model for a pony bottle as your main tank primary without having some unmistakeable method of identifying it in low visibility conditions. Even 2nd stages that have similar size/look should should be clearly identifiable.
2: Always carry some method of underwater communication like a slate and pencil in a pocket in order to 'say' things that don't have standard signals (or prearranged, nonstandard ones
).3: Resolve problems at the surface. What may be simple and obvious to you may not be obvoius AT ALL to your buddy.
The person I dove with that day told me that when her air ran out she was OK going to the pony bottle. When I showed her the empty pony guage was the point where she got scared. She said the main reason she didn't panic was that I stayed absolutely calm and made only slow controlled motions througout the entire event. (This was about her 4th-5th dive after openwater cert.). If I had acted scared at any time it's possible I may have been faced with a paniced diver.
He didn't. He decided neither of his Jetstreams were giving him "enough air," then after breathing my Sherwood Brut from 80 to about 20 feet in a few seconds he decided that wasn't giving him enough air eitherOneBrightGator:
If this trend of divers being taught to rip regs out of other divers mouths continues, I'm strapping my big samauri dive knife back on. And I'm not afraid to use it. So OOA divers beware!
I notice the "instructor" tag is gonewedivebc:
Yeah I decided I will only teach through correspondance from now on. Wanna learn solo diving by mail.jonnythan:I notice the "instructor" tag is gone
Kamala
Guest
I think a lot depends on the training and mindset of the diver.
I had an OOA at 35 feet. 100% my own fault. End of a guided dive, showed the guide I was at 600, than a few minutes later at 500 psi. He signaled to continue swimming back to the boat at depth. I knew the boat wasn't much further and figured he knows what he's doing, so I didn't put up a fight. In retrospect, I should have been heading up at 700-800 and finished my swim back at the surface, but at least I'm alive to put my lesson to use.
Anyway, a few minutes later my reg starts getting really hard to breathe, I turn and look for my buddy and decide she is further away behind me (and much less experienced) than my guide is in front of me. Had to swim about 25 feet FAST on my last breath, knocked on the guide's tank, made the OOA signal (plus I'm sure my eyes were huge), accepted his octo, got my breathing under control and the water out of the reg after a few hits on the purge button. Had a leisurely ascent breathing off the octo and a calm swim on my back to the boat. I wasn't just out of air, but had also used up my last breath swimming quickly a decent distance in a very short time, but I still managed to act calmly and rationally in getting the guide's octo.
As it turns out, the rental guage was off by about 300 psi. Yet another good reason to be back on the boat with plenty of air showing on your guage.
I have less than 15 dives under my belt, but I responded to the OOA fairly calmly and in control, finally making one good decision after several horrible ones (too far from buddy, ignoring training protocols on return/surfacing PSI). I credit my OW instructors for giving me lots of time to work through things slowly and methodically, building the mindset to think calmly and logically through the panic. And now I know and can apply the important lesson to stick with the basics I was taught even in the face of opposite instructions from those with supposed expertise.
Given that surface conditions were perfect and that I would have no problem navigating back to the boat on the surface, the decisions that put me in the OOA were obscenely ignorant. I'm very thankful that I'm in the good category of "won't happen again."
I had an OOA at 35 feet. 100% my own fault. End of a guided dive, showed the guide I was at 600, than a few minutes later at 500 psi. He signaled to continue swimming back to the boat at depth. I knew the boat wasn't much further and figured he knows what he's doing, so I didn't put up a fight. In retrospect, I should have been heading up at 700-800 and finished my swim back at the surface, but at least I'm alive to put my lesson to use.
Anyway, a few minutes later my reg starts getting really hard to breathe, I turn and look for my buddy and decide she is further away behind me (and much less experienced) than my guide is in front of me. Had to swim about 25 feet FAST on my last breath, knocked on the guide's tank, made the OOA signal (plus I'm sure my eyes were huge), accepted his octo, got my breathing under control and the water out of the reg after a few hits on the purge button. Had a leisurely ascent breathing off the octo and a calm swim on my back to the boat. I wasn't just out of air, but had also used up my last breath swimming quickly a decent distance in a very short time, but I still managed to act calmly and rationally in getting the guide's octo.
As it turns out, the rental guage was off by about 300 psi. Yet another good reason to be back on the boat with plenty of air showing on your guage.
I have less than 15 dives under my belt, but I responded to the OOA fairly calmly and in control, finally making one good decision after several horrible ones (too far from buddy, ignoring training protocols on return/surfacing PSI). I credit my OW instructors for giving me lots of time to work through things slowly and methodically, building the mindset to think calmly and logically through the panic. And now I know and can apply the important lesson to stick with the basics I was taught even in the face of opposite instructions from those with supposed expertise.
Given that surface conditions were perfect and that I would have no problem navigating back to the boat on the surface, the decisions that put me in the OOA were obscenely ignorant. I'm very thankful that I'm in the good category of "won't happen again."
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