Out of Air on Descent

[LoonDiver]

My husband and I had an incident while diving at a local quarry earlier this week that shook both of us up. We were at Gilboa Quarry and the incident happened at the start of our second dive of the day. We were both getting used to new wetsuits, mine a 7 mm and his a 5 mm, so had been hassling around with weights quite a bit that day. I was in the water before he was, as he had walked back to the car to add or remove weights (I forget which). We had already done our buddy check and I did an easy entry into the water via the steps to wait for him. (Too hot to stay outside the water in the heavy wetsuit). With his weights set, he joined me in the water and after a few moments, we agreed to descend and vented air from our BCD’s. We had been underwater for only a few breaths and were still descending when he gave me the “Out of Air” signal. I am embarrassed to admit I did not instantly respond. It took a second or two for his signal to compute (we hadn’t talked about drills on this dive and my first reaction was to wonder WHY he chose that moment to do an Out of Air drill). In the seconds that I hesitated, he grabbed my octo, which is on a necklace around my neck. Now I’m starting to get that this is for real. I’m afraid much of my training disappeared from my head in the face of my fear (what the Hell is going on and is he okay???!!!). All I could think about was stopping our descent and getting both of us to the surface. I grabbed him with my left hand and held on for dear life. At that point he was NOT holding on to me. I think I added some air to my BCD, then tried to add air to his, which didn’t work. So I then added more air to my BCD and managed to get enough lift to get us both to the surface even though he was still negatively buoyant. We were still close to the dock, so he grabbed the stairs and pulled himself into a seated position, while I leaned back in the water to catch my breath and let my heart rate return to normal.

I’m unhappy with many of my reactions, but I’ll start by mentioning one thing we did RIGHT. We are very serious about buddy positioning underwater and seldom are more than an arm’s length apart. This is true on descents and ascents as well as when we are touring around. So, thankfully, all he had to do to get my octo was reach for it. (Thank you, Jim Lapenta, for the emphasis on buddy awareness in our Advanced Open Water training --- that is ingrained in both of us). I’m also happy our octos are on necklaces around our necks – my husband was relieved to not have to “look” for my octo.

I’m NOT happy that I wasn’t able to stay calmer underwater – after all once he had my octo, all was well. I did need to get us neutrally buoyant, but I think it was a mistake to be so focused on getting to the surface. Had I lost my grip on him when I was positively buoyant and he was still negative, I’m not sure what would have happened. That could have led to the octo being pulled out of his mouth as he continued to descend, while I would have then been in a rapid ascent.

What I KNOW we should have done once he had my octo and I had added enough air to my BCD to stop our descent is to STOP and just look at each other, calm down, then act rationally. A few seconds pause with me encouraging him to just breathe, could have allowed him to realize he needed to hold on to me so it wasn’t just my death grip on him keeping us together while we were air sharing. And he or I might have noticed he had put the octo in his mouth upside down (seriously) so it was breathing wet – thank God that turned out okay. I also should have/could have checked his air (it was OFF) and turned it on. If turning on the air wasn’t the solution, I could have manually added some air to his BCD while underwater. If, for some reason, I couldn’t add air to his BCD underwater, I could have dropped some of his weights so at least he wasn’t negatively buoyant. Any of those things would have allowed a calmer ascent to the surface to figure out what went wrong.

Please don’t flame me on his air being turned off. I realize that is a serious error. We actually HAD done our buddy checks and I specifically remember checking his air. (He doesn’t want me to touch his equipment, so I watch his pressure gauge to be sure it stays at 3000 psi while he breathes from his reg). Our error was that after our buddy check, he then took his equipment off to go mess with weights while I went ahead and got in the water due to being hot and uncomfortable in the heavy wetsuit. Apparently he turned off his air sometime in that process and didn’t remember/realize he had done it. Or poltergeists or other divers nearby turned off his air. However it happened, our buddy check needed to be REPEATED at the water’s edge or at the surface before we descended.

I think I would have been able to react in a much calmer way if my buddy was not a loved one. The fear that shot through me when I didn’t know what was going on with him overrode my training and ability to be as calm as I would have liked. I think I would have done better if I was the one out of air instead of him. I know there have been threads on ScubaBoard before about the advantages and disadvantages of having a loved one as a dive buddy. Having strong emotion involved does complicate things.

Any thoughts?

 

[CajunDiva]

I think you could analyze this to the point of over-analyzing it. But regardless, it looks like you are fully aware of the mistakes you both made. I am thankful that although you had a very nervous reaction, things turned out well.

I also dive with my husband...he's the best dive buddy I could ever ask for. But I can understand why some people feel that it's not a good idea having your spouse as your dive buddy. If (when) something goes wrong during a dive with your spouse, it is natural to have an EMOTIONAL reaction rather than the reaction you are trained to be prepared for. Had it been someone else, do you think you would have reacted differently?

I think you have already learned a very important lesson. The only question is whether or not you can remain focused should you ever encounter a similar situation in the future. I think you'll be fine...experience is a wonderful teacher

 

[tracydr]

I think you both did a great job. It was the beginning of the dive, you were shallow, so there was no need to solve this problem underwater.
Sounds to me like if you'd needed to solve it underwater, you probably could have.
I actually did something similar to your husband while trying to cool off, waiting for my buddy, in about 10 feet of water ( the shore had a steep drop off) and I thought I was going to drown in 10 feet of water! I was able to swim myself up to the surface but it wasn't easy with a full tank. I now know not to dive too much non-ditchable weight when usinng a light exposure suit.

 

[Them]

...he doesn't want me to touch his equipment...

Completely ignoring entendres here, I don't think that's reasonable.

His equipment is vital to your safety. You aren't (just) checking for his benefit. If the best check involves touching, you touch.

Or maybe I'm violating some diver code that wasn't explained in my OW class. Either way I wouldn't hesitate to touch a buddy's gear as park of the pre-dive check, whether I had just met them or was married to them.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

I think you did well. At between 25-49 dives, it's reasonable to expect that you wouldn't be perfectly calm in an emergency situation, even though some parts of training may cover it. Inflating your BCD to become neutral was a good move. You've covered the main areas where you can improve, which include staying calm, getting neutral, pausing to think, and then ascending with the buddy. The most important part is that it's a learning experience and you're going to improve from it.

You didn't make any mistakes before the dive either. You did check his air by having him breathe it and looking at his gauge; it's not your fault he turned it off for no apparent reason. Even with a buddy check, you should always check your own air and inflate your BCD before entry anyway.

 

[billt4sf]

What about dropping the weight belt once he had air? Given that all that was holding them together was her grip, and assuming one thought about it, would it be a good procedure to do so? That would at least solve the negative buoyancy problem and bring them to the surface together without her keeping a death grip on his BCD.

I am ASKING.

- Bill

 

[markmantei]

Thank you for sharing and risking scubaboard wrath

I think your analysis of what you did wrong is pretty much spot on, so take it as a learning experience, you now know what you need to drill on a little more. Everyone came out ok, so don't beat yourself up about it. It might also be a good opportunity to talk to Jim about a rescue course. You are correct and getting the "victim" positive (once he had your octo, and you stopped the descent) was more important that getting you both rapidly to the surface, for the potential issues if you were seperated that you have already identified.

It is sometimes surprising what our reactions are in an unexpected situation. I remember a year or so ago when a buddy of mine had a free flow he couldn't get stopped, I donated my octo instead of the reg from my mouth, which I had drilled over and over. I still don't know why I didn't follow my training or the action I had done over and over again in drills.

As far as predive checks, I don't particularly feel YOU did anything wrong, and I have the same attitude as your husband. Once I'm geared up I don't want anyone touching my gear unless I specifically ask them. Each of us is responsible for our own safety. My prefernce is to do a head to toe gear check, in the water on shore dives, with both me and my buddy going through our gear together then we both know that each of us has fully checked our gear pre-dive. I'm fairly certain that this will be a good learning experience on pre-dive checks for your husband as well. He probably won't make that mistake again.

One final note, and this one is probably more for your husband than you, as it pertains to this situation. Mistakes tend to happen when we feel rushed to get in the water. Changing gear and having to tweak things on the fly can agrivate this, and your buddy waiting in the water can make you feel like your delaying the dive. Don't rush for anything, it causes pre-dive stress and you stop thinking about what you need to do before diving. I have done some diving recently with a buddy that has had his own gear issues and I try to make a point to tell him to take his time and relax, the water isn't going anywhere and an extra 5 or 10 minutes on the surface isn't killing anyone. Not taking that time just might (ok that might be a bit of an exageration).

 

[billt4sf]

he grabbed my octo, which is on a necklace around my neck.

About the necklace thing -- Someone posted recently that if your "octo" (that's your secondary reg, right?) is bungeed, the hose isn't long enough for your buddy to use it comfortably unless you change to a longer hose. Doesn't that create an issue for them since he was negatively buoyant and she was positively buoyant? Would it work better if they were both used to where the secondary reg is on each other's BCDs?

 

[markmantei]

About the necklace thing -- Someone posted recently that if your "octo" (that's your secondary reg, right?) is bungeed, the hose isn't long enough for your buddy to use it comfortably unless you change to a longer hose. Doesn't that create an issue for them since he was negatively buoyant and she was positively buoyant? Would it work better if they were both used to where the secondary reg is on each other's BCDs?

I suppose that this would depend on the equipment configuration, but having your octo in a bungee necklace does not shorten the hose (unless you change to a shorter hose). Also if its properly configured, the reg will pull right out of the bungee, so given that the OP hesitated, the husband did what I would have done, go for the gas that he needed. I don't see any issues with the equipment configuration.

 

[Kilili]

If you look at your air gauge and take 3 good breaths after geared up but just before you get in the water, you will find that things go a lot more smoothly.