Sharing air to extend bottom time

[Tigerman]

Considering that it often gets just a little attention in OW and AOW I could actually imagine a "gas planning" specialty. Besides the land calculations part you could do dives where every 5-10 minutes you need to tell your instructor how much air you have left before looking at your SPG and other stuff like that. Seems like it would be more useful than something like a boat diving specialty.

I have not taken the boat diving specialty, so I dont know how useful that is (but I have done most of my diving from boats, although all for my OW and AOW from shore). I do however think that before youll be able to tell how much gas you have in your tank just from how long you have dived (and knowing how deep you are/have been) you need a fair bit of experience though..

 

[supergaijin]

Is it much different than this?

Brownie's Tooka Diving Gallery

Just asking.

Can anyone else see a "what happens next' moment here?

 

[Tigerman]

No, what could POSSIBLY go wrong if you do a swim-through with surface supplied hoses?

 

[Fish-R-Man]

I'd absolutely disagree - but maybe it's a 'regional thing'. I've never seen air-sharing for bottom time used in 20 years, diving in Europe, Middle East or Asia.

I'd also disagree that it will become common place - at least in respect of taught/advocated agency syllabus.... and if it isn't formally approved/advocated by the major agencies, then it will remain off-limits to those dive operations that represent them. Hence, it won't catch on.

I haven't been diving in Europe of the middle east, but I have seen this done by DM's in the western pacific, Hawaii and all over Mexico and central America. It all depends on what level of divers you are grouped with on any one trip. Andy, you may not see this very often as most likely you are the DM for the group you are diving with.

As far as air sharing being approved by any agency IMHO, it will depend on how prevalent it becomes in the general population of rec divers. I took my first class with the YMCA in 1969. My advanced class was competed in 1972. This was taught by a group of LA County lifeguards. We were taught, not only air sharing, but we would ditch our gear and free assent, they would shut down your air at depth, strip your mask and regs from you, and basically make your life miserable while you we underwater. What they did to us then, you would probably get sued for today.

I took an OW and AOW class wife my wife a few years ago so that she would have a buddy for the class. I also wanted to see what was "new" in the process. I was amazed at how the classes had changed over the years. The classes were dramatically different now from what I took then. I believe that as technology, diving styles and liabilities change you will also see techniques like air sharing between qualified divers added to the more advanced programs, just as I have seen the class requirements reduced from the first classes I completed.

 

[1978davidw]

Wow i was just reading this thread and realized that so many people start to hijack threads and send them another direction than the original question.

1. No one is or was advocating sharing air for an OOA diver for the primary purpose of extending bottom time...This would be unsafe and something im sure we can all agree on.

2. Sharing air BEFORE one is low on air for the purpose of "Air Balancing" should have no issues with a "competent" diver

3. A person who cannot do a regulator swap underwater at any depth or multiple regulator swaps should not be diving in the first place. After all isnt diving a sport where "personal responsibility" means anything ...Or do we have to have some governing agency like padi or naui or ssi or whatever tell us ever move we can make? Cant reasonably intelligent people make decisions like hey i use lots more air than you can we share when i hit 1500 and when you hit 1500 then we will quit sharing and go until i hit 700 make our ascent ,safety stop and should have 500 at the surface? Isnt that a reasonable plan?

4. I air share with my GF often under the same scenario i listed above..We plan it ahead of time...It is meant to extend bottom time for us both.. It is not used for an OOA bottom time extension.. The practice makes it very easy for us to share air should one of us need it in a emergency situation.

 

[Selchie in LB]

Can anyone else see a "what happens next' moment here?
View attachment 126784

Hahahahahahaha

As for the last poster, David, I can't decide which way to go on this issue. You have established some very good points.

@ Lynne, I guess I shouldn't have been so shocked to learn you air share.

I guess I am so undecided because my GUE brain says "NO YOU CANNOT DO THIS!¡!¡" & my head says "In situations where it is pre-planned & plenty of air will be reserved for potential disaster it is OK."

Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk 2

 

[TSandM]

Funny -- my GUE brain says that practicing air-sharing until it's an extremely comfortable activity and doesn't impact one's buoyancy at all is a good thing

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Was diving this evening with my son and I got a little carried away filming some goliath grouper (they are as big as a person; or larger). He wanted to ascend, but we had to swim back to the wreck to retrieve my speargun which I had laid down. He was down to around 800 lbs or so and I had more in my larger tank... so I offered him my regulator for the swim back, so he could conserve enough air to make him "comfortable".

Thought of this thread and figured I would film our swim back using my new GoPro extension pole

It just doesn't seem like a big deal to me.

[video=youtube_share;vDrF1AOnabc]http://youtu.be/vDrF1AOnabc[/video]

 

[GrandpaScuba]

So here comes the question...is this OK, is it common practice?

When I first learned to dive, the standard tank used by everyone was the steel 72. My first regular dive buddy was a PADI instructor. Needless to say, there was a big difference in our air consumption rates. On many dives, our proceedure was that when I was down to 1000psi, I would take his octopus rig and breath off of him until he was down to 1000psi. At which point I'd switch back to my own gas supply and we'd finish the dive.

For us, this worked pretty good. And, I felt that it help me with 3 scuba skills. 1) It help me learn how to stay close to my buddy. 2) It gave me a lot of "sharing air" practice. 3) It gave me a lot of practice in dealing with equipment issues underwater.