Surface support station, whose responsibility?

[RonFrank]

I have rarely seen a hang tank, and have only read about their use during extremely deep dives that are planned with support divers, and lots of air available at various depths. I have also read about having gas available during a free diving competition. For rec diving or even non commercial tech diving this subject seems absurd. :shocked2:

 

[waterpirate]

If any of you ever get to dive the mid atlantic a lot of things may surprise you. One of them is going to be the hanging of bailout tanks for easy on and off for breather divers. Tanks with regs hung at depth 20ish. Even a variety of gasses supplied and stored on the boat and accessed by divers via 40' hoses clipped off to the deco line.

None of this makes it right or wrong, just different. In the case of my fave deco mix 70% a reg hung at forty feet supplying that gas provides a luxery of not having to use ones own deco gas for the dive if you return to the boat whence you left. That means one less tank to take on the boat for two deco dive days. The possibility of handing off your deco gas to another diver in need, ect.. It adds another layer of redundancy to the deco obligation, sans the team concept. YMMV
Eric

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

If any of you ever get to dive the mid atlantic a lot of things may surprise you. One of them is going to be the hanging of bailout tanks for easy on and off for breather divers. Tanks with regs hung at depth 20ish. Even a variety of gasses supplied and stored on the boat and accessed by divers via 40' hoses clipped off to the deco line.

None of this makes it right or wrong, just different. In the case of my fave deco mix 70% a reg hung at forty feet supplying that gas provides a luxery of not having to use ones own deco gas for the dive if you return to the boat whence you left. That means one less tank to take on the boat for two deco dive days. The possibility of handing off your deco gas to another diver in need, ect.. It adds another layer of redundancy to the deco obligation, sans the team concept. YMMV
Eric

It wouldn't surprise me at all ... it isn't any different, really, than the way open ocean technical dives are done in a lot of places.

Those are not, however, just "spare air" for someone doing a 70+ foot recreational dive ... which is what the OP was talking about.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[franny]

I don't do any tech diving, but the only time I have seen a hang tank was during my deep course. The instructor hung one for us to practice with.
The standard practice here is a live boat, and they may not leave the line in the water either, which means you may not be able to come back to anything.
Normal practice is that you plan your dive and take the air you need on the dive. Because it is a rec dive, if you are running short on air, you simply abandon the safety stop, and come to the surface.

 

[Couv]

Surface support station: We call that a "boat."

 

[GramsciBeat]

There seems to be an awful amount of pontification on this thread ...
Anyhow, from what I remember of the Padi AOW deep dive, the station is specifically for dives in the 30 - 40m range & is there primarily to manage accidental deco obligations. I have only ever seen/used it on training dives. Where I dive setting up a station would be the responsibility of the divers & not the skipper or boat crew.
SAC calculations were also part of this AOW, but that may have just been an instructor add-on. It is, however, definitely included in the speciality.

 

[franny]

There seems to be an awful amount of pontification on this thread ...
Anyhow, from what I remember of the Padi AOW deep dive, the station is specifically for dives in the 30 - 40m range & is there primarily to manage accidental deco obligations. I have only ever seen/used it on training dives. Where I dive setting up a station would be the responsibility of the divers & not the skipper or boat crew.

There is a fair bit, but as this is a diving forum, you are bound to get this....

The reason my answer was:
1) The OP did not indicate they were going below 30m. (70-80 ft is maxing out at 25m)
2) The situation on a deep dive locally means that it would be difficult to have a surface support station on a lot of dives.

But if you want one, I would definitely agree that it would be the diver's responsibility to set it up, after discussing the plan with the skipper/boat crew to ensure your plan is not going to affect the way the boat runs.

 

[vjanelle]

There seems to be an awful amount of pontification on this thread ...
Anyhow, from what I remember of the Padi AOW deep dive, the station is specifically for dives in the 30 - 40m range & is there primarily to manage accidental deco obligations. I have only ever seen/used it on training dives. Where I dive setting up a station would be the responsibility of the divers & not the skipper or boat crew.
SAC calculations were also part of this AOW, but that may have just been an instructor add-on. It is, however, definitely included in the speciality.

I'm curious how you get into 'accidental deco obligations' while knowing the NDL of the dive you're trying to do, as well as the gas management necessary to execute the dive?

 

[Thalassamania]

Deco obligations are like taxes, they are never accidental.

 

[Mike Boswell]

I keep a spare tank and regulator on my boat, and I have thought about hanging it at 15 feet for just-in-case situations: After all, stuff happens, and I have come close to running out of air.

But in San Diego kelp can be thick and vis poor, so there is no guarantee I will be coming back up the anchor line at the end of the dive. My preferred "insurance" policy is my HP 100 tank, which usually gives me a pretty good cushion.