What can cause an out-of-air situation?

[JeffG]

Found It..took me a bit..Right Guy...wrong board.


Curt Bowen's Tank drain tests

Here's his surface test results

1. Failed Burst Disk = 72 seconds
2. Failed HP Hose = 22 minutes
3. Failed LP Hose = 83 seconds
4. Free Flow High Performance Regulator = 255 seconds


and #4 is one the affected by depth.

at 231ft 8ATA

4. Free Flow High Performance Regulator = 91 seconds

 

[JeffG]

You might be right. Memory is the first thing to go....!!!

Here's the post I was thinking of...Not sure if it was the one your were though.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showpost.php?p=647375&postcount=78

 

[ShakaZulu]

When I turn your air off...........

 

[scottfiji]

Found It..took me a bit..Right Guy...wrong board.

Curt Bowen's Tank drain tests

Here's his surface test results

1. Failed Burst Disk = 72 seconds
2. Failed HP Hose = 22 minutes
3. Failed LP Hose = 83 seconds
4. Free Flow High Performance Regulator = 255 seconds

and #4 is one the affected by depth, at 231ft 8ATA
4. Free Flow High Performance Regulator = 91 seconds

Ok, so if I'm with a buddy at 100 ft, 1500 psi of air, NDL not reached yet, and #1 or #3 happens, and I can't find my buddy, and have no back-up, I need to immediately start ascending at 60ft/min, maybe a little faster, and then start a CESA when I am out of air. If my air lasts, say, 40 seconds, that puts me at 60 feet. Then, if I do a 1 minute CESA, that puts me at the surface. And hopefully I'm not bent.

Does anyone know of #1 or #3 happening underwater? What would cause them to happen? I would think a LP hose would just get a crack or small leak instead of a total failure, but maybe that's not right.

 

[scottfiji]

When I turn your air off...........

If we go to point dume together, please have the common decency to do this near the END of our, I mean your, dive, and not at the beginning, so I can enjoy the dive site.

 

[Soggy]

What usually causes an OOA situation is PPP...piss poor planning. "Be back on the boat with 500psi" is not dive planning. "We will leave the bottom at xxxx psi and will stop for x minutes at xx feet" is a good start.

Solve the problem ahead of time by figuring out the minimum amount of gas required for both divers to do a safe, slow, controlled ascent, including safety stop, from your maximum depth, with both people breathing off of one tank (we're *planning* for an OOA, right). If someone reaches that number, the dive is over. If I find a buddy who continued the dive after reaching rock bottom, we would be having a very serious discussion on the surface...if I have a problem, and they are below rock bottom, I just died.

In the event of a freeflow, my first inclination would be to signal my buddy, begin sharing air, and do a valve shutdown. This should allow any ice in the reg to thaw. At that point, you can open the valve back up and begin breathing off your reg normally again.

A CESA, IMO, is never a solution nor is losing your buddy. A 60ft/min ascent rate is also ridiculously fast.

If you dive solo, there are different things to take into consideration.

 

[scottfiji]

What usually causes an OOA situation is PPP...piss poor planning. "Be back on the boat with 500psi" is not dive planning. "We will leave the bottom at xxxx psi and will stop for x minutes at xx feet" is a good start.

Solve the problem ahead of time by figuring out the minimum amount of gas required for both divers to do a safe, slow, controlled ascent, including safety stop, from your maximum depth, with both people breathing off of one tank (we're *planning* for an OOA, right). If someone reaches that number, the dive is over. If I find a buddy who continued the dive after reaching rock bottom, we would be having a very serious discussion on the surface...if I have a problem, and they are below rock bottom, I just died.

In the event of a freeflow, my first inclination would be to signal my buddy, begin sharing air, and do a valve shutdown. This should allow any ice in the reg to thaw. At that point, you can open the valve back up and begin breathing off your reg normally again.

A CESA, IMO, is never a solution nor is losing your buddy. A 60ft/min ascent rate is also ridiculously fast.

If you dive solo, there are different things to take into consideration.

thanks, that advice makes perfect sense. I would never plan on a CESA or losing a buddy as being the solution.

It's just that I always hear these stories of accidents happening after someone loses a buddy, (murphy's law) so I was wondering, what is the right thing to do if a diver is at 100 feet with only a single tank at 1500 PSI and their low-pressure hose bursts, and they don't see their buddy? (Maybe this is so unlikely I shouldn't even ask the question?)

 

[jagfish]

A CESA, IMO, is never a solution nor is losing your buddy. A 60ft/min ascent rate is also ridiculously fast.

...Unless the next best option is drowning...

 

[cwkline]

I have had 3 regulator free flows, all involving freeze-ups. All occurred in water over 85 ft deep and in every case I had enough air to reach the surface after making a safety stop. I should note that I dive a steel 120, and am sure this is the only reason I made it topside on the first free flow without air sharing, I hit the surface just as my air ran out.

 

[scubadoguk]

STUPIDITY.
We require air we have a finite amount on our backs, If your so stupid that you don't check the gauge or air integrated computer see above,
your hose blows at depth how many times that happen? you dive with a known faulty equipment see above.
regular serviced equipment, how many dives are on Caribbean dive center regulators, I sure can't think how many dives are on some sets that have never seen a service and are used day in day out, no biggest ooa would be not looking at the gauges.