Calling all OOA divers - a poll

This poll is intended ONLY for people who have gone OOA and needed their buddy's support.

The question is simple. What did you do?

- Take your buddy's octopus?
- Take your buddy's primary?
- Wait for your buddy to give you the regulator of his/her choice?
- Buddy breathe?
- Other

The poll is anoymous but it would be helpful to hear people's stories.

R..

I gave the out-of-air sign and was given a regulator in about 2 seconds.

It happened during the safety stop after a skills training dive. My buddy may have thought it was just another exercise...

I'll tell my story too.

I took my OW training in 1984 and we were taught buddy breathing as the first response to OOA.

During a rescue exercise I lost my primary out of my mouth during the rescue lift (another story), and I couldn't retrieve my octopus either. Although my tank was not empty I was effectively OOA.

I first took the primary from my buddy and took two breaths from it and handed it back. My buddy was aware that I still didn't have a regulator so we initiated buddy breathing and continued the ascent buddy breathing.

R..

I personally have been out of air twice in my career. The first time I was a newbie & still overwhelmed by keeping up with everything. In the murky quarry we were diving, I lost my buddies (we were a group of 3) in a group passing by. It took me a little while to figure I was with the wrong group. I found them relatively quickly, but was critically low on air. We did our safety stop & I ran out of air just as I broke the surface. My buddies were aware of my problem & had their alternate air sources ready for me if I needed it. The second time I was boat diving in the Bahamas. I was buddied with a mom & 2 daughters in a much larger group. We had to navigate a ways to the reef from the boat & one in the group decided to leave a marker for everyone to follow back to the boat. She prematurely pulled the marker up thinking everyone else had gone back to the boat. My group was getting ready to go back & low on air, but not yet critical. We searched for a while to find the marker.... no luck. One of the daughters & I got caught in a strong current at the edge of the reef. The mother & other daughter were able to get out of it in time, but the daughter I was with & I could not get out of it. By this time we were all starting to get critical on air. The daughter I was with & I tried to swim perpendicular to the current to get back to the boat, no luck there either (the current was running parallel to the boat, but a ways off). I made the decision to come up shallower to about 10 ft, knowing chances were that we would run out of air. After a little bit of fighting the current my buddy & I ran out of air at about the same time. Still caught in the current, we signaled the boat for assistance. They sent out a dinghy to pick us up. The major lesson learned there, become better at navigation (which I have). Another lesson learned,... call for help from the boat a little sooner. We were both OK, but that dive could have been handled a bit better.

During a training dive i was ooa and took my buddy's octo but it was full of water- i purged it ,and again when i put it in my mouth it was full of water.Luckily we were only at a depth of 5 metres and then we did an emergency ascend. As we broke the surface we must have shot out of the water at least 1.5 metre, and as we were very close to the edge of the water, some people that were having a picnic nearby were very worried and asked if we were ok - to which our cool and calm answer was of course we're ok !

Told it before here on SB, so I'll make it short. First stage plugged with tank corrosion (rental tank in Mexico). At my signal, the DM offered me his long octo. I took it, and we made a slow ascent. No biggie.

I was doing my SS (took a long one of 5+ minutes) so I went to the surface and didn't ask for my buddy's secondary.

No buddy in sight. Did a form of CESA.

This was in the J-valve days (no SPG either). Apparently I'd bumped the lever without being aware of it. When it got hard to breathe I pulled the actuating rod to no avail. Simply swam toward the surface, and got a few breaths as the ambient pressure decreased.

During my first ocean reef dives after completing OW I was given a 67AL tank by the DM because they had run out of 80AL tanks at the rental. We were going shallow to about 25 feet, buzzing along looking at all the new stuff. I was busy with buoyancy and stuff.When I was down to about 500 I showed my gauge to her. Her eyes go a little large and she gave me her primary. As we hugged each other for a three minute SS she alternately exchanged regs with me. Next dive we did a few emergency ascents from the same depth.

anyone else?