Skills - Practice - Near Miss

[Chris12day]

I know that a lot of SCUBA divers hate it when others divers say that you need to pratice skills when we do not have the ability to dive often. I personally dive about twenty to thirty times a year. All but one have been in the ocean. Warm (86 F and for me cold 50 F).

Last week I was diving various spots in the Cancun, Mexico. I had completed seven dives and was about to take my last dive of the trip. Our last dive was a 70 ft drift dive off a small charter boat. I was diving with my two college age sons and my younger brother. I told my sons, brother, and the DM that I would be utilizing my 19cft pony towards the end of the dive. Not as additional air, but practicing its deployment.

We geared up for our final dive. We were dropping directly down and not stopping at the surface so I had no air in my BCD. I took a breath off both my primary and octopus while looking at my pressure gauge. All good, no pressure change. I walked to the end of boat and took a giant stride into the water. My son was on my left and did the same. We dropped down to about 30 feet. I gave him the okay sign and he continued down. I took another breath. NO AIR. I opened the valuve to the pony and purged the mouth piece. I had air!

My son noticed that I was not going down. He did not notice I had deployed my redunant air source. He returned to me and I signaled OOA and pointed to my primary regulatory. I motioned for him to check the tank valve and open the valve. The valve was not open all the way and he opened it completely. I now had access to my primary air source and stopped utilizing the pony.

We continued the dive. We surfaced with after a total dive time of 45 minutes with a remaining 1200 psig remaining in my primary air tank. The pony was only used for about 1 minute.

My brother and other son asked why I did not use my pony bottle? I laughed and explained what had happened. I explained that is why I carry my pony on every dive and always practice its use on the last dive of my trip!

I do not know if I did not fully open my primary or if I had "help" opening my primary on the surface. I has a redundant system, I knew how to deploy it, and I had a buddy to assist me underwater.

Safe Diving

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Another thing to practice is reaching back and opening your own valve rather than depending on someone else to do it. Many people do not have their tanks positioned such that they can do this, but as you found it sometimes the values are not on all the way, or off. I am glad everything turned out well.

 

[lowviz]

.............. We were dropping directly down and not stopping at the surface so I had no air in my BCD. I took a breath off both my primary and octopus while looking at my pressure gauge. All good, no pressure change. I walked to the end of boat and took a giant stride into the water. .............

Walk to the end of the boat or onto the dive platform, always the same place, always. Take three hard breaths off of each secondary reg while looking at spg. Quick shot of air into wing until you feel it expand slightly (your wing hose is connected and you now have enough buoyancy to keep from being a dirt-dart and imploding your eardrums). Hands on mask and reg, drop.

............I do not know if I did not fully open my primary or if I had "help" opening my primary on the surface. ................Safe Diving

That is how accidents happen.

Yes, Safe Diving.

BTW: Nicely Done!