Telling your dive buddies you may go Out of Air on this dive?

[Bubblesong]

my two buddies and I do these drills every vacation, just to keep it in mind we have to be there for each other. But we don't go all the way to the surface on an OOA drill, just a few puffs to show response reaction.

 

[Satrekker]

If it is in a quarry ok and then we agree ahead of time there could be a drill and what kind it is. If you are going to fake a heart attack, let me know. Quarry's are for practice.

If I am doing a dive in the ocean I do not want to be running drills. I want to be exploring and looking at stuff. Even locally I will have invested 2-300 dollars and a day and a half for my 70 minutes of bottom time. I want to spend it diving, looking at sealife, and taking a few pictures, in a nice relaxed manner. I like mellow dives. My buddy pops one on me unannounced, puts me into high alert crisis mode, and then I see they had air, I will point at them, I will point up the anchor line, I will wave bye bye and dive solo.

This pretty much sums it up for me. Having said that, if you want to practice, do it during your safety stop at the end of the dive.

 

[TMHeimer]

Haven't read all posts. I wouldn't do it. Practise it when both buddies know it's a drill.

 

[Tom_Ivan]

I'm with Rainpilot on this. Any emergency drill should be as close to the real thing as possible.
Your never going to have any warning during a real OOA situation so why let your buddy know its a drill when practicing?

The two buddies I dive with and I take it a step further. We occasionally sabotage each others rig mid dive to simulate, as closely as possible, a real emergency. This includes stealthily turning each others tank valves off, unclipping each others gear, getting them(or their gear) tangled in kelp, doing supprise OOA drills etc. Anything we can think of really. It's given me much more confidence in myself and my buddies ability to handle stressful situations.
Obviously we've agreed to this with each other previously.

I would never do a surprise OOA drill with a buddy I wasn't familiar with.

 

[Neilwood]

I'm with Rainpilot on this. Any emergency drill should be as close to the real thing as possible.
Your never going to have any warning during a real OOA situation so why let your buddy know its a drill when practicing?

The two buddies I dive with and I take it a step further. We occasionally sabotage each others rig mid dive to simulate, as closely as possible, a real emergency. This includes stealthily turning each others tank valves off, unclipping each others gear, getting them(or their gear) tangled in kelp, doing supprise OOA drills etc. Anything we can think of really. It's given me much more confidence in myself and my buddies ability to handle stressful situations.
Obviously we've agreed to this with each other previously.

I would never do a surprise OOA drill with a buddy I wasn't familiar with.

This for me is the most important bit - you always know that your buddy might spring a drill on you because you have already agreed that. If a buddy tried a drill on me without prior briefing or warning, they would cease to be my buddy from the end of that dive as any trust would have gone straight out of the window.

 

[Schwob]

I almost didn't respond, because my initial response sounds kind of dickish. Then, my natural inclinations got the best of me.

As a solo diver who dives solo whether I'm with buddies or not, I tend not to run drills with them unless they ask me to. Understand, I'm talking just diving. If I'm guiding, DMing, or teaching, that's a whole other story. But when I'm just out diving, I don't drill except with myself, as in, I'll test my pony every dive. I'll deploy an SMB a few times a year. I'll do s drills if I'm diving solo with a tech team. But I rarely do share air drills. There are too many better options for having air problems than relying on someone else.

Sorry, I'm a dick.

... I guess I may be getting there too when just diving. But not if I am just diving with someone who asks or someone I have reason to ask and to help getting "better" at it. E.g. my son. ... , future divers in the family, someone who asks if I could do that with them... People find ways to get into a mentor situation or ask being mentored. Nothing wrong with it. And you qualified your reply in that sense.
So, I like the OP's question and all the replies. Good thread.

 

[mikescooling]

Schwaeble "So, I like the OP's question and all the replies. Good thread"
Me too, good replies
What have I learned from doing this drill?
1) If I take a big breath and let it out slowly, before doing an OOA drill, as my buddy gives me his reg, I'm going to start going up and flip up-side down, I don't normally take big deep breaths like that, and that's why I'm going up, connected to the donated octo.
2) If the "OOA diver" is going to do this drill he needs to be close to his buddy, like arms reach.
3) This drill should be no big deal to do, and be easy to complete and over with in seconds.
4) Why do I do a real word drill? If another diver goes OOA, I'm giving him air the way I've practiced, weather he likes it or not. That diver is getting a reg shoved in his mouth and purged, before he knows what happened. AKA, I know how to grab the reg so my finger is on the button as I shove it in his/her mouth. I don't want to be fumbling with hoses and grip angles or give the reg upside down or in any kind of odd angle. Smash it in perfect every time, in one single motion
5) I assume a panicked diver will grab what ever reg he can, so both of mine are inches from each other, If he takes the one out of my mouth I switch to the Octo on the necklaces, but in-general for the drill I donate the Octo and keep the primary, so as few divers are out of air at the same time. But that's another thread

 

[RainPilot]

Do NOT purge for them.

If they are in any way unprepared you can blast water down their airway, depending on the purge strength you can create a LOI.

Also, in the interests of accurate simulation, the majority of OOG doesn't happen when you have a full breath, it is when you exhale and then try to inhale that you find out.

My students are briefed that when I show OOG they immediately spit out the reg. I do this when they are almost done exhaling.

 

[CptTightPants21]

Schwaeble "So, I like the OP's question and all the replies. Good thread"
Me too, good replies
What have I learned from doing this drill?
1) If I take a big breath and let it out slowly, before doing an OOA drill, as my buddy gives me his reg, I'm going to start going up and flip up-side down, I don't normally take big deep breaths like that, and that's why I'm going up, connected to the donated octo.
2) If the "OOA diver" is going to do this drill he needs to be close to his buddy, like arms reach.
3) This drill should be no big deal to do, and be easy to complete and over with in seconds.
4) Why do I do a real word drill? If another diver goes OOA, I'm giving him air the way I've practiced, weather he likes it or not. That diver is getting a reg shoved in his mouth and purged, before he knows what happened. AKA, I know how to grab the reg so my finger is on the button as I shove it in his/her mouth. I don't want to be fumbling with hoses and grip angles or give the reg upside down or in any kind of odd angle. Smash it in perfect every time, in one single motion
5) I assume a panicked diver will grab what ever reg he can, so both of mine are inches from each other, If he takes the one out of my mouth I switch to the Octo on the necklaces, but in-general for the drill I donate the Octo and keep the primary, so as few divers are out of air at the same time. But that's another thread

You should never purge a regulator that is in someone's mouth. That is extremely dangerous.

When donoating a reg, you grab it by the hose and put it about a foot in front of their face. Allow them to grab, put the regulator in their mouth, and purge.

 

[Wookie]

You are a solo diver, that means you are at least AOW, maybe not rescue. You learned self sufficiency in solo class. What you haven't learned yet (maybe) is that the doner is relatively passive until the donee is established on your air source. Remember, you are the one with plenty of air and a clear head. Let the out of air guy do what they need to get comfortable. You don't do anything for them except offer a regulator. Once they take it and are fumbling around with it, grab them nice and tight so they can't bolt and start up, controlling your and their buoyancy. Don't purge, don't get your hands near their mouth, don't tease them, don't tickle their bellies. Just make sure that when they are done and happy they aren't wrapped up in hoses and control the ascent.