Buddies Tank Leaking, what should i have done?

[utnapistim]

the share air would have only came into play if he DID run out of air, not prior.

That might not be the best solution. I think I'd prefer sharing air of one of us were to go below 50 (on the safety stop for example). This way, if you have to do an exit while breaking from your buddy (rough surface for example) you can keep going with your own regulator for a few more minutes.

Besides, I'd rather not have the tank completely empty just to avoid sharing air (and I hope I never get to such a situation).

 

[Mark Vlahos]

I was on a dive with a new buddy last week. (we were both on about dive 6ish in our logbooks fresh out of OW class). We descended to about 35' when we went to signal that we were OK after our ascent i noticed that the valve on his tank was leaking profusely. (well, how the hell would i know how much air was really coming out, it seemed like a lot though). I had him check his pressure... only a few hundred pounds low ...ok. i tried to signal to him that his tank was not looking so good, I couldn't get that communicated across to him (we later worked that out). I signaled for him to return to the surface. I led the ascent and opted for a slow ascent, but skipped the safety stop. (thinking our total dive time was only about 3 minutes at that time of the ascent) All worked out fine, it was a bad tank O ring, we replaced the tank and went down for another dive.

Now, looking back. should i have stuck with the deco stop and if need be perform an OOA procedure?

Considering i didn't know how long his air would last?

Or was the logic of only being down a few minutes at 35' exempt a safety stop in the given situation? (that is what i though)

what would you have done?
let me hear your opinions.

I would have done pretty much what you did, Good Job!

One key to solving problems while diving is to solve them early. You spotted the leak, and ended the dive. The problem you prevented was to run low on air at a deeper depth or running low on air further away from the entry point. A missed safety stop is not that big a deal, especially so early in a dive. Remember, you made the CHOICE to end the dive early, and you made the CHOICE to not do the safety stop. A more serious problem later may have not left you with the luxury of making choices, the problem may have started to spiral out of control and remove your options.

Mark Vlahos

 

[Codyjp]

That might not be the best solution. I think I'd prefer sharing air of one of us were to go below 50 (on the safety stop for example). This way, if you have to do an exit while breaking from your buddy (rough surface for example) you can keep going with your own regulator for a few more minutes.

Besides, I'd rather not have the tank completely empty just to avoid sharing air (and I hope I never get to such a situation).

now that is a very valid point. luckily in this case we were on the anchor chain in calm water, no biggie. today though when i was crawling out of the surf in malibu i was glad to have some air left in my tank!

Every situation is different.

 

[BarryNL]

we checked each other out prior to getting in the water, but nothing in the water before the descent. That would be a wise thing to do next time.

Rick, that is what i did with him, but he wasn't clear on what i ment.

the share air would have only came into play if he DID run out of air, not prior.

Generally, yep. If you're expecting that you will need to share air because he has a catastrophic leak then you should probably ascend gripping each other and he could have your octopus ready.

If you want to know what a rapid gas leak looks like, just hold the purge button of your octopus in - a leak which looks like that will empty a tank within probably a couple of minutes or less. Just a small stream of bubbles is not going to be a problem ascending from 35' on an almost full tank.

 

[divad]

I'm not exactly sure why it happened, but we (my buddy) had this situation during the second dive on Sunday, while ascending on the line.

It sounds like he needs to have his tank neck filed flat. This happened to me.

 

[Diver0001]

what would you have done?
let me hear your opinions.

You did great. Good judgment to call the dive too and not keep going despite the problem. No need to share air. Just monitor.

There is a sign for "bubbles". It's repeated touching the index finger and thumb of the same hand together. The speed of the motion and distance between the finger and thumb as you move them apart are used to indicate the extent of the leak.

R..