Air sharing on ascent

[String]

Start shallow then work deeper. Remember most buoyancy changes are in the last 10m or so so that's the hardest point to actually control an ascent (and most dangerous).

Start off on dives a LONG way inside the NDL or even at the start if really shallow. Ideally do it next to a line initially because if it goes wrong you can both grab that line to stop the ascent.

The more hesitant someone is to do a skill generally means the less confident they are in doing it meaning all the more reason TO actually do it. And yes AAS should always be with ascents - after all if its needed for real the whole point is to get to the surface. Kneeling down achieves nothing.

 

[Ben_ca]

String is right. Practice deploying an SMB as a separate skill; I think you'll find that it's not something you are going to be able to do while you are holding onto your buddy a few inches away, and trying to manage an ascent. We send up bags while doing air-sharing ascents all the time, but we dive a different equipment configuration and have different procedures, so that we have both hands free while sharing air. It's still a lot of task loading, managing an air-sharing ascent and deploying a bag.

Diving in relatively shallow depths (recreational) in the daytime, you always have some degree of reference for up and down. Up is where it's getting lighter; down is where it's dark At night, this becomes considerably more complicated.

Actually, I think you were already practicing two separate skills together, and breaking them down might help.

Doing a "blue water" ascent facing each other, staying together, face to face (horizontal, hopefully), maintaining the same depth, moving together and holding together at 15' for three minutes - without sharing air, is a daunting enough task. Personally, I would practice doing that first, and then add the air share.

Like the others have said, good on you for practicing the drill!

I agree 100% with Lynne and Rick.

A couple of thoughts to add:

Never Lose Situational Awareness: Always keep in mind what you are doing, where you are and what your (and your buddy's) gas situation is. you might run out of gas before you can move....

Take Things in Small Steps: If you are not proficient in shooting an SMB do not combine it with an OOA drill (or an actual OOA). If you get too task saturated and focused on the bag shoot (Must Shoot Bag!!!) you might actually overstay your welcome and run low (worse: out) of gas while you are messing with the bag. Even experienced divers have to weigh what to do.... It all goes back to Situational Awareness.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

A few thoughts..

Re-read Danvolker's post and seriously consider it. Most recreational divers could easily incorporate a 5' or 6' long hose primary and bungeed octo into their configurations. I have never practised an air share with a recreational diver using my long hose where they did not quickly become a convert to the idea. It is infinitely easier and eliminates nearly all the problems you encountered.

I am confident that even with institutional inertia and legions of PADI and SSI short hose trained divers, DM's and instructors that the long hose primary will be standard in 10 years just like the use of an octo slowly became standard in the 70's and early 80's as the successor to buddy breathing (if you think an OOA air ascent with an octo is hard - try doing it while sharing a single second stage on a short hose.) Times change and equipment and standards change as better procedures evolve. So feel free to get ahead of the curve and use a long hose to make air sharing more practical in the real world.

Another thing to consider is that the odds are good a real life air share will not occur with your spouse. I have had 3 of then in the real world over 25 years and 2 of them were not my buddy and both of those involved being mugged for the primary. So learn to donate the primary as that is most likely how it will happen as the panicked or semi-panicked OOA and not your buddy diver will go for the reg currently making bubbles as he or she will want to make his or her own bubbles RIGHT NOW. Again a long hose primary aides this process as the hose is long enough that it does not feel like it is going to be pulled from the OOA diver's mouth, helping to calm them down - and it is the one they will have grabbed anyway.

The donanting diver in a short hose air share needs to manage the ascent as the OOA diver may well be panicked and unable to do it effectively themselves and or may want to claw their way to the surface immediately. So you need to be in charge and if needed, feel free to dump gas from the OOA diver's BC using their inflator or pull dump.

Again ascents are easier with a long hose as it is possible and even easy to swim in a normal horizontal position. Once the OOA diver calms down (access to air not at risk of being pulled away, direct eye contact, a minute or two to think etc all work wonders) you can do exactly that.

Mid water ascents can be managed my watching the smallest bubbles - they ascend at 30-60 fpm. Find one and stay level with it as it rises. Just remember to keep switching to smaller bubbles as you ascend as they get bigger as they go up and as they get bigger they go faster.

Shooting a bag works great for mid water ascents, but as noted above, it is not a skill you can do without practice and it is not something you even want to consider if you are face to face short hose air sharing with an OOA diver. If you try it, someone is going to get tangled in the bag and you will both get drug to the surface.

Delpoying an SMB is an option on a long hose, once both divers are stabilized and in a normal swimming postion.

A long hose also makes it very easy to share gas with a diver getting low on gas. If you have 1200 psi and your hoover air hog buddy has only 400 psi, a long hose air share get allow both of you to swim normally back to the anchor line and prevent the need for a mid water ascent and or a long surface swim back to the boat. More importantly, it ensures the low on air diver will have enough gas of his own to do a normal ascent on the anchor line, or just from the safety stop if they are really low on gas, with a normal BC inflate on the surface.

In fact if your regular buddy is a consistent hoover and you consitently come back aboard with a half tank more of gas, planning to share gas for a few minutes on the bottom in the middle of the dive is good practice and can be used to even out the gas consumption and can extend your bottom time as a buddy team.

The SA comments above are important. An OOA buddy at the end of the dive when you only have 500 psi could leave you both screwed. Keep a larger reserve in mind with new buddies and insta buddies and watch their gas supply until you are comfortable with how their gas consumption compares to yours. If you get lucky there SAC will match yours, if not, you should still be able to predict what they have by what you have left - just comfirm it now and then. If you both screw up and get in that situation where you only have enough gas to get one of you to the surface, that person is you and the other person is just gonna have to do an emergency swimming ascent. Life's hard sometimes and the priority needs to be not getting two people hurt or killed. Double fatalities related to OOA events are distressingly common due to a combination of poor skills, short hose air share challenges and poor situational awareness that allows a preventable problem to develop in the first place and a unwillingness or lack of mental preparedness to cut your losses when they need to be cut.

Over the years, I have gotten very good at noting my buddies SPG without them realizing I am even looking. Look at it on the boat and note where the needle position will be relative to the hose axis at full, half and 500 psi. Then you don't even have to read the numbers to have a good idea how much gas they have and you can note the SPG reading from 10 ft away if you need to. If swimming beside a new diver you can usually even rotate their SPG to look at it without them noticing. This is important if you note they are not looking at it. Knowing they turned a dive due to being low on air when you still have 2000 psi left is important information for subsequent dives so be sure you get that clarified either in the water or back on deck.

Also be familiar enough with their computer to know their deco status. Know what numbers equals remaining bottom time. Again this requires some looking on the boat and maybe asking some questions. Different computers can give markedly different bottom times.

Asking the buddy for their SPG reading is one very good way to prompt them to look at it and to help them develop the habit of looking every few minutes. I prefer one handed number signs and they can be taught to just about anyone on the boat in a couple minutes. You can use an ASL format or you can use the simpler format popular with technical divers. (Numbers 1-5 with the fingers vertical, numbers 6-9 with the fingers horizontal - for example seven would be two horizontal fingers - horizontal hand = 5 plus 2 more fingers for 7.)

 

[Soakedlontra]

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The guy with air dictates it to an extent but the OOA diver will still need to dump from their BC and suit. The way its done here is the with-air diver has the computer, is responsible for the rate and so on, the OOA diver is responsible for staying level with the guy who has air (by looking at him NOT the computer).

Also worth noting that if it had been real after all the air had been dumped and you both ended up back at 15m your OOA buddy would not in the real world have been able to inflate their BC easily to get back off the bottom.

Try this a lot and shallow until comfortable before doing any more diving - if you cant manage a practice OOA ascent with no stress at all its not real safe to be there.

Last week my buddy and I practiced air share at a depth of 21 feet. I was also testing an AIR2 Ladyhawk BC and Man! It was hard to deal with the AIR 2.

During my OW classes the instructor told us that both the needer and the donor has to be neutrally buoyant before starting the controlled ascent. Well when I tried to orally inflate the Ladyhawk it was a nightmare! After the first attempt we decided that it was too hard and only my buddy became somewhat buoyant.

It took us a while to get started the controlled ascent (apparently I was not kicking hard enough). During the ascent we where not looking at each other face at all!. I could see my buddy's waist and he could see the top of my head!. I had a feeling that he was ascending too fast so I kicked more slowly than him. He kept looking at me and signalling to go up but I sticked to my guns. Well after surfacing he told me that his computer (I don't have one) beeped to let him know that he was ascending too fast...

Once on the surface I tried to orally inflate the BC and it was another nightmare. The surface was choppy and small waves kept splashing on my face. But the biggest problem was being able to keep the valve under the AIR 2 closed with my hand. It was almost impossible. I managed to get some air in the BC but not enough to keep my head completely above the water. After several attempts I gave up and pressed the inflator button. In a real emergency situation I bet that it would have been really difficult not to get stressed out and keep the situation under control.

That day we certainly learnt that we do need to practice air share over and over again until we are not so clumsy anymore and have a better air-share plan discussing all possible scenarios in case things go wrong.

 

[zeagle911]

Well done for practising your skills, but it looks like you are both newly qualified divers. OOA ascents require a number of skills to be carried. The main being bouyancy control, especially if you do not have a reference. Conducting a joint safety stop, is very different than carrying out one by yourself.
Maybe it would be better if you practiced these skills on there own before you try to combine them.
Sounds like you kept you cool under preasure, so well done and keep it up.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Well done for practising your skills, but it looks like you are both newly qualified divers. OOA ascents require a number of skills to be carried. The main being bouyancy control, especially if you do not have a reference. Conducting a joint safety stop, is very different than carrying out one by yourself.
Maybe it would be better if you practiced these skills on there own before you try to combine them.
Sounds like you kept you cool under preasure, so well done and keep it up.

Well, that's what we ended up doing last weekend. There was too much to deal with. I was testing new gear (I borrowed my buddy's Back Plate/Wing set up with a longer hose attached to the primary first stage) and trying to do air share and a controlled ascent at the same time. So after our first air share with a failed controlled ascent we decided to break up the skills. We haven't even dealt with a joint safety stop yet!

We concentrated on the controlled ascent and tried it several times. We did the first one without a point of reference. It was hard to even understand whether we were moving upward at all or not! I tried to follow the bubbles but I got rather mixed up. There are some many of them! But I definitively did not keep up with the fastest ones!

The other two times we had a wall as a reference and it was better. We ascended at a proper speed, not because I mastered the 'bubbles chasing game' ( it is going to take a lot of more tries before I will get that straight!) but because my buddy kept a close look at his computer.

The challenge goes on!

Happy diving

 

[Deefstes]

Good on you. My wife and I have not had the opportunity to practice an air sharing ascent again since but on our safety stops we now hold on to each other to practice a joint safety stop. I find that it works a bit easier if only one diver "controls" the stop.

In other words, if it is important that the two divers be close during the safety stop (such as in an air sharing scenario), it might be easier if one diver relies on the other to control their combined buoyancy. But that's just me and I'm still very much a noob myself.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Good on you. My wife and I have not had the opportunity to practice an air sharing ascent again since but on our safety stops we now hold on to each other to practice a joint safety stop. I find that it works a bit easier if only one diver "controls" the stop.

In other words, if it is important that the two divers be close during the safety stop (such as in an air sharing scenario), it might be easier if one diver relies on the other to control their combined buoyancy. But that's just me and I'm still very much a noob myself.

My dives so far have been from shore and during the safety stop my buddy and I get negative buoyant and hang at the bottom. There is no problem in staying close to each other. We haven't practiced a safety stop in the water column yet. We may end up having to hold to each other, though.

Lately every time I go diving I test a different kind of gear because I am still figuring out what kind of equipment is more suitable for me to buy. I used an integrated AIR2 BC one time and last weekend I tried a Back Plate/Wing set up. I may make my life more difficult in doing so because I have to get familiar with different configurations and practice the skills. However I think it is important that the gear has to function properly and be reliable in emergency situations.

Practicing skills and getting good at them is also a way to increase my self-confidence and hopefully it will help me to reduce the risk of panicking if an emergency occurs (let's touch wood!).

In my little experience I think that ideally each diver has to take the responsibility to monitor and control its own buoyancy and not to rely to the other to do all the work. In a share air scenario the needer won't probably be capable to think rationally and will tend to rely more on the donor. The few air share I have practiced so far and the following discussions with my buddy, are teaching me that it is important to take time to calm down the needer once the air situation has been stabilized and remind him/her to control his/her buoyancy and keep an eye on the speed of the ascent. Once that is done then the divers should begin the controlled ascent, hopefully without a panicked needer.

 

[miketrance84]

[*]On ascent start at 15m , you pass your long hose primary to your wife, with you switching switching instantly to your necklace reg.
[*]You are now swimming comfortably side by side, not bumping into each other, or even slightly hampered--it is exactly like being on your own air supply, and swimming in a buddy formation.


IMO Swimming face to face in a real OOA emergancy is essential. I think that the reassurance of human contact really calms people down and allows the OOA diver to relax and concentrate on maintaining bouyancy. My dive buddy (my wife) and I practice this skill on every day we dive. If you dive with the same buddy you can pretty much do it either way as long as your both comfortable.

 

[Soakedlontra]

At last I have my own equipment! A DSS BP/W with a longer hose and an octopus attached to my neck with some surgical tubing.

We have been practicing air share with a controlled ascent and we are slowly getting better at it. We have split the drill into two so for now we are practicing the air share and the ascent separately. The longer hose does make a difference, we can keep eye contact all the time without twisting our necks.

The last time we practiced the controlled ascent in the water column with the help of a surface marker buoy at 28 ft. It was the third time that my buddy used it. It took a little bit of fiddling with the reel and the string to release it to the surface. It wasn't too bad. We did a safety stop at about 15ft hanging on that string.

I feel this is only the beginning...

A few thoughts..

Re-read Danvolker's post and seriously consider it. Most recreational divers could easily incorporate a 5' or 6' long hose primary and bungeed octo into their configurations. I have never practised an air share with a recreational diver using my long hose where they did not quickly become a convert to the idea. It is infinitely easier and eliminates nearly all the problems you encountered.

I dived with a different buddy who had regular hoses etc. a while ago for the first time and when I showed him my longer hose he was a bit perplexed and, perhaps, uncomfortable but he did not refuse to dive with me. I think it is going to be hard to find new buddies with 'standard' gear who won't freak out at the sight of a longer hose...