First Experience Buddy Breathing

[divermike1011]

Many moons ago when I started being fascinated by the underwater world thanks to JYC, my father sat down and explained all about the SCUBA diving course he'd done with the YMCA back in the 60's. Of the many things that stuck in my young mind was him telling me that if you ever ran out of air you just shared your buddy's regulator: two breaths for you, then two breaths for him and repeat until you safely surfaced.

Fast forward several decades and when I learned how to SCUBA I was taught how to use an octo to share air and that no one taught or recommended buddy breathing any more. I didn't really understand this, mostly because as a poor E-4 at the time I didn't want to purchase a second reg, but the dive shop convinced me it really was a safer option so I went with it.

Fast forward just a few years and in the time I've had to donate my octo twice to other people (insta-buddies on deep boat dives) and man was I glad I had a separate reg to donate b/c people who get low on air tend to be a little excitable.

One last time jump. This past Saturday I finished my DM by demonstrating the 20 skills and finally at the end performing the equipment exchange while sharing one reg with my fellow DMC.

Damned if he didn't panic and bolt to the surface within five minutes of sharing one reg. On average I managed to get one breath for every four he did. Happily I didn't panic and once he bolted put a reg in my mouth and hung out on the bottom. We tried the exercise again and while he didn't bolt this time I pretty regularly got the reg ripped right out of my mouth half-way through a breath.

Now this gentleman I was doing my skills with is a highly competent man and in the past has never been prone to panic, but the absence of being able to breathe for even a short while sent him over the edge.

Nothing I or our instructor could do would get him to slow down or calm down, once we started sharing air he couldn't get his gear off fast enough and kept trying to rush putting mine on.

I'm sharing this because one I found the experience highly unpleasant, two because I know for me it drove home the purpose of having a reg to donate in an OOA situation, and three because I learned I can never know when someone will panic on me.

Michael

 

[diver 85]

Always think '2 & 1--exhale, 2 & 1 exhale'....repeat as needed to the surface.......

 

[CamG]

Greetings divermike my first buddy breathing was in my Adv. Nitrox / Deco class I found it very fun and enjoyable when you have a good buddy.
The little twitch and then the eyes are a dead give away next they start to snow ball into the blast off.
I have watched students leisurely doing skills until they get to mask removal then they bolt.

A DMC bolting over buddy breathing.....hm did they pass the skill?
I would hope not till they could do comfortably.
A DM needs to be ready for anything and able to handle themselves underwater without reservations.

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[Chris K.]

Divermike, my first experience with buddy breathing was a forced exchange at sixty-plus feet. I was a working diver on a maricultural installation off the Pacific coast and one of my cohorts, a newbie dive master exhausted himself so quickly working at depth he ran out of air after only thirty minutes. In those days we dove without alternate air sources - and without BCD's for that matter - only a harness and weight belt, and your dry suit to act as buoyancy control. Needless to say the chap's eyes went as big as saucers and he went for my reg. We tried buddy breathing while surfacing, but within seconds he panicked and ripped the reg from my mouth. I ended up having to punch him in the face to prevent him from killing both of us. Somewhat luckily, he was a recreational diver more than a working diver, and he did in fact have a BCD. As we went shallower, his tank gave up a few more cubic feet of air which I pumped into his BCD and sent him popping to the surface. He earned himself a trip to the hospital on O2, but the doc figured he had not been down long enough to have to go to deco. Lucky end, but could have been a disaster. After that incident I put on the alternate, not for me, but for someone who may be prone to attack me for my reg. a few years later, i had to give my alternate to a poor chap who thought diving in the North Pacific was no different from diving in Thailand. he had a three mil wet suit on, started hyperventilating and ran out of air before we even got to the bottom...

 

[g1138]

Great story Michael,
I've had a similar experience of getting the reg ripped out of my mouth.
I was DMing for a basic class with my friend sitting as the student and buddy. The instructor told us to go through a share air buddy breath skill. I gave the reg to my buddy and sat there as he just stared off into space breathing. I had to tap the reg for him to realize that I had no air. He gave it right back. Guess he forgot we weren't doing octo shares.

Well after that skill was over we went into an octo share. Guess his lifeguard training kicked in because the second I signaled OOA he took the kind initiative to rip my reg out of my mouth and shoved the octo in.
(No amount of training will ever prepare you for that, plus the sight of your instructor face palming himself and laughing hysterically 15 ft down)

Slightly thankful but also worried that my buddy neglected to purge it though. If he had the right sense to do that I might have swallowed a mouthful of seawater.

 

[divermike1011]

My fellow DMC did not pass that day, they're going to work with him. I don't want to disparage this guy, he's been down range, and I know for a fact he's calm under fire. That's why him freaking out in 20 feet of water surprised the hell out of me. I guess you just can't tell. I do agree that as a DM you need to be completely comfortable in the water and that does mean being able to handle the unexpected without panic. At least he knows his limits now rather then finding them out at 60 with some tourist.

Michael

 

[herman]

Hate to be judgmental but he does not sound ready to be a DM. Come on, buddy breathing is easy, if that paniced him he is not ready to deal with freaked out students. My first experiecne with it was the same as yours, DM training. My buddy - a SB member and now instructor- and I we had no trouble at all, breath twice, hand off and work on the equipment skill in between, if that's a high stress skill at the DM level, you are not ready to be a DM.

 

[Garrobo]

Just after I got my OW I hooked up with a lady instructor for a few days of shallow reefs around Ft. Lauderdale so as to get the feel of things. On the second day when we picked up the tanks she gave me an 80 and a 67. I was a heavy breather at the time also. Anyway, when I got down to about 500psi I got to wondering if we might be ready to go up. I signalled the up sign and she shook her head. I showed her my gauge and she shook her head again. OK, I figured, she knows what she's doing. When I got down to about 250psi we were at about 15 feet so she gave me her reg, let me have a few breaths and then signalled for me to give it back. We did this for the three minute stop at which time she signalled for me to use my own reg and we went up. No panic, nothing. Best damn test I ever had.