First open water dive: ran out of air. WTH?

[Finding Thomas Paine]

When I first arrived, the tank my instructor had set out for me was empty to his surprise. He got me another one and I hooked up. He told me the gauge was hard to read because the cover had clouded up. I told him I couldn't see it at all due to wearing my contacts, plus the cloudy plastic cover. He read it, said I was fine.

He, I and a second student practiced various things in the enclosure for 45-60 mins or so, including mask clearing, losing and retrieving the mouthpiece, emergency ascent, and buddy breathing. We then swam into the quarry along a wall. I loved it. Until we turned and were swimming back when I ran out of air. We were at about 30 feet or so. It was startling. Especially, when I did not realize how to get their attention as they were both ahead of me - though only several feet. I did not panic but it scared me. I was able to catch up to the other student, tap his tank and give him the out of air signal. He handled it like a pro and we buddy breathed to the top.

My instructor was extremely non-chalant about the whole thing. I thanked my buddy and joked a little with them about needing to pay extra for air next time. But it bothered me, scared me. We had swam by a long cement culvert type cylinder/tube which we would have swum through had it not been blocked. Sitting here tonight, I wonder what would have happened had I run out inside that longish, dark tube?

I realize I am responsible for my own safety and will never dive again not being able to read my own gauge like that. I am not even sure how much air I started with.

I am a rank novice, though I have been comfortable up to this point. I've had two pool dives, plus the open water dive today and that's it. How bothered should this episode make me? Because I am somewhat bothered.

 

[gcarter]

Report the instructor and shop to whatever agency they are affiliated with. As a student you should not have been put in that position.

You were told to dive with known defective equipment, and the instructor was not monitoring your consumption - he knew you could not self monitor.

 

[Pedro Burrito]

Two things come to mind:

1: You handled a real emergency well and you should be commended. It's one thing to practice the out of air emergencies and it's another to respond appropriately to a real OOA emergency. You will be a better diver because of this. Just don't dive with that instructor again.

2: A report should be made to the agency that your instructor was affiliated with. There is no excuse in allowing you to dive with defective equipment and to run you out of air. The next students could be led by this instructor into an overhead environment and have a bigger problem.

Thank you for writing about this.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Great job on staying calm and doing what you needed to do. I wonder what "fine" meant to the instructor. A report is definitely due.

 

[NateS]

We had swam by a long cement culvert type cylinder/tube which we would have swum through had it not been blocked.

Uh, what? You would NOT have! How could you possibly have this thought?

 

[Finding Thomas Paine]

Only because he indicated we'd be swimming through a tube or maybe he said ring. Then after pausing there and later after we surfaced they talked about how it was "closed". Frankly, I never got a good look into it while we were down there. I'll have to check this out by asking because I dont think I would have been comfortable doing it. Certainly was not my idea.....

 

[Redshift]

Did you look at the gauge under water? Because often scratches are less noticeable.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Wow... well done managing that situation. I agree with the others .. the Instructor needs to be stopped before he endangers someone who can't handle the consequences as well as you did.

Sometimes people are reluctant to "make waves" and the instructor may even be likable but that is just not good enough to let the person get away with stuff like this!

 

[Pilot_dc]

That's beyond unacceptable on the part of your instructor. It does however, highlight the importance of swimming side by side with a buddy, versus following single file. I see a lot of single file buddy teams out there... With that said, well done staying calm and catching up.

That's not meant as a criticism of you (OP) in particular, just meant as an observation on a good real-world example.

 

[Steve_C]

45-60 minutes practicing things and then you go on a tour at 30 ft. Tanks do not last forever. I have lead a lot of less experienced divers around a quarry or reef in 20-30 ft of water and on an AL80 many of them are not going to last an hour. Especially on their first few dives. Even with experience consumption rate can vary with task loading, nerves, etc. If you dove that long it could well have been a full tank.

Instructor should be checking your air from time to time. Especially on such an extended dive experience.