Makes me wonder how many OOA incidents occur because of inattentiveness, faulty equipment, or disregard, believing, "I can make it." Perhaps in many situations each of these is a recoverable event if one can keep from panicking. Also, the deeper you go, the fewer options you seem to have.
Have you ever run out of gas, or been close?
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Close only once, in Grand Cayman. Near the end of the dive, a young hawksbill turtle approached, swimming in and out of soft corals and I HAD to get video, and did. We were at 90 feet, and I swam alongside for a couple of minutes, sucking air. I broke it off, joined my wife/divebuddy, who uses less air than anyone, and we ascended slowly, did our safety stop, and I brought about 90psi on board. Too low for comfort.
DivemasterDennis
DivemasterDennis
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Unintentionally no, intentionally yes.
Four times in 50 years (at least that I can remember). First time was in the late 60s back when we didn't have SPGs and used J-valves. Divers placed empty tanks on the filled rack and the surface pressure gauge was missing. Student and I took the tanks to 90 ft when regs started breathing hard. Made sage ascent.
Second time when the debris tube in my tank valve clogged and no air was getting through to the reg. I had decided not to attach my pony bottle as I had planned to go to 40 ft but ended up at 80 ft.
Third and fourth times were intentional and in shallow water. Saw rare subjects to film and stayed with them until I had to ascend.
Otherwise no... I know my profiles after all these years and do watch my SPG (now that we actually use them!).
However, I have run out of that other kind of gas since the fuel gauge in my golf cart is locked underneath my front seat where you can't see it. Good thing it is a small town.
Second time when the debris tube in my tank valve clogged and no air was getting through to the reg. I had decided not to attach my pony bottle as I had planned to go to 40 ft but ended up at 80 ft.
Third and fourth times were intentional and in shallow water. Saw rare subjects to film and stayed with them until I had to ascend.
Otherwise no... I know my profiles after all these years and do watch my SPG (now that we actually use them!).
However, I have run out of that other kind of gas since the fuel gauge in my golf cart is locked underneath my front seat where you can't see it. Good thing it is a small town.
482psi is the lowest I have gone. The wife had gone as low as 350psi, but we were both at 15ffw and I had 1100psi so all was well...
This is my normal operating procedure. I am usually close to the boat, fooling around in shallow water, but the dive isn't over until the tank is sucking back. I suppose a better question is not "low air" but "out of gas emergency" and how you define it.
Is it an emergency when you run the tank low enough to detect breathing resistance in 30'? 120'? For some yes, for some no. The current training culture has indoctrinated divers to fear low air rather than how to safely deal with it. As a result, the response is panic rather than calmly heading to the surface. Sad.
Not yet. And I don't plan to in the future either. In a free flow incident I suppose it's possible but not from regular breathing... I'm too damn safety-conscious to be pushing my limits at this stage in my life.
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