Have you ever run out of gas, or been close?

[Dirty-Dog]

The closest I've come was during one of our very first dives. I was so wrapped up in watching the critters that I paid less-than-ideal attention to my gauges. When I looked, I was down to about 250PSI. Being in only about 35-40 FSW that was not a huge emergency, but at my level of inexperience I was not sure how long 250PSI would last.

 

[soltari675]

So far no. I have not left the water with less than 500 in my tank. I'm pretty paranoid about it. I check my computer probably every minute or so.

 

[scubadada]

I've never run out of gas or come close. About a quarter of the time I purposefully end my dive with between 300-500 psi.

 

[divin'dog]

Ran out of gas one time, but knew it was going to happen. I was hunting bugs in shallow water (20') and ran the tank down to about 200-250 psi. I was pretty much around the boat and the current and surface was calm. I came up to the boat to get out and one of the guys says he dropped his weight belt just under the boat. I told him I didn't have much air but he said it was right under the boat and he would drop a line so I could clip it and he would haul it up.

Well I go down and there is the weight belt right where he said it was but the line was short about 7' from the bottom. Here I am trying to pick up a full weight belt of about 28 lbs. I have my bc fully inflated and I'm breathing hard to try to "swim" it up enough to grab the line and tie it off. After my third try launching off the bottom, my reg is breathing hard. I know I'm running out of air. I get the line finally and tie it off and I'm sucking whatever is left in the tank. I pretty much had 1/2 a breath left for the way up.

For me, it was good to experience what it is like to run out of gas. For anyone else, try doing it in a safe controlled environment.

 

[Speedster00]

I never have with regular tanks. I did surface with my tank down to 300 once, but I knew what my pressure was. I have dive computers on both my rigs so they do a pretty good job of letting you know when your getting low - I still always keep checking the gauge.

A few years ago I pick up a Spare -Air. (basically for use on my jet boat to clear the intake grate) I used it for a quick dive/swim off the back of a boat anchored at Block Island (Spare-air, mask, fins) So depth was 10/15', with that I ran down to the point of hard breathing - though I was shallow I got to feel the effect - not something I'd want to do when diving at depths.

 

[East West]

I would like to state that one has a few minutes when you begin to be out of air , first the regulator begins to breath hard , then it will whine before the complete shut down . I have done this many times at depths less than 90 feet . I just want to avoid the panic out of air rhetoric that new divers may acquire . It is a good habit to have at least 500 psi . or more in your tank when it is refilled so not to pratice your out of air skills .

 

[Dashrynn]

Thought I was running low on air once, turned out the valve wasn't fully open. Turned out I had a "Buddy" turn my air on and they just cracked it. Now i check everything myself no matter what.

But anyways I had 600psi on a hp100 left and noticed it getting harder and harder to breath (this was at 30ish ft and seconds away from coming up) watching my needle it would drop down to 100 psi then back up. I gave a OOA to my buddy and after a second or two of troubleshooting thinking I figured out the valve wasn't fully open. After correcting the issue UNDERWATER, i then gave my buddies reg back in which he gave me a "are you crazy" look. I then told him I'm good and showed him my gauge.

 

[mmintz]

I was 14 on one of my VERY early dives (I had no more than probably 20 dives at the absolute most) after certification. It was a dive with a max depth of 75 feet and a bottom time of 40 minutes and the water was probably in the mid to upper 60's I surfaced with 2 or 300 PSI left in my tank. That is the closest I have ever come to running out of air unintentionally. I have also run tanks down that low in pools but that was just to drain them because they needed a hydro or visual and the pool needed cleaning.

 

[Saudi-Diver]

Once I was diving a remote Reef in Saudi when another Diver ( nothing to do with my buddy pair) came up to me and showed me his SPG, he was really low. We were at 20m at this time both my buddy and I were well within our Dive Plan. I signaled to my buddy that this diver was low on Air and I would escort him to the surface. My buddy gave me the OK sign. So I put the stranger on my Octo grabbed his BC strap and did an ascent with a 5m safety stop back to the dive boat expecting my buddy to shadow us up. Watched him climb the ladder back on to the boat thinking ' Job Done' Looked round oh Sh*t no Buddy how am I going to explain to his wife that I lost him. I then had a really scary moment looking for his bubbles and dropping back down to find him. Being a bloody Photographer he had found a Nuidibranch in the shallows and was busy taking Photos. I really thought I had lost him.

 

[aquanaut10]

One dive I ended with 200 left taking care of a buddy that somehow got disoriented during a free ascent from 110 ft. He started dropping when he thought he was ascending and we waisted some time getting him to understand his gauge. We made it through the deco stop but the boat captain wasn't happy. Another dive I ended bone dry due to a regulator malfunction. We were at 120 ft in 44F degree water when my first stage froze open causing a slow bleed at the second stage. My buddy got me back up but I used up my own air until breating got real hard before switching to his octo. We made it to 15 feet where the divemaster had extra tanks hanging.