Have You (or Your Buddy) Ever Run Out Of Air?

[markmud]

at least one documented case:

Hi hupe,

I had an experience like that; however, it turned out much differently. My mouthpiece, because of a lack of proper inspection, disintegrated on me. Unlike the selfish person in your video, I worked the problem and figured out how to make the reg functional. Next, I grabbed my octo and finished the dive while using my octo. I did not have to selfishly assault someone and steal their life support system.

mm2

Maybe this should go in accidents and incidents or near misses, I don't know... I was chatting with another diver on a dive boat recently and he was extolling the virtues of the bungeed octo and primary 2nd stage donation. I don't want to start that debate here. But, when he peered at me and said "You know, an OOA diver will just rip that 2nd stage right out of your mouth, right? You would be better off with a bungeed octo like me."

I asked if that had ever happened to him, an OOA diver approaching and needing to share air (outside of a class where you are practicing). In 16 years of diving, he said no, it's never happened. Not a panicked, primary 2nd stage-grabbing diver, nor a calm, air-share requesting diver.

So I started wondering... how many of us experience a personal OOA or another diver needing to share? In one of my classes we did have someone run out of air on the deep dive, but he calmly shared with his buddy and they were okay. Other than that I've thankfully not seen anyone run out of air in my vast experience of 33 dives.

I'm curious about your stories. Was it that the OOA diver just wasn't watching their SPG, or did they get entangled or have some malfunction causing a loss of air? Or was it a new diver that didn't realize they would use a lot more air at depth? (That's what happened in my class, I think - we were at 126 feet and in low vis, so air went pretty fast for all of us!) It seems like a lot of accidents include someone running out of air, and I'm just trying to understand how and why that happens.

I dove our offshore oil rigs last weekend for the first time (oh, they were majestic, it was amazing!). Before going I was a little nervous about the "bottomless" situation over the Eureka (it's like 750 feet). I kept thinking of some incident report I read where a diver jumped in and their BCD was leaking, so they began sinking, adding air and adding air, and ran out of air as they sank. Found on a deep wall with 1 weight pocket partially removed. I think it was in Diver Down. I read a lot of dive accident reports and I always try to learn something. Anyway, the dives went fine and I had no problem with my buoyancy over a deep depth (that was my first dive where the objective was to stop well above the bottom). It was actually getting back on the boat that was a bit of a challenge/ rodeo. I wasn't expecting that. Learn something new every weekend it seems!

So, anyone want to share any stories?

Hi laikabear,

I witnessed my DM go OOA. We were diving the Binwood wreck out of Key Largo. I was nice-and-tight on his left wing. He jolted, grabbed his reg, and then checked his SPG. Next, he swam for an instructor who was teaching a tec class and got the instructor to donate his long-hose primary.

The DM had forgot to switch out his tank during the SI and never checked his SPG during the dive.

mm2

I

(Quoted in part)

Since then, I tell the boat staff not to touch my equipment and I'll be responsible for turning on my tank. So far, so good.

Hi islanddream,

I had the same exact situation happen to me. I did not have air in my BC and I had completely exhaled. The elevator was going down. I quickly ditched my BC, but right before I cast it off, the valve was in front of my face, so I turned it on. I cleared my ears, continued on to the bottom and strapped my BCD back on.

BOAT CREWS DO NOT TOUCH MY CR@P. I now suck gas off my reg and watch my SPG to see how it reacts. If all is good, I giant stride.

markm

 

[markmud]

Oops! I double posted... What an f-bomber

markm

 

[Frosty]

For me Ive been actually OOA once. In a controlled environment I wanted to experience what a real OOA felt like vs turning the gas off at the valve.I have to say IMO it doesn;t feel the same as turning the valve off. Even with a balanced reg it feels more and more difficult to breath for a few breaths till you run out. AND funnily enough even when "just" at 15 feet down there was still one more breath in the tank once up to 6 feet.

 

[driftwood]

First, welcome to Scubaboard! Second, your English is quite good.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, I was diving in Spring Lake where the max depth is 27'. Spring Lake has a rule that you are not supposed to surface except in very specific areas. We were doing a lot of heavy cleaning and burning air at a fair clip. My buddy was a very experienced and ran out of air about 100' from one of the areas we are allowed to surface. He grabbed my octo, started breathing and explained the situation.

It takes around 300psi to get from where we were working back to a "safe" area of the lake. He just used too much air working and ended up a tad short on the return trip. No danger, his alternate air source was 12' away.

 

[laikabear]

First, welcome to Scubaboard! Second, your English is quite good.

Were you replying to me? I would hope my English is satisfactory - I'm from the US and have lived here most of my life. Although I do realize that's no guarantee...

 

[Peter69_56]

I have a number of rules;

1. Just before going in, breath off your reg and check SPG at same time for falling pressure (hopefully not seeing that).
2. Make sure I can reach my valve before diving. Finding you cannot reach it after entering the water is NOT an option.
3. Check inflator for operation prior to entry. Finding the hose is not attached after entry is a pain. Finding it trapped behind your BCD/wing is a bigger pain.

Even dive professionals can make mistakes. Non of us are perfect (although we would like to think we are). Just because we have a whole lot of letters beore or after our name, doesn't mean we might not turn our brain on every time we dive.

Be methodical, check, check, check. It might just save your life one day.

 

[drbill]

As it turned out, the DM turned OFF my tank (I had already turned it on) on my way off the boat.

You reminded me of another incident. I was diving in Tahiti and told the DM not to touch my gear. I turned my air on and left the kit for a bit. Donned it and giant strided into the water. Down to 20 ft with no air flowing from the tank. I started to bolt up to the surface and the DM grabbed my legs to hold me down. I kicked her and surfaced. She scolded me about bolting to the surface. I replied that she had turned off my air and that the only air in my lungs was from the surface so I was in no danger of gas expansion.

 

[scubadiver888]

I went diving in the St. Lawrence River (cold, dark, current, deep). The boat operator asked if we minded a rescue diver joining us. We, stupidly, said no problem. Turn out the diver had the shop bring his rented gear to the boat (he was on a motorcycle). He was from Micronesia. All his dives were training dives. We had 10 feet visibility and dropped to 80 feet. The 'rescue' diver insisted on going down the line in a 3 knot current. We usually drift onto the wreck. He had an AL80. I was diving an HP119. By the time we got onto the wreck, because he had been fighting the current the whole way, he was out of air. He grabbed my fins, worked his way up my body and grabbed for my regulator. Because he did this rather calmly, I didn't realize he was out of air. I put him on the octo, we surfaced to 20 feet. I shoot a DSMB and we waited for the boat.

If he had got my primary I would have just switched to my octo.

I don't dive a long hose but I'm thinking it would be nice. I'm also a DM and have been assisting on training dives. Had to put students on the octo during safety stop. Would have been a little more comfortable to put them on a long hose. Also, I wreck dive. Been a few times I had to take my gear off and push it ahead of me to get through small openings. Would have been nice to have a long hose in those situations too.

 

[FinnMom]

I remember reading an interesting thread about undeserved OOA situations on Scubaboard. You might want to see if you can find it. I would suggest you don't post to that thread though because it's quite old.

 

[gcarter]

I went diving in the St. Lawrence River (cold, dark, current, deep). The boat operator asked if we minded a rescue diver joining us. We, stupidly, said no problem. Turn out the diver had the shop bring his rented gear to the boat (he was on a motorcycle). He was from Micronesia. All his dives were training dives. We had 10 feet visibility and dropped to 80 feet. The 'rescue' diver insisted on going down the line in a 3 knot current. We usually drift onto the wreck. He had an AL80. I was diving an HP119. By the time we got onto the wreck, because he had been fighting the current the whole way, he was out of air. He grabbed my fins, worked his way up my body and grabbed for my regulator. Because he did this rather calmly, I didn't realize he was out of air. I put him on the octo, we surfaced to 20 feet. I shoot a DSMB and we waited for the boat.

If he had got my primary I would have just switched to my octo.

I don't dive a long hose but I'm thinking it would be nice. I'm also a DM and have been assisting on training dives. Had to put students on the octo during safety stop. Would have been a little more comfortable to put them on a long hose. Also, I wreck dive. Been a few times I had to take my gear off and push it ahead of me to get through small openings. Would have been nice to have a long hose in those situations too.

If he was on a training dive, where was his instructor? Which wrec?