How does someone run out of air???
- Thread starter Eric Sedletzky
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Sas
Contributor
The three times I have seen OOA or LOA requiring me to donate air were all due to buddies failing to monitor their air supply. I would say this is the case for the vast majority of OOA situations, with equipment failure only a very small minority.
As far as what causes people to not monitor the gauges, I am pretty sure I can attribute the three cases I saw to:
1st - OOA: Diver in general having an arrogant and overconfident attitude, coupled with narcosis at depth.
2nd - OOA: My buddy was unaware that it was possible have such a high SAC as to drain his tank at 18m in ten minutes. He was highly stressed due to a lot of exertion trying to hold a drift line straight and did not check his gauges until it was a bit late...
3rd - LOA: Buddy too busy collecting scallops and forgot to check gauges until he was a fair bit below our rock bottom. He had enough to ascend but without SS but we just shared air and did them anyway.
No one panicked in any of these cases. I had plenty of air to donate and ascending went relatively smoothly. I don't believe I will experience a negligent OOA with the people I dive with currently. Not sure about others...
As far as what causes people to not monitor the gauges, I am pretty sure I can attribute the three cases I saw to:
1st - OOA: Diver in general having an arrogant and overconfident attitude, coupled with narcosis at depth.
2nd - OOA: My buddy was unaware that it was possible have such a high SAC as to drain his tank at 18m in ten minutes. He was highly stressed due to a lot of exertion trying to hold a drift line straight and did not check his gauges until it was a bit late...
3rd - LOA: Buddy too busy collecting scallops and forgot to check gauges until he was a fair bit below our rock bottom. He had enough to ascend but without SS but we just shared air and did them anyway.
No one panicked in any of these cases. I had plenty of air to donate and ascending went relatively smoothly. I don't believe I will experience a negligent OOA with the people I dive with currently. Not sure about others...
Poor planning/lack of planning and blindly following a DM are what I've witnessed.
Comparing running out of air while diving to running out of gas while driving is actually pretty accurate in many ways. You have a gauge available at all times, it takes just a second to check it, and if you run out of gas (air) you should at least know it's coming! If you're not planning your dives and monitoring your air supply regularly you should stop all other distractions and activities (photography, spearfishing, etc.) and get back to basics. Dive planning, managing and monitoring your air supply are among the most basic dive skills that need to be taken seriously.
That being said, things to come up that can run your air supply down faster than expected. Going deeper than you planned, swimming against an unexpected strong current, being colder than anticipated, and diving overweighted can all have an impact on your air supply, and these factors can change from dive to dive. But again, being aware of how much air you have at all times is critical - and very easy to check!
When I was regularly teaching openwater classes, I liked students to spend a lot of time underwater in the pool, confined, and open water doing skills and drills, plus games, navigation, exploring, and generally becoming comfortable with the underwater environment by spending a lot of time down under. I would routinely swim up to them and ask them how much air they had left (hand signal) - and they had to tell me before looking at their gauges (by counting off the PSI with their hands). I could then tell if they were monitoring their air supply regularly and accurately, and I challenged them to get it within a few hundred PSI. After telling me how much air they thought they had, they could look at their gauge and see how close they got it. They (hopefully) formed a habit of knowing how much air they had during their dives. Dive planning, learning sac rates, and air management are all key.
Finally, for those who haven't experienced it yet, when you run out of air your air doesn't suddenly stop in one breath. It gets harder and harder to breathe through your regulator, until you can no longer draw air from your tank. Hopefully by this time you're on your way up, and as you ascend you can usually gain some additional breaths from your tank as the ambient pressure is reduced. This is also a good time to give some sort of signal to your buddy
- Chris
.
That being said, things to come up that can run your air supply down faster than expected. Going deeper than you planned, swimming against an unexpected strong current, being colder than anticipated, and diving overweighted can all have an impact on your air supply, and these factors can change from dive to dive. But again, being aware of how much air you have at all times is critical - and very easy to check!
When I was regularly teaching openwater classes, I liked students to spend a lot of time underwater in the pool, confined, and open water doing skills and drills, plus games, navigation, exploring, and generally becoming comfortable with the underwater environment by spending a lot of time down under. I would routinely swim up to them and ask them how much air they had left (hand signal) - and they had to tell me before looking at their gauges (by counting off the PSI with their hands). I could then tell if they were monitoring their air supply regularly and accurately, and I challenged them to get it within a few hundred PSI. After telling me how much air they thought they had, they could look at their gauge and see how close they got it. They (hopefully) formed a habit of knowing how much air they had during their dives. Dive planning, learning sac rates, and air management are all key.
Finally, for those who haven't experienced it yet, when you run out of air your air doesn't suddenly stop in one breath. It gets harder and harder to breathe through your regulator, until you can no longer draw air from your tank. Hopefully by this time you're on your way up, and as you ascend you can usually gain some additional breaths from your tank as the ambient pressure is reduced. This is also a good time to give some sort of signal to your buddy
- Chris
.
hudson
Contributor
The difference is gas stations are everywhere, so you can get pretty low before you have to worry about it. While diving you actually have to think about your turnaround pressure, what you'll need for the ascent, and the reserve for your buddy.
None of which they teach during OW. Brilliant.
The new divers I've seen are either conservative out of fear or intuitively adopt a "1/2" approach, so they have 3000 psi, they turn around at 1500-ish - which is of course too low for a square profile, so they rush it on the way back, ascend fairly rapidly and have no gas for their buddy in an emergency. This will self-correct eventually, to some extent, but they will still have no gas for their buddy!
Why don't they teach gas management? There is no way it can be considered anything but a basic skill. If someone can handle the math required for dive tables, surely they can do the same for gas management.
None of which they teach during OW. Brilliant.
The new divers I've seen are either conservative out of fear or intuitively adopt a "1/2" approach, so they have 3000 psi, they turn around at 1500-ish - which is of course too low for a square profile, so they rush it on the way back, ascend fairly rapidly and have no gas for their buddy in an emergency. This will self-correct eventually, to some extent, but they will still have no gas for their buddy!
Why don't they teach gas management? There is no way it can be considered anything but a basic skill. If someone can handle the math required for dive tables, surely they can do the same for gas management.
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Quoting ZKY:
Logged Dives: None - Not Certified
Just start diving, and once you have logged about 100-200 of them, dig up your old thread and post a response.
Um ... don't believe everything you read on the Internet (especially in someone's profile). From the context of his posts, I suspect that ZKY has been diving for many years and has logged way more than 200 dives ... some in conditions that would make most of the folks reading this thread scream like a little girl ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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Eric Sedletzky
Contributor
Quoting ZKY:
Logged Dives: None - Not Certified
Just start diving, and once you have logged about 100-200 of them, dig up your old thread and post a response.
Yeah, OK, I'll make sure to do that.
True enough! I dived the North coast of California many moons ago, now... I just watch in amazement while waiting for the dive boat...
Thanks Doc Wong for the video!
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I was down 120 feet and couldn't find the anchor line. I had previously made an ascent from 80 feet with a buddy (divemaster, who also couldn't find the line), so I knew I could do it. Got greedy and stayed a little longer to locate it, knowing I had my pony just in case. I wound up using the pony during the safety stop. Stupid-never again.
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