How was your emergency ascent?

[Adventure-Ocean]

After a lifetime of diving and logging thousands of dives I was fortunate to provide air in an emergency ascent only one time. For me it worked just like the book. My buddy came up to me signaled he was near out of air. Since I had an octopus we slowly ascended together the 80ft without a problem. I was curious as to how many of you have helped in a similar situation but had more problems than I. We learn about those possible problems in our training classes but it would be helpful to hear what's happened out there for real.

 

[rongoodman]

I had something similar happen to me a few years ago in Mexico. The DM was surprised when she saw the guy on my primary, but the whole thing was pretty much lacking in drama.

 

[peterbj7]

I had something similar, and put the other person on my octo. A couple of minutes later I had my primary snatched from my mouth by another OOA person. By then the octo person was fairly calm so we made the ascent (from 50-60ft) with me and that guy buddy breathing. You won't believe how fast those two sucked my tank down - the gauge showed zero when we surfaced. Forget safety stops - it was all I could do to slow the ascent to an acceptable level. And I wasn't leading the dive, or even officially staffing it.

 

[fisheater]

I've had two.

First time was during Reef Check California training. Dive #6 for the weekend. My buddy and I had just finished our core transect and we were do fish only transects, till LOA. I checked my gauge and had plenty. I signaled my buddy to check his and knew that the answer was bad when the whites of his eyes lit the Monterey Bay gloom.

I thumbed the dive and we ascended right from there, face to face. We tried to get a safety stop in (as we'd done six dives that weekend and we were old and overweight), but two minutes in, my buddy spit out his reg. I donated my primary and switched to my octo/inflator, just like they teach it.

However, I was using a conventional gear setup and was now locked face to face with both of us on my air. We grabbed each other's BC like they teach and finished out stop and make a controlled ascent to the surface.

Two problems emerged.

One. My buddy was totally OOA, so he couldn't auto inflate his BC. I was so worried that he wouldn't remember that he could orally inflate, start to sink and start to panic (all while I'm locked in face to face). I was mentally reviewing rescue scenarios involving fighting him off and dropping his weights, but he calmly orally inflated and we were fine at the surface.

Two. We had been diving the midst of a very large, thick kelp bed, thicker than most recreational divers dive in. (That's the focus of our Reef Check California surveys.). So, we surfaced in the middle of a huge, think, nasty kelp bed. I had plenty if air, so I could easily drop back down and swim to the boat (75 or so yards away). But that would leave my buddy alone. So, we had to do a very difficult, tedious kelp crawl back to the boat, made nastier because we were carrying our survey reels, lights and large slates.

That was the last time I dove with a conventional rig. I went to BP/W with a 7' hose, so that if that ever happened again, I could easily share air at depth before the diver was totally OOA a me we could swim, single file through the kelp to our exit, at which time the LOA diver would be able to use his autoinflator at the surface.

A couple of months ago, I was instabuddied on a Monterey dive boat to a guy that just screamed "bozo." Sure enough, when we tried to descend, he couldn't. After a few tries, the captain released me from my buddy obligations and said I could dive solo if I wished. I wished, so I we by off on my dive.

My plan was to do a figure eight pattern, so I wouldn't be too far away from the boat at any point. At the end of my first loop, I noticed my former instabuddy diving solo. I didn't think that was a good idea, so I signaled if be was OK and got an "OK" back. I didn't want to buddy up, per se, but stayed near him and between photos kept asking if he was OK. He kept signaling that he was.

Then, very shortly after the last "OK," he swam over and shoved his SPG in my face. He had about 200 psi and was breathing heavily.

I immediately donated my long-hosed primary, insisting that he take it, and went to my bungeed octo. I showed him my SPG, to assure him that we had plenty of gas, and we started for the surface, knowing that be boat was very close. He was Hoovering up my air like a mad man, but he didn't bolt and we made a nice, slow ascent to the surface. I was very happy to that 7 foot cushion between us, because he was visibly concerned and were he to go into active panic, I'd have a problem be size be was HUGE.

We got to the surface and he autoinflated (to my great relief, as I doubt that he'd remember how to orally inflate). But, he entered into passive panic. Even at the surface, he was breathing like freight train. Not rapid shallow breathing. Rapid deep breathing! He stared off into the distance, not looking towards me nor the nearby boat. Like the books predict, he took off his mask. I very forcefully instructed him to put it back on and be did, but didn't otherwise acknowledge my existence. This happened twice.

As he wasn't "with the program," just breathing like mad and staring off into space, I came up behind him and towed him to the boat, while I yelled for "priority boarding" and had the DM help him up.

I was very glad that I'd made the switch to the long hose gear setup.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I can talk about one. Diving with a women who did not dive often, was not skilled in a high current environment, probably shouldn't have been diving for lobsters with me in 100 ft. On recent previous dives, she had experienced a somewhat accelerated air consumption rate, so I had encouraged her to share my air from my octopus. Did I mention she is my wife's boss and her husband is driving the boat?

We had done the air sharing in the MIDDLE of her dive when she still had maybe 1500 psi and I had much more. She positioned herself behind and above me and held onto my tank valve and essentially rode" me. No big deal really..

So we were at the end of our dive in 100 ft, strong current, we were both breathing hard and we were low on air as I found several lobsters. I looked at her air and she had like 750 psi and signaled should I catch the bugs?

She signals Yes, so I stick my arms and head under the ledge and brought out 2, I bagged them in literally 1 minute. I signal again pointing to my pressure gage and she checks hers and say OK. I did NOT check it myself. So back under the ledge and in 30 seconds I emerge with 2 more bugs, I bag them and she holds up a limp pressure gage that is reading ZERO (lets just say I saw no distance between the needle and the end point).

My immediate reaction was almost uncontrollable.. I SCREAMED FFFFFFF U. I didn't do anything for those 6 seconds, but scream in anger. I then handed her my second stage and she, quick like a bunny, jumps on my freaking back! She spins around and is holding onto my first stage. The perfect position for swimming horizontally, but NOT the right position for an emergency ascent (where it is nice to be able to communicate and have access to the victim's BC) not to mention you really can't see the person at all in that position, they are above and behind you.

So even though I knew this position was less than optimal, I figured it was best to "get the party started". So I begin the ascent blind, trying very hard to hear her breathing and re-assure myself that she is still there. We begin the ascent with zero problems, and I shove my gage up over my shoulder to let her read it and see that I still have like 700 psi to get us up.

I am however worried that she may not be able to effectively vent her BC on ascent and then she might pull me up fast, so I tried to keep the ascent slow and tried to kick very little, so I could sense any upward force from her BC. But mostly I was worried, she wouldn't vent the bc, lose a grip, float up, have the reg ripped from her mouth and then embolize as she floats up the last 40 feet.

So I was nervous during the ascent, but I did not want to risk, doing some kind of fancy move that would adjust our relative positions, because violent moves might rip her reg from her mouth. We may have done a one minute safety stop, I don't recall, but when we hit the surface... she spits her reg and says: "Did you say FU"?

For the record, I have absolutely no idea how she sucked those last few hundred psi to zero in no time at all. Her breathing rate must have exploded as she became aware it was getting low.

I mentioned later, that the position she took was NOT how emergency ascents are supposed to be done. She said to me that she would have panicked and died if we had not been practicing the sharing of the air on prior dives,,, so she thought nothing of the position she took.