OOA at 60 feet

[pnwbred]

Fist time diving Catalina, Island... First time on a liveaboard.....

I was on my 15th dive with my buddy, 2nd of the trip. My buddy, who is an OW instructor in a dry suite, where I'm in a wet suite.

We dropped down by a buoy to ~65 feet. We got to the bottom and all okay. Very soon after this my mask started flooding. I purged and it was fine for ~30sec and I had to purge again over and over. (Looking back, this was an issue that led me to run out of air sooner than expected.)

At one point of the dive I turned my venturi valve as it was getting hard to breath... The next thing I realize that its really hard to pull air, so I crank the valve the other way thinking I turned it the wrong way.... same effect. (I have a legend lux supreme)

Not knowing what was going on, and not being able to pull air... I turn around to my buddy, give him the out-of-air handle signal.. he looks at me funny like.. really?? I give him the signal again but with more severity. He hands me his reg, he goes to his safe 2nd. He gives okay, I give okay back. He gives okay to go up, I give okay to go up... We start to ascend and eventually make it to the surface.

Some points to think about.

• We surfaced to quick! We did not do a safety stop, and we understand why after talking about it. Its hard to practice out of air scenario in a pool that's only 10 feet. We should have done a safety stop, but this was not practiced in deeper water, so not being able to communicate to buddy that we are stopping at 15 feet, and purging air from bcd etc...
• I should have paid closer attention to my air vs all the cool stuff I was seeing. (later dives I paid more attention to my dive computer).
• I had a HP steel 120 (filled to ~2600psi)
• We were at depth longer than anticipated... 70-60 feet most of the dive until I ran out of air.
  
• My buddy and I stayed close to each other even though we had 50+ feet of visibility. ~5 feet or so.
• We were both calm, which helped get through the issue.
• My mask needed to be purged as it was leaking bad. After this dive, I used a backup mask never to use this original mask again.
• I had a headache, and so did my buddy about an hour after we surfaced. We were both advised to go lay down. We both took a ~2 hour nap and felt good afterwards.

When I get home, I will try and screenshot the dive profile and attache it.

 

[Dan]

Glad you both turned out OK. I just couldn't believe as a OW scuba instructor, your dive buddy would skip the 3-min safety stop.

I usually signal my buddy with 3 fingers to tell him that it's time for us to be in safety stop and watch the dive computer count down & sinchronize the number of raised fingers with the countdown minutes (2 fingers for 2 minute left, 1 finger for 1 minute left and thumb up for 0 minute left). We do this all the time to the point of becoming a habit.

 

[guruboy]

A safety stop is for safety. It's not required.

In an OOA situation, you don't do a safety stop.

The OW instructor followed the correct procedures.

 

[guruboy]

• I had a HP steel 120 (filled to ~2600psi)

That is a really short fill. You had maybe 90 cu ft in your HP120.

 

[barth]

A safety stop is for safety. It's not required.

In an OOA situation, you don't do a safety stop.

The OW instructor followed the correct procedures.

That is your choice.

For a rec dive my minimum gas is calculated for me and my buddy. I do use a high sac rate for both of us. There is one minute at least to solve a problem at the bottom. There is enough gas to ascent at 30 feet/minute to the safety stop. There is also enough gas for both of us to do the safety stop.When my buddy is in an ooa situation I will do the safety stop(s).

 

[pnwbred]

That is a really short fill. You had maybe 90 cu ft in your HP120.

Short indeed! I think the fill was too 3000psi, but after the tank cooled down it was actually at ~26000psi. Think the most I got was ~2850psi.

Thanks for your comments!

 

[boulderjohn]

Short indeed! I think the fill was too 3000psi, but after the tank cooled down it was actually at ~26000psi.

If it was filled to 3000 and stayed there, it would still be a short fill. Are you sure it was not a LP 120?

 

[doctormike]

Short indeed! I think the fill was too 3000psi, but after the tank cooled down it was actually at ~26000psi. Think the most I got was ~2850psi.

Thanks for your comments!

Very brave indeed of you to admit this here! Sounds like you learned an important lesson and it is making you a better diver already.

Just one VERY important point. You do understand that running out of gas had absolutely nothing to do with your "short fill", right?

 

[pnwbred]

Very brave indeed of you to admit this here! Sounds like you learned an important lesson and it is making you a better diver already.

Just one VERY important point. You do understand that running out of gas had absolutely nothing to do with your "short fill", right?

Lesson learned, check check!!

Yes, the short fill had nothing do do with me running out of air... Just less air to consume. I should have been paying more attention. I did not, and OOA.

 

[pnwbred]

If it was filled to 3000 and stayed there, it would still be a short fill. Are you sure it was not a LP 120?

I will double check, but I'm 98% sure it was a HP steel 120. Maybe the boat could not fill past a certain pressure? I will ask my instructor for clarification.

Thanks!