Ooa

[MikeFerrara]

It's not a very interesting answer but I've never been close to OOA. I have donated to others a couple of times (none of which were my buddy BTW)

 

[lanun]

and i was at my safety stop at the time.

 

[jiveturkey]

Last summer in Nusa Penida, Bali, I ran out of air about 2 meters from the surface. Finishing up the dive, I had just spent about 5-6 minutes swimming in a pretty strong current along the reef at about 5m depth. I was doing my ascent when it became harder to breath. I wasn't sure if I was just tired from the swim and maybe starving for air. Then there was nothing. My guage read 30 bar but it was completely empty. It surprised the s**t out of me and convinced me to finally get my own reg and to stick more firmly to that 50 bar end point. I always thought an spg was pretty dependable but I'll never fully trust one again.

 

[ScubaScott]

I've never had an OOA situation from sucking a tank dry, but I did have two incidents of regs freezing up and causing freeflows in the winter time, thus making me OOA. Both situations were of little cause for concern because of pre-dive planning, and practising for the "unknown" with my regular buddy

SS

 

[FredT]

In the Dreamtime before the SPG was created by the Gods of Gear, and its use mandated by the infant God-to-be that has become known as PADI, divers knew they were ending the dive when no breathing gas came from the regulator. This condition now is known as an OOA emergency. Back then it was the normal end of the dive!

What is even more miraculous was that ALL divers were trained in how to respond to this normal event by coming up from depth with proper residual gas management. This residual gas is both in the tank and in the diver's lungs. This gas management system turned what has now become a stressful emergency event into a relaxed swim to the surface.

The SPG has opened up a world of deco and overhead diving to the sport diver, but the loss of skills training associated with it is a VERY bad thing.

FT

 

[Big-t-2538]

I wish I could say I'll never run out of air, but who knows when there's the possibility of an equipment malfunction....that's why I dive the buddy system....

Pug--
Interesting story...I'm actually surprised you admitted to carrying a sapre death bottle.

 

[dotyj]

The possibility of an OOA situation scares the hell out of me.

I've not had an OW session yet so the only OOA situations I've had are drills in the pool.

I intend to watch my SPG like a hawk. I don't ever want to go through what you went through. Very scary.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Big-t-2538 once bubbled...
Pug--
Interesting story...I'm actually surprised you admitted to carrying a sapre death bottle.

Learned my lesson too. That was some time ago... back when the lever operated Spare Air had just come out and our group always dove SOB (same ocean buddies.)

I even carried a pony, once, and that is in another *anchored boat story*.

 

[cyklon_300]

state with absolute certainity that an OOA scenario will never happen?...

Just wondering how you could eliminate every conceivable variable to avoid this.

I'm sure Mike Nelson never figured he'd get his leg caught in the giant clam, but it happened...

 

[Scuba]

What I find amazing about this topic is the number of divers who run out of air, sometimes repeatedly.

Throw out equipment malfunction and the vast majority is due to lack of Gas Management training and plain Carelessness.

Your Gas Dictates Your Dive!