Out of Air at 84 ft

[pilot fish]

It doesn't matter what the reason is, you are at 84 ft and you're out of air. In the real world of diving we all know that at times your dive Buddy and you will be more than a few kicks from each other. It happens. You are not that familiar with each other. It's not a designated Buddy you went diving with. It's one you teamed up with on the boat, or a Buddy that was designated for you by the situation on the boat. All the other divers are also, like your buddy, about 20 to 30 ft away, below you, above you, on either side. You are sucking an empty reg, nothing is coming out. No air! As might be expected, you start to panic, get real concerned. You have to think very fast. You don't have minutes, you have seconds. What do you do?

As Chatterton puts it, do you bolt for the sun and seagulls and go straight up vertically to the surface, or do you try to connect with one of the divers that are 20 to 30 ft away by swimming horizontally? You have to realize your actions are near panic level so the book is probably not foremost in your mind. You want air and you want it fast! [try holding your breath in a pool till you run almost out of air and then think about what you might do with your air cut off?]

I think my first instinct would be for the surface and not waste precious seconds going horizontally? It's one thing to speculate about what you would do while you are on the surface but all of the training MIGHT go out the window once you have no air at depth?

 

[JeffG]

Say hello to Darwin

 

[simbrooks]

Has this happened to you recently?

 

[CBulla]

I am soooo confused.

 

[pilot fish]

Has this happened to you recently?

No, thank God. It is just something I have wondered about and was curious what other divers might do. I have been on a lot of dives where all of us have gotten spread out, as happens on most dives, or my Buddy has wandered off, or we have just gotten seperated for one reaon or another.

 

[DandyDon]

No, thank God. It is just something I have wondered about and was curious what other divers might do. I have been on a lot of dives where all of us have gotten spread out, as happens on most dives, or my Buddy has wandered off, or we have just gotten seperated for one reaon or another.

I've had buddies like that. That's why I bought a pony.

It still pissed me off, and you seem to be a lot more accepting of it than I am.

 

[Kim]

Well - to stay on the safe side and try to prevent such a preventable occurrence - maybe a little work on the buddy skills might be in order.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

An ESA from 84 ft is pretty risky. Swimming after a buddy 30 ft away who may be swimming away from me is also pretty risky. So I wouldn't run out of air in that situation in the first place.

If you lack the skills or equipment to avoid running out of air at 84ft, you shouldn't even be at 84 ft.

 

[simbrooks]

Simple answer, if you have gotten yourself in this situation, then assuming you are in an OW rig, go for the surface at a reasonable rate (rather not do it at 60fpm - which is really fast anyway, a little slower would be better) and risk a little DCS than not have any air. However on the way up from 3.5ATA, you will "unlock" 2.5ATA worth of gas - 35psi which would be about 1cuft due to the change in environmental pressure, hopefully that would give you a few more breaths to take on the way up, not much but it is something extra. However if you have gotten panicked you are likely to be breathing a little faster anyway. If i think i can get to my buddy, 20-30ft on a near breath hold (very little air being breathed out) is possible, if they are farther away go for the surface. IF they are that far away, when was the last time you looked at/checked on them?? Go buy a pony if you feel you cant stay with your buddy, dont buy a spareair. My advise, work on your buddying skills, swim side by side, check on them often enough (seeing or hearing them breathe) and this shouldnt happen.

In the cave and something goes down, i have my redundant gas, should be no problem and my buddy is most likely not too far away if everything went down.

 

[alcina]

Well - to stay on the safe side and try to prevent such a preventable occurrence - maybe a little work on the buddy skills might be in order...

If you lack the skills or equipment to avoid running out of air at 84ft, you shouldn't even be at 84 ft.

A little gas management review might be good too...