debajo agua
Contributor
Newly OW certified, me, my girlfriend and her cousin decided to do a drift dive in West Palm Beach. It turned into a scary situation. Here's what happen:
Early in the morning, we set off from a West Palm Marina to lobster just off the coast in 60' of water. This would be my first dive with my brand new equipment (BC, Regulator/Octopus). After hooking up my equipment for the first time, I started helping my girlfriend with her rental equipment. I admit, I was a little annoyed that she seemed content with me setting up her equipment. I didn't feel she was taking this dive seriously.
In the process of setting her equipment up, her psi gauge read 3500 psi. I thought to myself, "perfect, she has a slightly over-filled tank, even if her air consumption is greater than mine, she has an extra 500 psi buffer." We dropped to the bottom, gave each other an "ok" and I took off in the direction I thought I'd find lobster. This was a drift dive, so there was a current. I was swimming at a pretty good pace and she was tagging along about 10' behind me. I would stop every so often and let her catch up. After about 10 minutes I checked my gauge and realized I was flying through my air, almost 1/2 a bottle in 10 minutes. Once she caught up, It was obviously that she was angry with me, and rightfully so, I was focused on getting lobster, while moving too fast for her. I realized what I was doing and slowed down.
After getting a lobster, I checked my air psi again. "Oh no, 700 psi!" My girlfriend gave me the out-of-air hand sign and I look at her gauge to double check that I got the signal correct. I looked back at her and she was breathing off my octopus. "How did this happen?" We ascended to 20' and I tried to spend at least one minute at the safety stop, then decided it would be best, to go ahead and inflate my BC to support our weight. My psi gauge read 100 - 0 psi.
Once on the surface, we were both a little rattled. Our first dive on our own and she ran out of air. During our Surface Interval, she informed me her depth gauge wasn't working. I didn't think much of it because we were staying together, so I could keep track of our depth. We worked out a plan, where our second dive we would make a little longer safety stop, she would monitor the time and I would monitor the depth. Once again I hooked up her equipment for her... "3500 psi on the second tank too." It didn't dawn on me at that time, that both her gauges (psi and depth) were malfunctioning; however, despite faulty equipment, our exit plan on our second dive, allowed us plenty of air. Dive # 2 went much smoother.
This experience taught me and her both some valuable lessons. For some reason, I had complete trust in the rental equipment psi gauge and was sure that the tanks were over-filled. It was some time later, before it dawn on me, what had been the culprit of our problem. This incident could have killed someone who's prone to panic; fortunately, my girlfriend was calm and collective.
I hope sharing my mistakes, might help someone else not make the same mistakes.
Early in the morning, we set off from a West Palm Marina to lobster just off the coast in 60' of water. This would be my first dive with my brand new equipment (BC, Regulator/Octopus). After hooking up my equipment for the first time, I started helping my girlfriend with her rental equipment. I admit, I was a little annoyed that she seemed content with me setting up her equipment. I didn't feel she was taking this dive seriously.
In the process of setting her equipment up, her psi gauge read 3500 psi. I thought to myself, "perfect, she has a slightly over-filled tank, even if her air consumption is greater than mine, she has an extra 500 psi buffer." We dropped to the bottom, gave each other an "ok" and I took off in the direction I thought I'd find lobster. This was a drift dive, so there was a current. I was swimming at a pretty good pace and she was tagging along about 10' behind me. I would stop every so often and let her catch up. After about 10 minutes I checked my gauge and realized I was flying through my air, almost 1/2 a bottle in 10 minutes. Once she caught up, It was obviously that she was angry with me, and rightfully so, I was focused on getting lobster, while moving too fast for her. I realized what I was doing and slowed down.
After getting a lobster, I checked my air psi again. "Oh no, 700 psi!" My girlfriend gave me the out-of-air hand sign and I look at her gauge to double check that I got the signal correct. I looked back at her and she was breathing off my octopus. "How did this happen?" We ascended to 20' and I tried to spend at least one minute at the safety stop, then decided it would be best, to go ahead and inflate my BC to support our weight. My psi gauge read 100 - 0 psi.
Once on the surface, we were both a little rattled. Our first dive on our own and she ran out of air. During our Surface Interval, she informed me her depth gauge wasn't working. I didn't think much of it because we were staying together, so I could keep track of our depth. We worked out a plan, where our second dive we would make a little longer safety stop, she would monitor the time and I would monitor the depth. Once again I hooked up her equipment for her... "3500 psi on the second tank too." It didn't dawn on me at that time, that both her gauges (psi and depth) were malfunctioning; however, despite faulty equipment, our exit plan on our second dive, allowed us plenty of air. Dive # 2 went much smoother.
This experience taught me and her both some valuable lessons. For some reason, I had complete trust in the rental equipment psi gauge and was sure that the tanks were over-filled. It was some time later, before it dawn on me, what had been the culprit of our problem. This incident could have killed someone who's prone to panic; fortunately, my girlfriend was calm and collective.
I hope sharing my mistakes, might help someone else not make the same mistakes.