Rookie Mistakes

[gtmurff]

My story happened 1.5 years ago, but definitely a good reminder of what can happen.

My brother was to get married in Australia Sept. 08, and while in Australia my wife and I wanted to experience as much as possible. SCUBA diving came up as an option so we decided to get certified before going, which we did that summer. The certification took place in a lake and we thought it would be prudent to get some ocean experience before traveling around the world. Late summer we found a dive shop that takes regular trips and signed up with them. Being our first dive outside of class we were nervous.

When I put on my rented BC the top strap wouldn't buckle, I only had the velcro around my waist holding my BC on my body. I raised concern with the DM and crew on board, but they said it was fine. Trusting them my wife and I were last in the water. We descended to 60 ft to a wreck and swam around outside it cautiously. The dive was going great.

Periodically, my wife would signal to me to ask for the time. We were cautious and made sure we didn't stay at depth for too long. After swimming the circumference of the wreck, my wife signaled to ask how much time we had left. Still had 10 minutes, wonderful, I was loving this. At that point, I realized my HUGE mistake. I hadn't checked my air! I had been so concerned with the time, I didn't notice how low I was. Being 230 lbs and a rookie diver, I was burning through my air. When I did check, I had 400 PSI and was 65' deep.

I immediately gave my wife the hand across the throat and signaled we need to up. Fortunately for me, since we had just circled the wreck, we were back at the anchor line and could immediately start up the line. We did our safety stop at which point I took my wife's octopus for the last few feet and then surfaced.

At the surface, I realized that during the ascent, the velcro across my waist came undone. I struggled to inflate it and strap it back on. Once back on the boat, my wife and I were talking about what happened when I got seasick. I decided not to do my second dive that day and instead take the experienced learned and call it a day.

As dangerous as that experience was, it's definitely made my wife and I safer divers. Two months later we were diving the great barrier reef in Australia. Even though I now check my air constantly, so does my wife. She's always asking how I'm doing.

Running out of air on my first dive outside of class is not how you want to start your SCUBA experience. But every dive since then we've not had any issues whatsoever. Lessons learned.

 

[SkimFisher]

Running out of air on my first dive outside of class is not how you want to start your SCUBA experience. But every dive since then we've not had any issues whatsoever. Lessons learned.

Yet many do just that - or come close.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[jupitermermaid]

Bravo for keeping a cool head when you realized your mistake. You kept your cool and used your wife's octo instead of bolting for the surface in a panic, which could have created more problems. Sometimes the best lessons we learn are from making mistakes. Keep diving and keep learning, and stay safe.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Being 230 lbs and a rookie diver, I was burning through my air. When I did check, I had 400 PSI and was 65' deep.

I immediately gave my wife the hand across the throat and signaled we need to up. Fortunately for me, since we had just circled the wreck, we were back at the anchor line and could immediately start up the line. We did our safety stop at which point I took my wife's octopus for the last few feet and then surfaced.

@gtmurff: Thank you for sharing your story. It stands as a cautionary tale to all divers (especially novices) about the importance of knowing how much gas is left.

I don't know which agency you did your training with. For most of the ones that I'm familiar with, a signal of "hand across the throat" (slashing motion) indicates "I've run out of my gas supply" and should be followed by a motion to share air with the buddy. There is a separate signal for "low on air," which is placing a fist on one's chest. From the buddy's point of view, the "low on air" signal can be expected to be followed by the "share air" signal. In any case, initiating the ascent was the right thing to do. Good job on not panicking.

If you are ever in the unfortunate position of being "low on air" again, you might want to consider sharing air with your buddy before you completely run out of your gas supply. Buddy separation can occur even during air shares...and it's nice to have some back gas available in case this happens. There was an incident in the San Diego area in October 2008 in which a father and son were sharing air from depth. It has been proposed that, since both were in an excited state, neither was paying attention to achieving independent neutral buoyancy during the ascent. When the duo stopped moving upward, one or both of the divers struggled for the surface. Since one buddy was severely positively buoyant and the other was very negatively buoyant, they went in opposite directions. Unfortunately, the father, who was negatively buoyant, was the one who had also run out of gas. Very sad, tragic outcome.

You should practice orally inflating your BCD at the surface at the end of a dive...in case you surface without enough remaining gas supply to use the power inflater. It might also be good to have the thought of ditching weight at the surface in the back of your mind. Establishing positive buoyancy at the surface is a principle that's drummed into students during Rescue class.

Another thing to consider is that a safety stop for a no-deco recreational dive is purely optional. If given the choice between skipping a safety stop or having no air at the safety stop, I would without hesitation skip the safety stop. Fortunately, you had the option of sharing air with your buddy for the last phase of the dive.

Once you surfaced, you were probably a little excited and inflated your BCD fully with your remaining gas supply. I bet that the BCD was up around your ears given the issues with the upper buckle not working and velcro coming undone. It's not surprising that it took a little work to adjust things and get the BCD working for you again. This is one scenario in which a crotch strap would be useful; it keeps the BCD in place quite nicely. FYI, most conventional jacket-style BCDs don't come with a crotch strap. Another thing to consider is that you don't really have to inflate your BCD fully to float on the water. This, of course, assumes that you are not overly weighted (which many beginner divers unfortunately are).

With rental gear, especially on your first dive with it, it really pays to dive very conservatively (not too deep, not close to NDLs, dive profiles that you're used to, etc.). This gives you a wide margin of error for any number of unexpected issues. For instance, I've seen broken SPGs that read 400psi when the tank is completely empty. When on vacation, it's often tempting to let the DM or other crew member set up all the gear for you. If they do this for you, please make sure to do your own pre-dive checks. Comprehensive pre-dive checks will catch most issues with your regulator setup, SPG, and BCD.

I'm glad that things turned out well for you. Thanks once again for sharing your story.

 

[idocsteve]

When I did check, I had 400 PSI and was 65' deep.

I immediately gave my wife the hand across the throat and signaled we need to up.

400 PSI at 65 feet isn't as bad as you might think it is.

Also you were low, not out of air so the proper signal would be a closed fist banged against your chest, not the finger slicing across throat which means you just pulled your last good breath out of your reg.

Also I've had my waist strap come undone on my BCD on more than one occasion, that's not the end of the world either...it's not going to fall off, you've still got two shoulder straps doing the job for you.

At 400 PSI you would probably have been better off not even fussing with it but you might have had to hold it firmly with a one arm wrap and adjust your body position so it wouldn't put you in a neck hold or something.

 

[gtmurff]

Thanks for the tips.

Yea, I realized later that I gave the wrong signal. I chalk that up to the immediate "Oh crap" feeling when I saw my gauges. Also, I never actually ran out of air, I was at 100 - 200 when we started sharing.

As for the BCD, it wouldn't have been that big of a deal, except that I was already in an excited state due to the air.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

You're far from alone... a few posts down in "Learning the Hard Way" I describe myself doing much the same thing. I was at 250psi in 50FSW. Your "excitement" (having been there, I describe is as near total panic) at the possibility of running out of air caused you to use a lot mor air than necesary during your ascent. I had plenty of gas to ascend, although we skipped the safety stop. And still had enough to overinflate my BCD and keep myself from taking a deep breath once we got to the surface. Like you, the terror made a relatively minor issue with my BCD seem worse than it really was. And like you, I fixed it. Lessons learned. It'll never happen again.

 

[sydney-diver]

If you are ever in the unfortunate position of being "low on air" again, you might want to consider sharing air with your buddy before you completely run out of your gas supply. Buddy separation can occur even during air shares...and it's nice to have some back gas available in case this happens. There was an incident in the San Diego area in October 2008 in which a father and son were sharing air from depth. It has been proposed that, since both were in an excited state, neither was paying attention to achieving independent neutral buoyancy during the ascent. When the duo stopped moving upward, one or both of the divers struggled for the surface. Since one buddy was severely positively buoyant and the other was very negatively buoyant, they went in opposite directions. Unfortunately, the father, who was negatively buoyant, was the one who had also run out of gas. Very sad, tragic outcome.

I was trained to link arms when buddy breathing, is this still taught?

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I was trained to link arms when buddy breathing, is this still taught?

In my PADI class (1999), I was taught to get a good grip of the other person's BCD when sharing air. The OOA diver was taught to simultaneously grab my BCD strap. I guess linking arms would be OK, too. We were not taught to buddy breathe. I am distinguishing here between "buddy breathing" (taking turns breathing off of the same second stage) and sharing air with one's buddy via an octopus regulator.

I will say this, though: controlling each diver's buoyancy independently during an air-share ascent makes the ascent a lot easier.

 

[gtmurff]

In my PADI class (1999), I was taught to get a good grip of the other person's BCD when sharing air.

In my SDI training we were taught to grab the persons BCD.