Who has been in a reall OOA situation, whether you or your dive buddy?

[Bigeclipse]

I have read facts about scuba related deaths and such but im actually wondering how many divers have been in this situation, either themselves or someone else with them under the water.

How many of you have been in this situation before? Please feel free to tell your story. We all try and practice safe diving, and maybe you might feel a little embarrassed to tell it but don't. I want this discussion to be educational so please do not comment negatively about someone's story. I am wondering if OOA is rare or is it just sooner or later that a diver will experience this in one way or another.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

There are lots of these threads - you can do a search for OOA or OOG and find lots of stories...

But here goes -

The only time I had an OOA situation - I was diving in Martinique and a person not my buddy came to me at 80 feet and tried to grab my reg. This was in the 80's or 90's I dont remember. But I remember we only had one reg on the rig with an SPG - no oct and no pony. She grabbed for my reg and I backed off and gave her the OOA slash across the throat. She shook her head - I took a breath and handed her my reg. She took it for maybe 20 seconds and it seemed like minutes and I remember I wanted it back. Because we were in warm water and down about 80 feet and I knew we had enough air - we swam to look for the DM - we had 80+ foot viz so it was fairly easy to find him close to the anchor. As we swam we shared the primary reg like we were taught - no one paniced and no one bolted to the surface. We were locked together as if it was a training exercise but I do remember thinking my god she is taking a long time giving me back that reg. I swam her over to the DM and he had an octopus which was great - I then finished my dive without my buddy - I have no idea what happened to him.
But that is the only time I had to share air since I learned to dive.

 

[nimoh]

I have twice been in a situation where a diver (not the same diver in each case) that was with me would not have had enough gas to finish the dive. In both cases, based on my remaining gas and the fact that they breathe heavier than I do, I was pretty sure they were getting low. After trying to communicate that they should check their gas (and them not understanding), when they finally did check, I noticed their eyes get big followed by a thumbs up signal.

In the first case, we were a ways from the entry point, and thought I would guide the diver slowly up to shallower water and swim partially back towards the entry point at the same time, but he was slow and breathing even heavier, so I gave him my long hose and we went straight up (following a normal ascent rate and doing a safety stop).

In the other case, when the diver finally did check his gas, he was at 200psi, and based on this and my experience with the other diver, I gave him my long hose and we ended the dive with a normal ascent up a sloping shoreline and a safety stop.

I should probably note that in both cases, I was in doubles and once the other divers were on my long hose, we had plenty of gas to do a normal ascent and a safety stop. I would have probably skipped the safety stop if gas was low though.

As for myself, I have only gone OOG once. It was in a pool and on purpose, just to see what it felt like. At a depth of 2-3 feet, I took 30 breaths off of my reg with the SPG reading 0 and the last 10 or so were difficult breaths (i.e. felt like I was actually sucking the gas out of the tank).

 

[boulderjohn]

In more than 1,000 dives, I have never witnessed a true OOA situation. I was once part of a group in which one of the divers went OOA early in the dive--apparently she had put her gear on a used tank and did not check the total air supply when she did. She went to her buddy and calmly took his alternate without signalling. He did not realize anything was up until he saw her pulling on his alternate. Sometime after that, I asked all the instructors at the shop where I worked about their experiences. Not one had ever actually witnessed a true OOA either, and those that knew of such experiences (not many) related similar stories--the OOA diver took the alternate without signalling. In my current shop, one of the instructors said he had once a guy in his group go OOA fairly deep, yank the regulator out of his mouth, and immediately bolt to the surface, dragging him with him. He managed to get his own alternate on the way up and hang onto the guy to slow down the ascent.

Amazingly enough, on the surface the guy was not only unapologetic, he indicated that he knew he was about to run out of air before it happened, and he said (defiantly) that it was OK for him to breathe it all down because he had paid for that air. IMO, even more amazingly, the DM said that this was the second time on that trip that the guy had done it, and he therefore refused to allow the guy to do any more dives. I find that amazing because in my experience at that dive location (Cozumel), the DMs usually are vigilant in checking air supplies, and I would expect a DM who knew someone had established a history of going OOA to be extra careful with that one.

I used the phrase "true OOA" to distinguish it from a photographer I knew who went OOA frequently and intentionally while finishing dives at the tops of relatively shallow reefs. When someone asked him how he knew when it was time to ascend, he said, "CESA."

 

[Yoyoguy]

There are lots of these threads - you can do a search for OOA or OOG and find lots of stories...

But here goes -

The only time I had an OOA situation - I was diving in Martinique and a person not my buddy came to me at 80 feet and tried to grab my reg. This was in the 80's or 90's I dont remember. But I remember we only had one reg on the rig with an SPG - no oct and no pony. She grabbed for my reg and I backed off and gave her the OOA slash across the throat. She shook her head - I took a breath and handed her my reg. She took it for maybe 20 seconds and it seemed like minutes and I remember I wanted it back. Because we were in warm water and down about 80 feet and I knew we had enough air - we swam to look for the DM - we had 80+ foot viz so it was fairly easy to find him close to the anchor. As we swam we shared the primary reg like we were taught - no one paniced and no one bolted to the surface. We were locked together as if it was a training exercise but I do remember thinking my god she is taking a long time giving me back that reg. I swam her over to the DM and he had an octopus which was great - I then finished my dive without my buddy - I have no idea what happened to him.
But that is the only time I had to share air since I learned to dive.

your story is pretty intense! Doing an air share on one regulatory must have been a bit scary. thanks for sharing.

 

[Wookie]

Dead empty, only once. I was installing a mooring at the Flower Gardens and had to walk the drill and hoses up current a hundred yards to the drill site. I removed my fins, got negative, and commenced to dragging 200 lbs of drill and hydraulic hoses through the water. 200 lbs on land, but irritatingly neutral in the water. Anyway, I had made it most of the hundred yards when my trusty Atomic gave it's last, and when an Atomic is out, it's out. I had no fins on, so couldn't swim, but I did have enough to make myself buoyant, and as I hustled to put my fins on and remember to exhale and try for that last breath and look for the safety regulator I made a promise to myself that I would never ever ever dive without a pony again.

Obviously I made the ascent, got to the safety regulator, made a long stop and only suffered from skin bends, and another team finished moving the drill. Had I looked up, I would have seen a dive team 20 feet above me clipping the hydraulic hoses to the anchor line. But sometimes you only think of where the air is, not where it might be. I haven't dived without a pony since.

 

[Subcooled]

I did run out of bottom gas once (cylinders beeing at ambient pressure - wet breathe). I did have nitrox 50 available at 35m, which was kind of unpleasant, as the MOD was 21m.
Ok, so why did this happen? Fear (of big and hard propellers) and the confusion that resulted. I did surface with tripple zero after a mentally very confusing dive.
I was never out of gas, but... let's say that the gas was not always optimal, and that sucking a vacuum became familiar.

 

[boulderjohn]

OK, here is an embarrassing story about a near OOA starring myself.

Another instructor and I were setting up a platform in a lake as part of the preparation for a big multi-operator dive day promotion. We had others on shore setting up a canopy, picnic tables, etc. We had lines running from the platform for diving guidance in the relatively low visibility environment. It was getting late, and we needed to finish and get back on shore to help when all the potential customers arrived. We were almost done and on the surface. There was one more thing to do on the platform. I said I would do it, and my buddy headed for shore while I went down about 15 feet to finish the job, knowing that my tank was almost empty. I then headed back to the surface and stopped abruptly with my head about 2 feet from the surface. Some line had somehow come loose and was entangled with my tank valve. I reached back and tried in several ways to free it, but it was really entangled. I was almost out of air and about to drown 2 feet from the surface. I got out of my gear, swam up, and then went back down to free the tank.

Back on shore another member of our group said that it looked like I had taken my gear off out there. Why was that? "Well, um, ...."

 

[nolatom]

Dead empty, only once. I was installing a mooring at the Flower Gardens and had to walk the drill and hoses up current a hundred yards to the drill site. I removed my fins, got negative, and commenced to dragging 200 lbs of drill and hydraulic hoses through the water. 200 lbs on land, but irritatingly neutral in the water. Anyway, I had made it most of the hundred yards when my trusty Atomic gave it's last, and when an Atomic is out, it's out. I had no fins on, so couldn't swim, but I did have enough to make myself buoyant, and as I hustled to put my fins on and remember to exhale and try for that last breath and look for the safety regulator I made a promise to myself that I would never ever ever dive without a pony again.

Obviously I made the ascent, got to the safety regulator, made a long stop and only suffered from skin bends, and another team finished moving the drill. Had I looked up, I would have seen a dive team 20 feet above me clipping the hydraulic hoses to the anchor line. But sometimes you only think of where the air is, not where it might be. I haven't dived without a pony since.

And you had to sit out the rest of the trip... ;-)

I came close once, first dive, free ascent and I underestimated the mid-depth current. At 20' my reg started to breathe harder, I signalled "low on air" to buddy who gave me his alternate, we hung for a minute or two then surfaced, I manually inflated bc, surface swim with snorkel to the boat, and made a point of showing the DM I could still take a breath on my reg. So i avoided dive jail, but it was pretty close. Lesson: be more conservative on ascent psi, and work the problem *immediately*, it won't get better if you wait..

 

[bl6394]

Sure - I'll share.

I usually teach in Side-mount when in OW - long hose on the right cylinder, bungied backup on the left cylinder. I had 2 Peak Performance Buoyancy students whom I was leading on their training dive # 2. I was wearing 2 Faber LP 95's and had nearly full cylinders. This was a quarry - water was cold and the vis was less than 5 feet - so I was a bit task loaded keeping my 2 students in sight, observing their trim, buoyancy and kicks, while leading them along a trail. We were about 20 feet deep. I had been teaching specialties all weekend - in what we could call a pretty demanding schedule.

We had just left the platform - and my long hose went OOA. My immediate thought was that I had rolled the valve off by accident on the platform - so I turned the valve on the right cylinder all the way on - so I thought. Still OOA. Turned the cylinder valve all the way the other way, still OOA. Went to the bungied backup. Got a breath and assumed I had mistaken my hoses and was operating the wrong valve. Turned the valve on my left cylinder and now my bungied backup is OOA. Went back to the long hose and operated the cylinder one more time - and both regulators are OOA...

When I went OOA - I had signaled my students to stop while I sorted myself out. I had been hovering with my students watching my valve drill. But since it was clear I was not going to sort myself out - I signaled OOA to one of my students and did an air sharing ascent to the surface.

Analysis:

On the surface it became clear that my miflex longhose had kinked and pinched off the air supply to the right cylinder. Didn't matter how many valve drills I did - the right cylinder would not ever work until the kink in the hose was removed - something a rubber hose would not do.

Some of my sidemount cylinders are using right and left hand valves - but not all. Unlike my backmount doubles - there was less muscle memory about the open and closed position of my valves. When I encountered the OOA situation - I started making incorrect assumptions about which position was open - and later - which regulator I was breathing. In short - I did a sloppy valve drill.

Task loading and the conditions didn't help. After a long weekend teaching - I was not fresh. My attention was also split between managing my own gear and supervising my students.

Solution:

I adjusted my hose routing so that a kink was less likely. The Hollis DC1 regulator is a great side-mount regulator - but my hose routing was not optimal. I committed to doing enough valve drills so that without thinking I could respond correctly to valve / regulator failures of all sorts. Free flows are common - a non-breathing regulator much less so.
This was no big deal in a recreational setting - we air shared to the surface. But I do a fair amount of solo and technical diving - and it is not lost on me that this may have ended poorly for me under different circumstances.