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

[Bigeclipse]

these are really scary but good stories and lessons learned. I hope my training would kick in if ever in this situation but I pray I never will be!

 

[tursiops]

The only time I personally was out of air was when a second stage fell off the hose (while sidemount in a cave) and in the ensuing bubble cloud and confusion I could not get my hands on my other second stage right away, so breathed from my buddy's reg until all was sorted out.

But I've witnessed an OOA in the group I was diving with on a boat dive in Bonaire, and I've had two people come to me for gas while I was leading dives in Hawaii. In all these cases, it was due to clueless divers not paying attention. Actually, all was very calm and handled well in all cases, but that was because the donors were experienced and well-trained (DMs and instructors).

 

[Subcooled]

I will add some detail.

As a child (barely able to swim) I had an unpleasant encounter with a cruise ship and its propeller currents; It really wasn't fun beeing dragged towards a ship and beeing caught in a whirlpool.
Ever since I have had a healthy appreciation of propellers. Especially the big ones.

This dive started in a hurry. We were on a shipping lane and we were asked to dive quickly as large cargo ships were about to leave port. I had not done many sea dives so the propeller sounds (of very very distant ships) drew me on the verge of panic. I just wanted to anchor myself to anything hard and heavy (the wreck). Not much logical thinking was left as I tried to manage a shattered mind. Loss of focus, several mistakes and some stupid errors left me with no bottom gas at 35 metres with just deco gas that was toxic but breathable. A quick ascent avoided oxtox but it wasn't pretty. And yes, when you desperately suck air (trimix), and only get a little plus some water, the life is not good (I had done this in pool earlier and so I avoided panic). I was able to do rational choices though, and so I live to tell this tale. Fear can kill. Know your fears. Speak of them. Your turn.

 

[BRT]

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.

So was she actually out of air? One of my experiences was having my head stuck deep in a hole with the divemaster and when I came out my wife was really upset. Another diver came up to her and grabbed her reg. She didn't deal with it well but he still had 300# and the divemaster led him to the surface with that. He just panicked when he saw he was low.

 

[Edward3c]

In 36 years I've only come across a few OOA (OOG) instances. Most caused by equipment failure, one from poor planning and one from pig-headedness.

• My buddy's suit inflater stuck on at 30m. He disconnected it, but as the button was on the hose not the suit we came up in a storm of bubbles.
• My contents gauge became unscrewed and fell off. Good lesson on how long air (gas) lasts with a HP leak.
• My buddy's O-ring failed (yoke type) and the guide handed over their Octo and we finished the dive.
• My O-ring failed (300Bar DIN) during a safety stop, just switched to my pony.
• Six other 'tourists' were on the guide's cylinder and the extra tank on a 6m line from the boat. We’d dived the Devil's Throat on 18Lt cylinders and incurred a 15 minute decompression stop. I did the complete dive on the one cylinder.
• In Grenada where the guide surfaced on 10Bar, I still had 60.

 

[TSandM]

I have never had to donate gas to someone who was out. I have donated gas to someone who was very low on two occasions.

I have had two "out of gas" situations myself. One was a massive freeflow that occurred in about 35 feet of water. The tank was empty before we got to the surface, but I was breathing off my buddy's long hose, so it was not an issue except that I had to have the tank inspected.

The other is an embarrassing story, and was a lesson to me. I have written a lot of times about what a PITA I am about doing equipment checks. The one time I don't, is when I am diving with people whose accomplishment and experience are daunting to me, and THEY don't, and I don't want to offend them by insisting. (I have learned not to do this.). Anyway, we were starting a cave dive on stages, and we didn't do a team check, and I forgot to check my stage reg. I descended about six feet and ran out of gas (having used all the gas in the hose, and the stage being turned off). I was AMAZED at the huge adrenaline surge that came with sucking the reg dry, and my feet started bolting to the surface before my brain even processed what had happened. As soon as it did, I said to myself, "You idiot, turn the stage on!" That was the end of the issue, and I never did get to the surface, so obviously all of this happened very fast.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

So was she actually out of air? One of my experiences was having my head stuck deep in a hole with the divemaster and when I came out my wife was really upset. Another diver came up to her and grabbed her reg. She didn't deal with it well but he still had 300# and the divemaster led him to the surface with that. He just panicked when he saw he was low.

I will never actually know if she was out of air. But she came to me without a reg in her mouth - when I got back on the boat - I got neither a thank you or an explanation... It really was a bizarre experience - but as someone has said before - when it goes tits up you will rise to the level of your training... So, practice and train as if your life depends on it - because some day it might...

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Myself once. Dive number 13. I have related this story before so not going to go into the whole thing. But did not know my SPG had crapped out and was off by 300 psi. Obediently followed a DM "because she was a DM and knew what she was doing, right?" Even though she had been told to hang with me on the 25 ft platform until I hit 700 PSI or so and ascend.

I was at just over 900. When I hit 700 I showed her. Instead of ascending we went after the instructor who was on another platform at 50 feet.

By the time we got there I was at 500 and he indicated that we go up along the bottom contour. At 23 ft I looked at my SPG. It said 300 PSI. Took a breath and nothing. Gave the OOA and went on to the instructors octo. Surfaced safely with a dry tank and the knowledge and conviction to never trust a DM again to do the right thing. Since then I haven't and drill into my students to never dive with a DM unless you have your own back up plan. If he/she does anything that makes you question their judgment, go to the back up plan immediately and get you and your buddy out of there.

BTW she never asked me if I was ok. The only thing she said was to the instructor when he asked her why she didn't ascend was "WTF do you expect of me?" She was a whack job and the instructors Gf at the time.

---------- Post added June 15th, 2015 at 04:16 PM ----------

I will never actually know if she was out of air. But she came to me without a reg in her mouth - when I got back on the boat - I got neither a thank you or an explanation... It really was a bizarre experience - but as someone has said before - when it goes tits up you will rise to the level of your training... So, practice and train as if your life depends on it - because some day it might...

This is why I still teach buddy breathing to OW students.

 

[Subcooled]

these are really scary but good stories and lessons learned. I hope my training would kick in if ever in this situation but I pray I never will be!

Familiarity is your friend. Do loose a fin, two fins, two fins and a mask, ... in a pool. Do experience an out of gas situation in a pool. Ditch those weights, for real, in a pool. If you ever encounter a real problem at one hundred feet or more, you will be really happy to have experienced it before in a pool. The situation will be familiar. The options are familiar. The response is familiar. Once more. No big deal.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

This is why I still teach buddy breathing to OW students.

+1 for this ^^^^^^^^^
I have taught this to my son as well - some things just make you more confident. This IMO is one of them and gives you a different sense of what is going on when you do not have a regulator in your mouth - it makes me pay attention to what is going on and I am very focused waiting on that next breath from the reg.