Who has been the provider on a real OOA?

[kidspot]

Well from the "other side" of the situation . . . I was ooa during my third checkout dive (during the reg retrieval I could not locate my reg again - long story . . .) after exhaling all my "lung" air I started looking around for another air source - one of my buddies with a long hose had seen my difficulty, already come over and had it extended about the same time I started looking for some air. It was only about 15-20 seconds, but it sure boosted my confidence in him - I have no problem diving with him now.

Tim

P.S. I did rectify the problem with my reg so it wouldn't happen again and repeated that excercise over and over again till I knew I could do it - since then I've switched to a long hose and bungeed backup also and it would be pretty hard to lose either of them.

 

[diver_paula]

I've donated twice - once each to two different buddies. Each buddy approached me calmly showing me their gauge on 'low' to let me know we'd need to share soon enough. The one time was quite odd as we were both diving steel 95's, have similar air consumptions and weren't all that far into the dive. After donating a hose and returning to the line we started looking into the issue closer. Somehow the tank wasn't completely turned on. A few more twists and we were set.

Paula

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

Diving off Airport Beach on Maui. Doing an extended safety stop as my wife and I poked around coral heads in about 15 feet of water. We were having fun and didn't see any other divers near us when from behind a diver yanks my primary from my mouth. Then he drags me all of 15 feet to the surface.

So some people don't think about OOA situations and remember you can simply swim to the surface.

Some people shouldn't be diving either. They honestly shouldn't.

English wasn't his first language I discovered so I doubt he fully appreciated my comments. He seemed to grasp that I wasn't happy with him.

 

[SDAnderson]

OOA or LOA? It makes a big difference. Back in the days before SPG's, when "J" valves ruled the earth, we all had a built-in excuse for OOA, but nowadays? Short of a catastrophic equipment failure or a willfull lack of attention, I don't see how a true out of air situation can occur. Buddy's who are low on air should start sharing long before they run out to avoid panicky responses in option-free situations.

I've been the donor in a couple of LOA situations and the recipient in one, none of which was particularly dramatic.

 

[DennisW]

Years ago during a float dive off West Palm Beach, a diver that was not in our group came up to me and took the reg from my mouth. I grabbed his BC and then used my Air 2. I asked him if he was OK, no response. Big eyes! I shook him by his BC to get his attention and waited a minute to make sure he was breathing ok. Then I asked him again. This time, I got an Ok back. I then told him we would surface. We surfaced, I put him on our boat and told them to find his boat. Then I finished my dive. When we got back to the boat, he was gone, so I assume the captain found his boat.

 

[mech]

I was on a cattle boat in Nassau.
The boat had some free divers out there as well.
One of the tourists asked for air at 35-40'
He didn't seem like he was going to drown.
I shook my head,pointed to him and gave him the thumb up sign.
I watched to make sure he was OK.
On the boat we ended up being both pissed off at each other.
One of the things he told me was that he did that all the time.
I was a tad bit rude in return...but not overly.

I've done several LOA haul ins but those were no stress situations.
Andy

 

[Diver0001]

I'm posting this in the HOG forum because I'm only interested in the use of the long hose during an OOA situation.

What I'm looking for is input from those that have been the provider of the air or gas during a real OOA.

Thanks

Brian

I didn't answer the poll but I have this:

I've donated the long-hose for real twice. One was very nearly OOA and stressed to the point that he couldn't control his own ascent. He signalled low on air and started doing all kinds of weird things so I took over the ascent and handed him my reg. He refused to breathe off of it but held on to it during the ascent. He made it to the surface on his own reg but I have no doubt that he would have used mine if push came to shove.

The other had a free-flow during an OW course and I when I tried to deploy the l.h. as a precaution it got snarled in the snorkel (long story), which not only got embarassing but could easily have lead to me fuc*ing around with deploying it while the student was busy freaking out. Fortunately she was calm and nothing happened. What I realised because of that and what I hope to get across right now is that a snorkel is a real danger that can lead to a serious c.f. with a hog rig. If you must carry a snorkel then stow it while you're under water.

R..

 

[mech]

I did one of those.
Amen to stowing it underwater.

 

[mcrae]

About 6 years ago there were a group of 6 of us doing a river drift when the current decided to not let us back into shore. I looked over to a lady instructor immediately to my right and saw the proverbial "eyes as big as saucers" and knew she was out of air. We were all getting low.

She quickly crossed in front of me to her husband and took his octo. She was naturally distressed but handled it OK.
This was strictly a recreational set up with AL80s and short hoses. The reason she ran out first was she was using a AL63.

We were forced to surface eventually which we were trying to avoid, due to boat traffic.

She says it hurts like hell to try to breathe from an MT tank.

Gary

 

[Mark Vlahos]

Hi,

I have donated the long hose one time and it was a low on air dive. The other diver was low enough on air that he was going to limit his safety stop to about 30 seconds so he could make the surface with about 200 PSI in his tank. I volunteered my regulator allowing him to take a nice long 3 minute stop. He was in no immediate danger of running out of air and if I had not donated he would have made the surface safely and was not anywhere near his NDL for that dive. He had been getting good bottom times on earlier dives but was having some trouble with bouyancy on this dive and blew through the air at a rate that for him was out of character. The long hose allowed him to not feel closed in while we shared my tank.

When we got to the surface he expressed surprise at just how easy it was to breathe from my tank with the 7' hose. The long hose allowed me to fill a lift bag without being too close to him. Really made things easy. When we made the surface he was calm and relaxed.

Mark Vlahos