Ran out of air!

[fishytim2]

I want to share with everyone my own experience of running out of air and what lesson was learned. I will start off by saying that I am still new to diving (2 years/15 dives)

A friend and I were diving Hospital Hole in Weeki Wachee River, Florida. It is a 100ft dive straight down with a Sulphur layer around 65 ft. My first mistake on this dive was not planning out the dive. We knew how much air was in each of our tanks but I totally forgot about the air loss increasing as the depth got greater. I had 2000 lbs of air and my buddy had 3000.

As we were descending, I was so caught up in passing my own best of 60 feet that I did not pay attention to the air gauge as much as the depth gauge. When we finally reached the bottom I was in awe that I made it. That feeling changed after a few minutes when what I thought was an interruption in air for a moment turned into a bit of panic. For now I know what was really happening :shocked2:

It wasn't anything like the pool training I was given. It happened much quicker. At first the interruption passed, but then it was a total shutdown with no guessing what was happening.

I started to give the "Out of Air" signal to my buddy but he looked at me in confusion. In the seconds that passed, I just reached out and grabbed his Octo-air. We where then in the mind set of Oh Sh*# how much air was left in his tank !

Luckily for us, his experience and each of us knowing not to panic, we took our time ascending. We made our safety stop then continued onto the surface.

I know we should have discussed more about planning the dive and I blame only myself for not watching both gauges.

I hope this helps, for I will certainly never forget it and I can guarantee there won't be a second time! :balloons:

 

[ReefHound]

Um, wow! Brace yourself...

For the time being, congratulations. You won the lottery.

 

[redacted]

How do you consume 50 cu ft of gas descending from the surface to 100 ft????

 

[ScubaSteve]

Um, wow! Brace yourself...

For the time being, congratulations. You won the lottery.

I agree. To the OP, congratulations for not panicking and for successfully making it out alive. Some very [-]stupid[/-] senseless mistakes were made (it sounds like you know what they are) and I would hope you have truly learned from this experience. Once more and you officially become a Darwin Candidate in the making .

 

[bamamedic]

A. If you are going to forget that you use more gas as you descend deeper, you do not need to be descending deeper for now. Your "personal best" of 60 feet vs. 100 feet...That is a pretty big jump. Maybe there should be a few steps in between?
Remember when you learned to drive a car? Did your parent or instructor teach you to scan your mirrors every 30 seconds or so? You should be diving the same way...check your depth, check your NDL, check your gas, glance at your buddy, check your navigation and repeat. Never get so "in awe" of your surroundings that you forget the most basic of diving rules..."Do not run out of gas!"

B. Practice air sharing drills with your buddy so there is no "blank reaction" when you give an OOA signal. I have a particular buddy who will randomly surprise me with OOA drills, even he is diving with someone else and just happens to see me in the water. The reaction is instantaneous..."donate reg". No question and no confusion. On that note, if you and he are donating standard octos....make sure you both know the location of each others octos...and regularly check throughout the dive to make sure the octo has not slipped out of its holder. That situation could have turned into a drowning had you not kept your cool, and had the octo not been exactly where you expected it to be. Good job on that, BTW.

C. What have you learned from this incident?

 

[tstormdiver]

Glad to hear things came out well in the end. Your decisiveness & training probably saved your life. Please do not take this as any type of flaming. It is not meant to be; I'm just going to put this in another perspective that might help you & others avoid the same situation.

When you drive your car, do you let the fuel tank run empty? Or do you watch the gauge to judge when you need to refuel? Think of your SPG in the same light as you do your car's fuel gauge. When you travel highway speeds, you generally use more gas (when traveling at a steady speed) than you do when at lower city- type speeds- general MPG ratings. As you stated & realized that depth changes your air consumption rate. So when you are using more fuel (air) at one time, you must be more aware of your fuel (air) gauges & check it more often. Just throwing out an analogy (though probably not the best one) for you to consider.

Dive planning is probably one of the most important & most overlooked or glossed over part of diving. You've learned a very valuable lesson. Take that lesson & gain more experience from it (as it seems you have). Good luck to you & your diving endeavors.

 

[fire_diver]

OK, I'm not going to candy coat it. You were incredibly stupid to do "that".

"That" being.... making a dive you were not prepared for
Starting a dive without enough gas
not planning your dive
Not checking your SPG
Not knowing your SAC in order to plan such a dive.

I'm glad you made it out OK. Hopefully you gained some very valuable experience from your mistakes. This is the reason new divers are recommended to stay above 60 feet until you have enough experience to begin to SLOWLY push deeper. There is nothing wrong with going deeper, but make your increments 5 feet, not 1+ ATA.

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you, Tim, for your post. By posting your experience here you are helping others to learn more about safe diving.

As another poster suggested, be prepared from some rude remarks from other posters. They haven't happened yet, but I would not be surprised to hear some. We have a couple of boors here on SB who get their jollies from bashing new divers for mistakes.

Yes, you made mistakes, but you are to to be commended for honestly reporting them and owning up to them.

Frankly, I also wonder about the Instruction you received. That's not necessarily your fault; your Instructor may bear some responsibility. Divers needs adequate training in pre-dive planning. It's not clear to me that you received that. I would recommend doing an internet search on gas management and learning a bit more about that.

One issue that stands out for me is that you appeared that you may have been focused on meeting a certain depth. Don't worry about going deep.

It sounds like you have learned a lot from the experience. Keep diving.

 

[Maladryne]

I want to share with everyone my own experience of running out of air and what lesson was learned.

Thanks. That's why we're here.

My first mistake on this dive was not planning out the dive.

Agreed. Suggestion: use a checklist. As a new diver, you're going to be excited and, especially now, trying to go over all the stuff you have to do before you get in the water. Have a checklist you go through to help you make sure you don't lose track. This shouldn't be just checking off equipment stuffed in a bag, but also the things you need to DO before you get geared up and splash. Things to talk about, things to look for (entry/exit, emergency facilities, whatever). Over time, going over that checklist becomes more and more second nature, until you find yourself sizing up a location, checking your equipment, etcetera routinely. It's not a routine for you yet, so next time you're driving to work, think of ways to help organize your next dive day.

We knew how much air was in each of our tanks but I totally forgot about the air loss increasing as the depth got greater.

Yeah, dumb mistake, but you know that. Takeaway: one question you ask yourself when planning a dive is "what's different about this dive from other dives, and how will that difference matter?" Example: Night dive: "oh, I'll need a light" (and a backup). There's a range of factors in deep dives; narcosis, air consumption, NDL, etcetera. When you're pushing the boundaries of your experience, slow down your planning.

I had 2000 lbs of air and my buddy had 3000.

You started your dive with 2000 psi in your tank? If that's the case, then this in itself should have had you more closely monitoring your air supply. Good advice from other posters above on techniques to help keep an eye on that gauge, so I won't belabor the point.

what I thought was an interruption in air for a moment turned into a bit of panic.

For what it's worth, I can't think of a time when I had a momentary interruption in air supply that resolved itself. Any time I inhale, I expect to get a full breath. Anything less than that will get my full and immediate attention, as it's an indication that something is wrong with my life support system.

It wasn't anything like the pool training I was given.

Seldom is. Pool training is controlled and anticipated. Things tend to happen a lot quicker in the real world.

I started to give the "Out of Air" signal to my buddy but he looked at me in confusion.

This is a much more common reaction than you'd expect. Time and again, I've seen the "deer in the headlights" syndrome in certified divers when they're faced with "situations". There's a lot of reasons why it happens, and I'm not getting into the why's and wherefores. Comments above from posters have more great techniques to make sure you don't fall into that category; it generally centers around more training, more diving, and practice. There are plenty of opportunities to practice survival skills during a dive; making use of them makes us better divers and better buddies.

In the seconds that passed, I just reached out and grabbed his Octo-air.

Outstanding. This is self-rescue, and where your problem solving should start. In the event that you do find yourself in a situation that you didn't expect, being able to save yourself means that (theoretically) there's twice as many sources of rescue (assuming you're with a competent buddy). Your specific out of air scenario was solved by securing your buddie's alternate; however, you might also have had, say, a pony bottle with a backup air supply.

Luckily for us, his experience and each of us knowing not to panic, we took our time ascending. We made our safety stop then continued onto the surface.

Again, outstanding.

I will certainly never forget it and I can guarantee there won't be a second time!

Glad you won't forget it, but never say never. There's a range of reasons why you might have a situation ahead of you where you find yourself sucking on seawater. If you guarantee it won't happen, you'll get complacent. Assume that it WILL happen again, and practice accordingly.

Thanks again for sharing this. While you indicated above that you feel dumb or like a dork, the mistakes you made are, unfortunately, not at all uncommon. You lived, though, which is not always the case. There have been many examples of people in exactly the same situation panicking and bolting, then suffering embolism or DCS. In some cases, both buddies panic during ascent, resulting in a negative outcome for each. So all in all, you responded decently to a situation of your own making, and are smart enough to accept responsibility & reflect upon the causes. Don't give up diving for golf yet.

 

[ScubaSteve]

..............
As we were descending, I was so caught up in passing my own best of 60 feet that I did not pay attention to the air gauge as much as the depth gauge. When we finally reached the bottom I was in awe that I made it. That feeling changed after a few minutes when
..........................

Just a couple of questions. Did you check your air at all in the time that it took you to begin your descent and run out of air? Did your buddy ask you at all if you were "OK". You mention that thanks to his "experience" you guys were OK. Did he know your status as a diver?

You are ultimately responsible for yourself and YES, you made some really dumb mistakes. However, I think your "buddy" needs to learn how to be a better "buddy". When diving with a new diver, I will not allow their air to go unchecked at least a couple of times and for the "experienced diver" that was leading the dive, he should want to judge your air consumption early (starting at depth) to know when to turn around.