Have you ever run out of gas, or been close?

[Parsons]

I was on the Sandusky in the Straits on my 20th dive with 10 ft vis at 80'. So we were green and cold in are wetsuits. My dive buddy checked are air at the acent line and I got the O K sign. Then as we were on are safty stop, I look and he has my Octo, he has ran out of air! So we finished the dive. That was A huge surprise to me. That is one dive I will never forget. And I won't let him forget it.

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

Well of course I have been low on gas, haven’t you? There are days when being in the water is really glorious and I do not want to get out sooner than needed. Assuming it is a dive site I know well, and there is something to look at above 20 feet, I will pull tank pressure down to a couple hundred psi. We generally dive as a team so an out of gas air share from 15 or 20 feet would be a non-issue as would be a free ascent. Another constraint is that we will try to spend 5-10 minutes above 30 feet before getting to a low gas level so decompression is not a consideration.

 

[Farback]

Never on Scuba, but once on SCBA. We were fighting a warehouse fire in -21 degrees. I was operating a deck gun, and the blow-back had me encased in ice. When my low air went off, I couldn't get my helmet or mask off, or disconnect my reg. A Captain chipped me out with a hose spanner. 'Only in Canada eh?'

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

Twice I have been real close (100psi)
First) 5th and final OW check out dive. Oops
second) Night shore dive at Lauderdale by the sea. 10' of water and 50 yards off shore I just got a little carried away and ended the dive with 110psi.

I have ran out a few times when I was a safety diver assisting a guy who was going for the longest freshwater dive of 120hr underwater. 2 safety divers would be down at all times and some times we just ran smack out. We were in 8' of water so it was a short distance to the surface but it was so easy to forget about it when you were doing 3+ hour dives. I did learn to nap underwater during that event BTW. He made it 111hr before we had to pull him up

 

[LakeCountyDiver]

Duplicate

 

[finbob]

Yes, ran out of air on my 12th dive at around 50'. Finned over to the DM and gave the out of air signal. Shared her air and surfaced. Lesson learned! Ever since then, I am more than cautious with my air!

 

[WetLens]

I've had several close ones over the years, but typically on shallow, well-controlled dives where I was knowingly sucking the walls of the tank in. Anyone who has dove Euclid Beach Pier in Cleveland can understand the circumstances. I have, however, had one notable out-of-air experience. One of those, "how could I be so stupid" events. Second dive of the day in about 60-65' - obviously 70' as I was diving tables (or should say that it was before computers). Dropped in on a solo dive (half-dozen divers on board plus another boat-load nearby) to check out a side-scan sonar hit that my buddy had been wanting to check out.

Lake Erie was flat calm. Vis was fair to good - at least 25' in mid-water; perhaps 10-15' on the bottom. What I found was a series of fishing nets that were hung up on the railings of a wreck. The wreck was not visible in the muck bottom, but the nets provided a perfect outline of the bow of a ship. Not much to dive on, so I did not alert the divers topside. However, there were many floats that were keeping the nets in the water column - still catching fish. There were quite a few walleye and perch caught up, so I figured I'd cut a few of the floats loose to try and get the nets down. Well, one thing led to another and I lost track of time. Ended up checking my air when I hit about 300 or 400 and realized I had been down for quite some time - and it was my 2nd dive to nearly 70 feet - without much SI. As I was only going to do a bounce dive to check it out, I hadn't calulated the tables beyond knowing I had enough time to do a short recon. No tables, low on air, by myself. How stupid can you get... I sucked the walls in, nursing the tank as long as I could, trying all the time to wave someone to get me another tank and tables. I could see people diving off the boat (the platform was my friend's 65' tug), swimming between the boats, but no-one took notice. Everything came out fine. I calculated the tables once I surfaced and determined that my profile was okay, but I spent a very frantic few minutes working to sort things out. Can't say as I've had a close "low-on-air" call since...

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

On normal dives when I started I ran low often and had to pull my J-valve more than a few times. I finally broke down and purchased an SPG, since then all is good. Lets see that was 1978.
Since then the closest I came at the safety stop was 500, thou sometimes I do an extra long stop looking at critters and will suck it down to 300 before surfacing.

 

[ScubaFeenD]

Never on Scuba, but once on SCBA. We were fighting a warehouse fire in -21 degrees. I was operating a deck gun, and the blow-back had me encased in ice. When my low air went off, I couldn't get my helmet or mask off, or disconnect my reg. A Captain chipped me out with a hose spanner. 'Only in Canada eh?'

When i was a probationary firefighter I was doing a primary search, and my low air alarm started to go off, so I notified the guy leading the search. One of the more seasoned firefighters turned around and said, well use up the last of the fresh air and then just cover your nose with your hood. Breathing smoke was kind of par for the course where I fought fire.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

I have intentionally drained my tank on several occasions. Testing equipment or equipment repairs. When I have drained it completely I am in water where I can stand up.

One might be surprised at how their reg breathes below 300 psi. I have never unintentionally run out of air. I have come close sharing air with two OOA divers. Neither of these was my dive buddy, and my dive buddy was there with us, so I was able to pass both divers off to my buddy before they had to find out how their reg breathes below 300 psi