Telling your dive buddies you may go Out of Air on this dive?

[AJ]

I don't think it's smart to randomly signal out of air if you're not out of air during a dive even if you spoke about this ahead of time.

Don't agree, if you pick your buddy carefully you can. My best buddy is a a DM with lots of experience. We have been diving the past two years for over 100 dives in all kinds of circumstances. We know when it's real and when it's a drill in a glance. With my GUE buddy's I won't hestitate either to do this drill when anounced on forehand.

However, wIth a diver I do not know well I would be reluctant to do this drill , even announced. Picking you buddy carefully before doing these kind of drills is very important. That I do agree to.

 

[DiverDownD3]

I'll do a drill if I'm diving with someone I'm familiar with. But this is all discussed during the dive plan, prior to splashing. I do like the idea of signaling prior to starting the drill.

 

[CptTightPants21]

There are a combination of factors to consider including:
1. Experience level with buddy (how many dives?)
2. Dive Conditions (low viz high current, calm lake, etc)
3. Diver skill
4. Situation during the dive when it is conducted

To address a few points mentioned
1. It is very easy to tell if it is a drill vs real life.

2. Discussing the possibility of the drill before the dive is ok, although I don’t always do it. I’m much more likely to mention it before the dive if the diver was recently certified. If the diver is “experienced”, I probably won’t discuss the possibility.

3. Having a signal defeats the entire purpose of the drill.
There is a drill where you give a buddy a signal and do OOA, but that is a different drill than the one being asked about by the OP. The whole point of the drill is to see how the buddy responds to unexpected pressure and the situation in the “real world”. It is the same difference between preforming a full valve drill and getting hit with a bubble gun to simulate failure. One is to learn and improve technique, the other is to prove mastery of execution.

If you are going to do this drill with a new buddy/diver, you should be mindful and start off doing it in relatively benign condition. Ideally, you would do it in a lake/quarry somewhere in the 20-60ft range. If you need to do it in the ocean, do a shore dive or once the dive is concluding and you are making your way up the anchor line. Don’t start out doing it with a new diver at 100ft, in low viz, high current…walk before you run.

Once you get more experience diving together, and if your buddy is of a similar mindset, you can start throwing the OOA signal at more compromising times—mid lift bag deployment, while they are tieing off a reel, etc.

If you or your buddy can’t execute a simple reg exchange perhaps you should examine the dives that you do together.

As mentioned, you may want to tell the DM what you plan to do if you are diving in a group, but this isn’t something I would do on an insta-buddy I just met on vacation and someone who I probably won’t see ever again.

 

[Wookie]

I almost didn't respond, because my initial response sounds kind of dickish. Then, my natural inclinations got the best of me.

As a solo diver who dives solo whether I'm with buddies or not, I tend not to run drills with them unless they ask me to. Understand, I'm talking just diving. If I'm guiding, DMing, or teaching, that's a whole other story. But when I'm just out diving, I don't drill except with myself, as in, I'll test my pony every dive. I'll deploy an SMB a few times a year. I'll do s drills if I'm diving solo with a tech team. But I rarely do share air drills. There are too many better options for having air problems than relying on someone else.

Sorry, I'm a dick.

 

[CptTightPants21]

I almost didn't respond, because my initial response sounds kind of dickish. Then, my natural inclinations got the best of me.

As a solo diver who dives solo whether I'm with buddies or not, I tend not to run drills with them unless they ask me to. Understand, I'm talking just diving. If I'm guiding, DMing, or teaching, that's a whole other story. But when I'm just out diving, I don't drill except with myself, as in, I'll test my pony every dive. I'll deploy an SMB a few times a year. I'll do s drills if I'm diving solo with a tech team. But I rarely do share air drills. There are too many better options for having air problems than relying on someone else.

Sorry, I'm a dick.

Then I guess we are both dicks because I have a similar mindset. I consider this OOA drill to be the OW equivalent of covering up your light and stopping in a cave; how your buddy responds can tell you more about their overall skill level and situational awareness than any pre-dive "chat";.

 

[Steve_C]

If it is in a quarry ok and then we agree ahead of time there could be a drill and what kind it is. If you are going to fake a heart attack, let me know. Quarry's are for practice.

If I am doing a dive in the ocean I do not want to be running drills. I want to be exploring and looking at stuff. Even locally I will have invested 2-300 dollars and a day and a half for my 70 minutes of bottom time. I want to spend it diving, looking at sealife, and taking a few pictures, in a nice relaxed manner. I like mellow dives. My buddy pops one on me unannounced, puts me into high alert crisis mode, and then I see they had air, I will point at them, I will point up the anchor line, I will wave bye bye and dive solo.

 

[2airishuman]

So we all do the training in class of what to do when we go Out of Air, but how many of you let your dive buddies know prior to dive, you may go out of air on this dive? I'm talking about doing the drill not actually going OA. I only do this with other seasoned divers with lots of dives, (not new divers). How many of you do this from time to time? What are your thoughts about doing this semi unplanned training drill?

What is the goal?
1) You're trying to improve your skills.
2) You're trying to improve your buddy's skills
3) You're trying to develop better team skills with this buddy in particular.
4) It's an otherwise boring dive and doing the drill is fun, and surprising your buddy makes it more fun.
5) You're showing off your cool, calm, and collected response to emergencies and drawing contrast to the way your buddy reacts.

So the thing is, if you're going to "surprise" your buddy during the dive, then it must be about 2, 3, 4, or 5. You're not the one being surprised. Your skills will improve just as much if the whole thing is planned out in advance, because either way, you'll know what's coming.

2, 4, and 5 are dysfunctional reasons to do this, so don't (Dysfunctional is a more polite word than the one I was going to use).

3, well, if it's really about team building, then communication and trust are the most important skills. So work on those first. Then talk it over with your buddy. Maybe have your buddy surprise you.

 

[Storker]

Agreeing on a signal for drill as @Storker suggests is a good idea - even if it is simply used afterward (drill followed by OK to signify the end of the drill maybe?).

We're pretty elaborate:
Me: "Drill"
Buddy: "Drill" "OK"
[unspecified amount of time elapses]
Drill
Optitionally, repeat.
Me: "Drill" "X"
Buddy: "Drill" "X" "OK"

Having a signal defeats the entire purpose of the drill.

So, the fire drills at my workplace, which (usually) are announced in advance are worthless? I don't think so. They serve to train people to react correctly to the fire alarm, in a controlled manner. That behavioral pattern is learned, and if there's an alarm, people respond correctly, without panicking.

I want the same effect from my OOG drills when I'm diving. And I usually don't run the drill immediately after giving the sign.

If I am doing a dive in the ocean I do not want to be running drills.

I like to run drills during my safety stop. There is, after all, a limited amount to look at when you've stopped at 5m and just hanging there. Why not use that time to run a drill? At least, it helps to pass the time. At best, it helps preparing you to reflectively react the right way if your buddy comes at you, bug-eyed, while slashing their hand across their throat.

 

[Steve_C]

WI like to run drills during my safety stop. There is, after all, a limited amount to look at when you've stopped at 5m and just hanging there. Why not use that time to run a drill? At least, it helps to pass the time. At best, it helps preparing you to reflectively react the right way if your buddy comes at you, bug-eyed, while slashing their hand across their throat.

Your call. I am diving in NC. Often stuff comes swimming by. I like to relax.

 

[Storker]

Your call. I am diving in NC. Often stuff comes swimming by. I like to relax.

Fair enough. My safety stops are often quite boring.