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

[ChaosHokie]

I've come close 3 times so far. All three were cases of "trust me dives".

The worst one was I finished the dive with 0 psi in the tank, but I hadn't quite run OOA yet... this was not only a case of a "trust me dive" but the DM changing the dive plan on us, and ignoring my low-air signals. At about 300 psi or so (we were diving at about 45 ft), I thumbed the dive, but by the time I surfaced and swam to the shore exit point, my spg read "0".

For those of you wondering where my buddy was: it was the DM...

 

[Johnny Mojo]

Not me but my buddy on final check-out dive in 1985. J-valve w/ manual reserve. Somehow his was tripped. He ran out and tried to switch over and got nothing. We were about 10 - 15 feet apart when he ran out and was on me in a milisecond. After a few breaths he seemed to like my regulator (no octo's then). A swift knee to the groin and he started sharing again and we started our ascent buddy breathing. Backstory - we were stationed together in the Marine Corps at the time and our instructor was a retired Marine, so we got the old grizzeled instruction you hear so much about. He stressed in a highly specific manner that if you were ever OOA and your buddy would not share then you gotta get rid of him and reasses the situation.

Since that incident I'm OCD about gas management and hopefully have helped my daughter become that way as well. As we are getting comfortable with our SAC rate in different environmental conditions, we are becoming more comfortable, but our heads are still on swivels between each other, our guages and our dive site. Of the many things that can go wrong in the underwater environment, this is one that we have almost total control over. It just should not happen unintentinally.

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

The closest I came was a rapidly-deteriorating tank O-ring upon descent. My O-ring started leaking rather noisily at about 60-feet. Wasn't an issue at all - I just started right back up the line, watching my SPG like a hawk. I made it back to the surface with 500 psi or thereabouts, startling the hell out of the boat captain. Sure does't take long to empty a tank, does it? Other than that, no - I'm pretty conscious about my gas.

 

[aquaregia]

I've gone below min gas a few times.

First was my first post-checkout dive. Had a divemaster leading, kept signalling him my air, he kept OKing so I kept within arms reach of him. Ended with 300psi
Lost my dive computer around dive 25. Had two buddies with tons of gas and longhoses so we spent some time looking for it. Gave up in time to surface with 300psi
Training dive with an instructor who didn't like kelp crawling on the way out and didn't quite realize exactly how bad my air consumption was. Ended with 400psi and a 6-pack

But never out out. I've shared gas on safety stops just to make sure I was "back on the boat with 500psi".

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I was trained long ago to check my gas every 5 minutes. As I dived more and became able to fairly accurately predict my consumption, I extended it to 10+ minute intervals.

So I now check at 5 minute intervals again.

Be careful Marc,

As I have learned on SB, some Dive Masters are taught to be ready to "rescue" those that "incessantly" check their gauges. ;-) you might appear to them to be a nervous diver......I was taught to check every 5 minutes also. Now after every gauge check I do a perimeter sweep to scan for incoming rescuers. haha.

That being said, I ran out of gas once.

No excuses, I was ascending too slow, I was not paying attention, a real head-up-a$s dive.

My air consumption on this dive was worse than normal as compared to my wife, we usually end around 400 to 500 PSI apart. We always signal when each of us is at our half pressure just as a reference to each other. It didn't register during the dive that I was going through gas at a faster rate than normal. Again, all due to simply not paying attention.

I did serve to remind me to do as I was taught, and pay attention to gas planning. It was very embarrassing to have to signal to my wife at 20 feet that I was out of air.

Embarrassing, but I did learn from the mistake(s).

-Mitch

 

[Scott]

Outside of training during pool sessions I have never been OOG in the 25+ years of diving. The closest while diving was surfacing with 300-400 psi after I lost an oring on my 1st stage yoke connection.

 

[yarik83]

I ran to 450 psi on my first post certification dive. It was entirely my own fault and I was 100% aware of it. I thought at the time that my dive master with his 4900 dives would surface once his group does. Apparently he had other ideas so I kept telling him I need to go up and he just nodded. So I waited and waited and waited hoping he would acknowledge and surface with me. That never happened. At 600psi I said "to hell with it" and finished my dive with a safety stop all by myself with just over 450 psi in my tank. Since then I learned 2 things. #1 leave my instructor alone since he loves to dive by himself and #2 start surfacing with 1000psi and slowly ascend to say 40ft then hover there to 800 then to 16-20ft and hover there for 3-5 minutes and then surface. It is hard to do a good safety stop at boynton beach. current is strong and you just bobble there like a goose trying not to lose the line. Forget about keeping up with the buoy. Unless you are physically holding it and swimming for your life you will be carried faaaaaaaaaar. I like everything about boynton except when I have to surface.

 

[Thalassamania]

In the old days we used to "run out" on almost every dive. That's how we knew it was time to come up.

 

[Frosty]

One question for the experienced guys.What does a quality balanced reg feel like/sound like when its at the nearly or actually OOA stage?
-I'm thinking maybee in the situation where the gauge is faulty.

 

[yarik83]

I have sherwood octo and once I get to 1000psi I do not feel any difference. Once I get to 800 I need to turn my dial on the regulator about 2 full turns to maintain same flow of air. If I dont breathing becomes slightly harder. Once at 600psi breathing becomes an issue unless I turn dial 4-5 times. At 450psi it feels like I am breathing through a snorkel unless I turn dial all the way up high. It is not a pretty feeling when you still need 5 minutes to complete your dive.

Edit: For some reason when I am almost out of air I get a mist of salt water coming through with air. Just a slight mist. Like a drop or so but you can taste it.