a few near misses & lessons learned from a recreational scuba diver

[dumpsterDiver]

I think forcing an "out of practice" buddy to remove his own regulator and share yours when he is down to 750 psi and a depth of 80 feet is NOT SMART, particularly since you were both on the anchor line which allows a direct and safe ascent.

If I had an unkown buddy who was sucking down air, having trouble controlling buoyancy and I felt narced.. I just don't think I would spend 30 seconds demanding that he remove his own life support equipment...instead, I would be facilitating an immediate ascent. Getting the diver to remove his own working regulator, making him take your octopus that may or may not work, and then blasting the purge button for him (in case he doesn't know how to use a scuba regulator) is not at all prudent (and is certainly not necessary).

Sorry, I can't agree with your course of action. If the buddy was my actual friend and we often dove together and had decided to practice sharing air on ascent of an anchor line, then that is entirely different thing.

 

[TSandM]

I completely disagree. If the diver is low on gas, the last thing you want to have happen is a regulator donation/switch when he is OUT. Having the time to communicate the situation and get him to change regs when he is calm and still has gas IS the right answer. And if there is any chance your backup reg isn't working, well . . . you aren't managing your gear right.

 

[dbulmer]

TS&M,

The chap dived to 34m with an unknown buddy with a camera who had not been in the water for a year.

I would have not done the dive period so I've got some sympathy for DD here.

Yes better to share early than late but the mistake I think was doing the dive in the first place with that particular buddy.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I completely disagree. If the diver is low on gas, the last thing you want to have happen is a regulator donation/switch when he is OUT. Having the time to communicate the situation and get him to change regs when he is calm and still has gas IS the right answer. And if there is any chance your backup reg isn't working, well . . . you aren't managing your gear right.

I agree that it is much better to begin sharing air before it becomes an absolute necessity. On the other hand, demanding that another diver with marginal skills share air when it is NOT beneficial, is unnecessarily dangerous, not to mention that the diver repeatedly refused the donor's offer of gas.

The donor said he and his buddy used 40 bar on the ascent, while sharing his single air supply. The recipient of this air had 50 bar in his tank. These figures provide clear evidence to me that 50 bar in the one tank was more than enough to make it to the surface and thus sharing air was entirely unnecessary.

It is a numbers game... 750 psi/50 bar does not justify the demand to share air for a direct ascent from less than 80 feet. I know I myself would not have accepted air on such an ascent, would you?

If the diver was down to 100 psi, then my recommendation would be entirely different.

Do you support the diver blasting air at the guy via pressing the purge button too?

 

[Blackwood]

The third incident happened 2 or 3 months ago when I ended up being separated from the group. My dive buddy was lagging behind the group so I waited for him to catch up with me. The group was ahead of me and he was behind me in a rocky area. Just as I saw the group ahead turn a corner I looked back and didn't see my buddy anymore. As I turned my head to look ahead the group had disappeared.
Of course my heartbeat went up and my breathing became heavier but I calmed myself down, checked my air (still had 100 plus bar left), and started to think about the best action to take. I could either try to chase the group through the rocks with many left and right turns (potentially worsening the situation) or I could swim along the left side of the rocks which would lead me back to the vicinity of the anchor line.

I realize this is quoting an old post, but think it bears mentioning. There is a third option. Rather than swim along side the rocks or try to chase the group through a maze of turns, you could go above the rocks and likely either see them from or their bubbles from the higher vantage point (assuming said rocks aren't in fact an overhead or that they aren't so shallow that you can't safely get above them).

Many people forget the third dimension (often resulting in "lost buddy" scenarios).

 

[TSandM]

Oh, I agree that it was a major error in judgment to do a deep dive with a rusty, unknown buddy. I wouldn't have done it. I just disagreed about the way of handling the low on air situation. I would have done what the OP did -- in fact, I HAVE done it. I didn't purge the reg (and although I don't think a very brief puff will hurt anything, a prolonged purge might unnerve the recipient greatly) but I did donate gas to get us to a place where we could ascend safely. I do not view sharing gas as a maneuver only done in extremis, but rather as something that ought to be comfortable for all divers (of course, a 7' hose helps . . . ). Much better to spend a little time sharing gas than have someone suddenly run out -- don't you think the out-of-practice diver would be even MORE upset by that, than by accepting a donated reg? And although the gas usage suggests they would have been okay on their own supplies, the drop that prompted the donation didn't.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Oh, I agree that it was a major error in judgment to do a deep dive with a rusty, unknown buddy. I wouldn't have done it. I just disagreed about the way of handling the low on air situation. I would have done what the OP did -- in fact, I HAVE done it. I didn't purge the reg (and although I don't think a very brief puff will hurt anything, a prolonged purge might unnerve the recipient greatly) but I did donate gas to get us to a place where we could ascend safely. I do not view sharing gas as a maneuver only done in extremis, but rather as something that ought to be comfortable for all divers (of course, a 7' hose helps . . . ). Much better to spend a little time sharing gas than have someone suddenly run out -- don't you think the out-of-practice diver would be even MORE upset by that, than by accepting a donated reg? And although the gas usage suggests they would have been okay on their own supplies, the drop that prompted the donation didn't.

I agree that sharing air should not be a big deal for ascuba diver. It should be a well practiced and essential skill. However, in all too many recreational dive situations with rusty insta-buddies, sharing air could be very challenging and could initiate a panic situation if something goes wrong, like say a torn or leaky mouth piece on an octopus.

As I read the description, the divers were at the anchor line and only had to go up 80 ft on a line. If the 30 seconds that was expended (on the bottom) trying to get the diver to accept the regulator was instead used to ascend, they could have been at 60 feet by the time the transfer had been made. Plus, if the donor did not have a very long octopus, ascending up an anchor line in a strong current may not be the easiest thing to accomplish. What if they get yanked around, the reg gets pulled out of the mouth, the recipients primary is flapping in the breeze and gets wrapped around the anchor line and the he has trouble recovering it? What if the donor or recipient get blown off the anchor line in a strong current? These are all perfectly foreseeable events.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a little distracted at 80 feet filming and my 14 yr old son shows me his gage reading 600 psi or something and we are a few hundred feet away from our ascent line. In this situation, because we practice this “drill”often, I gave him my primary and I use the Air 2 and we swim back over to the ascent line. No big deal. No rush, no hurry. I shot the video, in case somebody would say that sharing air is a bad practice..it isn’t, in certain circumstances

I have a strong aversion to “messing with someone” and removing their working life support when they are stressed out and there is no need for it.

[video=youtube;vDrF1AOnabc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDrF1AOnabc&feature=share&list=UU1utDku8vJ RJYgBZImLyLJQ[/video]

 

[TSandM]

I think I just live in a different world. If my buddy had gone from 130 bar to 40 in the space of five minutes, I'd put him on my long hose for the ascent, and maybe back on his own gas after the safety stop. You're going up a line, so you have something to hang onto to stay together, and he's obviously hoovering like mad.

I agree with you that poor skills and poorly maintained equipment could make this a bad choice. I don't generally dive with people who have poor skills and poorly maintained equipment. Even a new OW grad can share gas and ascend -- they have to do it to pass the class.

 

[dbulmer]

Lynne,
I agree with you in general - just not in this case. It's the out of practice that concerns me.

 

[AfterDark]

I agree that sharing air should not be a big deal for ascuba diver. It should be a well practiced and essential skill. However, in all too many recreational dive situations with rusty insta-buddies, sharing air could be very challenging and could initiate a panic situation if something goes wrong, like say a torn or leaky mouth piece on an octopus.

As I read the description, the divers were at the anchor line and only had to go up 80 ft on a line. If the 30 seconds that was expended (on the bottom) trying to get the diver to accept the regulator was instead used to ascend, they could have been at 60 feet by the time the transfer had been made. Plus, if the donor did not have a very long octopus, ascending up an anchor line in a strong current may not be the easiest thing to accomplish. What if they get yanked around, the reg gets pulled out of the mouth, the recipients primary is flapping in the breeze and gets wrapped around the anchor line and the he has trouble recovering it? What if the donor or recipient get blown off the anchor line in a strong current? These are all perfectly foreseeable events.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a little distracted at 80 feet filming and my 14 yr old son shows me his gage reading 600 psi or something and we are a few hundred feet away from our ascent line. In this situation, because we practice this “drill”often, I gave him my primary and I use the Air 2 and we swim back over to the ascent line. No big deal. No rush, no hurry. I shot the video, in case somebody would say that sharing air is a bad practice..it isn’t, in certain circumstances

I have a strong aversion to “messing with someone” and removing their working life support when they are stressed out and there is no need for it.

[video=youtube;vDrF1AOnabc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDrF1AOnabc&feature=share&list=UU1utDku8vJ RJYgBZImLyLJQ[/video]

You do realize your son was behind you with a loaded that is bands streached and ready?