Air share

[Raphus]

Based on this thread:
Regulator Set up - input from more experienced divers, please

I wonder how man of you had to share air?
I would like to hear the story's, especially what the OOA diver took, primary or octo?
Was he in panic? A buddy or just someone you meet underwater?

I never had to share air, but I dive 7ft/shorthose just in case I have to

 

[happy-diver]

I dive all configurations but never with thought to donation

 

[hedonist222]

I've seen the regular panic and grab regulator and panic and ask for regulator.
Both natural reactions to being OOA.

The reaction that stumped me was from this guy during a 30 meter (100 foot) dive around a small wreck.
He was guided by a DM.

Dive center planned dive time was 27 minutes or 70 bar.
At about 25 minutes into the dive, while the DM and I were checking out some juvenile scorpion fish, the guy swims up in front of us and calmly gestures he was OOA. So calmly, so soberly that it confused both of us. It didn't appear that he was OOA.
He gestured that he was OOA but then didn't reach out for his DM's second stage nor even signal to his own second stage.
He just hovered there looking at us. I mean, this was all in seconds and the DM instinctively produced his second stage while checking the guy's SPG.

On the boat, he said a minute ago he had a hundred bar and then the next, it was empty. I think he was in narcosis and and the effects of narcosis retarded a normal reaction to being OOA. I'm not suggesting he should have grabbed anyones primary second stage but gesturing that you're out of air and then waiting as if you were at a restaurant and just asked for a table for two with a nice view if possible.

 

[Edward3c]

Based on this thread:
Regulator Set up - input from more experienced divers, please

I wonder how man of you had to share air?
I would like to hear the story's, especially what the OOA diver took, primary or octo?
Was he in panic? A buddy or just someone you meet underwater?

I never had to share air, but I dive 7ft/shorthose just in case I have to

If you want to know what happens in an OOG situation, read these incident reports.

 

[GF99/99]

Based on this thread:
Regulator Set up - input from more experienced divers, please

I wonder how man of you had to share air?
I would like to hear the story's, especially what the OOA diver took, primary or octo?
Was he in panic? A buddy or just someone you meet underwater?

I never had to share air, but I dive 7ft/shorthose just in case I have to

Never had to actual out of gas situation but on longer deco dives once my CNS starts getting over the 80%-90% mark I do 5min air brakes every 20min from support divers, they are always running long hose short hose and donating for them is super easy and me being the recipient is super easy and comfortable as well from a long hose, I cant imagine using a regular recreational 80cm-100cm hose would be very comfortable

 

[Searcaigh]

Personally I've only had to donate once and that was back in the 90s in Thailand. Didn't use a long hose back then.

 

[Centrals]

OOA never.
Low on air few times. It were all under control as the recipient did not panic. All with long hose.

 

[J-Vo]

Once personally when a DM in Cancun jumped in with 1/3 tank on purpose because someone had loaded an empty. He made it through most of the dive then asked for my long hose. Together we had enough gas for everyone to complete the dive.

I have seen several new divers run low/out in Cozumel and take donation from the DM. It always appears to go smoothly without panic, but the DMs are so used to it I think they catch it before it's a full OOA saturation.

 

[diver00011]

1 - An experienced buddy had regulator failure. He just went for my octo and then got my attention and we surfaced without incident.

2 - An inexperienced buddy with buoyancy control issues corked with arms flailing, yanking the regulator from my mouth on his way up. I just switched to my own octo.

All short hose.

As to your 7 foot hose, if you've upgraded without tech training, do make sure you practice your skills with the new configuration and get some feedback from other divers with more experience. I did the same as you a few years ago and everything seemed fine until 20 dives in I lost my primary and none of my normal techniques for retrieving a short hose worked.

 

[Nirvana]

A few years ago, I was doing a wreck dive with a buddy. We were both AOW and had a little less than 50 dives each. It was a shore dive, involving a little surface swim to the float marking the wreck, which was sitting on sand about 30m deep.

We were in a hurry and did not do buddy checks. When we got to the wreck, about 27m deep, my buddy realized that she was almost out of gas - she had set her equipment with an empty tank. So, she signaled me to abort the dive, and soon, as we were starting to ascend, she ran out of gas and we started sharing gas as we swam back out.

We were both calm, just embarrassed at our failure to properly prepare for a dive.