Anyone experienced an OOA situation?

[Bigcape]

I was OOA myself recently diving the William A. Young in the Straits of Mackinac. My reg froze up and went into a free flow about five minutes into the dive in 42 degree water at 101'. I grabbed my buddy, showed him the reg was free flowing, and headed for the line, still breathing off the free-flowing reg. We started our ascent and part-way up, when I reached about 600 PSI, I signalled low on air and asked to share. He donated the reg on his pony, we made a good ascent and a good safety stop. Having a good buddy sure helps.

Good job, divingjd!

Like I said earlier(post#15): "Aside from EQUIPMENT FAILURE there is absolutely NO REASON for an OOA to EVER occur in my opinion."

Amen!

 

[mdb]

I read a lot of theory about panicked divers ripping the regs from their buddy's mouths, but I wonder if many have experienced this? Do you have an real life OOA stories to share? Did your buddy ask for your octo or rip your primary away?

Jarrett, In 33 years of diving I have had several OOA incidents. In most cases the OOA diver went straight for the primary. In one case in the early 70's we were diving w/o octo's and my dive buddy latched onto my regulator and would not return it. I was diving a front mounted BC with a tank and backpack. I bailed out of my tank and left it with my friend while I made a free ascent from about 70 FSW. A bit later my bud surfaced in a sea of bubbles and told me he was just about to give the reg back. In another incident a diver had a first stage failure when we were diving off Grand Cayman. We were fairly deep, over 100 FSW. The diver, not my buddy, came over my head and ripped my primary out of my mouth. I had a Poesidon CS300 octo and went to that right away. After a few breaths the other diver calmed down and we made a slow controlled ascent w/o a problem. I am in the camp with those who say the primary regulator is the reg that will be donated/used in a real OOA situation. I can certainly see why the GUE divers prefer the longer hosed primary reg.

 

[SparticleBrane]

I haven't been in an actual OW OOA event yet, thank goodness.
The on OOA event I was involved with was in a pool during, yes, OOA training, which I have decided is the worst time to "run out of air".

There were ~12 people in the class on the bottom of the pool in two rows. Everyone was set up with the bungied backup/donate primary method (no long hose though ). The instructor was at the other end of the line watching them do air shares. I was hovering around watching the rest of the group--they weren't supposed to do anything until the instructor showed up. I noticed one girl at the end of the line giving the OOA signal, so I'm thinking "Why is she practicing without the instructor?"

Her buddy must have been thinking the same thing, but after about 3 repeated signals I realized it was real, so I stuck my primary in her face. One of the other volunteers noticed it as well, so she really had 3 regulators to choose from, but by this time she had already ripped her buddy's out of her mouth. Thankfully her buddy remembered her backup was around her neck.

We had only been down perhaps ~10 minutes, with full tanks, so there was absolutely no way she was out of air already sitting at the bottom of an 11ft dive well. Right after the ripping of regulators, I swam by and checked the girl's tank valve. Turns out it was only about half a turn open, so I opened it fully and signaled them it was ok for the "OOA" girl to get back on her own reg. She didn't realize it was her tank valve, she kept pointing to her regulator, as if saying "It just stopped giving air!" I explained to her on the surface that her tank valve was essentially closed.

While she "panicked", I believe she learned an important lesson the hard way--make sure you check your equipment completely, before hopping in. Something tells me she won't make that same mistake again.

 

[Jarrett]

Thanks to those who responded to my question.

I guess my follow up question is...

If the common occurance is to have hte reg ripped from you mouth and you have to go to octo, why not do that in OW class?

 

[mdb]

Thanks to those who responded to my question.

I guess my follow up question is...

If the common occurance is to have hte reg ripped from you mouth and you have to go to octo, why not do that in OW class?

Good question: check out the other thread on this topic:

www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=154334

 

[jbd]

Thanks to those who responded to my question.

I guess my follow up question is...

If the common occurance is to have hte reg ripped from you mouth and you have to go to octo, why not do that in OW class?

I teach donating the primary, donating the alternate and buddy breathing in OW.

 

[divingjd]

Thanks to those who responded to my question.

I guess my follow up question is...

If the common occurance is to have hte reg ripped from you mouth and you have to go to octo, why not do that in OW class?

Some of us do teach donating the primary. Everybody at our shop does. SSI advocates it, although SSI instructors are free to teach donating the octo if they wish.

 

[jbd]

Yeah, it's a good point. it's not a crisis, I mean I usually make it back with a little air left. I think i should focus on improving the situation instead of just taking more air though. It is a little annoying having to be the first one up!

Lamnid,

There are many things that affect air consumption. Relaxation and bouyancy control as noted by TheRedHead are a couple of them. Proper weighting and trim are directly related to bouyancy control. Also activity level is another big one. Keep your arms and hands still. Move slowly and smoothly. Switch to the frog kick and its relatives if you aren't using these methods. Moving against a current will increase air consumption. Adequate thermal protection is important also and it seems to me that you folks in the UK have some chilly water to deal with.

Since the folks you are diving with seem to have lower air consumption rates than you do and are doing the same dives as you let me sugges that the next several times you go diving with them, watch them closely and see what they do that may be different from what you are doing. Try to mimic their techniques or methods.

Hang in there and keep practicing---it will all come together for you.

 

[t-weed]

We are planning a dive vacation in Playa Del Carmen. I was wondering what dive company you had used while experiencing your OOA.

 

[rookers]

Very early in my career, I was tailing a (boat assigned) buddy who I kept showing that I was getting low. She ignored me completely until I sucked dry. I ended up returning to the boat on her octo. I was torn between 'never leave your buddy' and never run out of air. I should have ditched her.

Yesterday, my tech instructor ripped my primary from my mouth. He also shut my right post down a couple of times and got two other students to go OOA near me. It was a good session, all in a pool.