InTheDrink
Contributor
I think you handled the situation perfectly.
I do think there is a lesson here in situational awareness. I did an exercise a few years back, on Maui, I think, where I decided to put myself "out of gas" and see how it would go to swim to my photographing husband, get his attention, and get gas from him. I was about 25 feet away when it started, a distance that all too often occurred between us. What I learned was that it was a long way to swim, and that once I got to Peter, I had to get his attention and communicate the nature of the problem, which wasn't instantaneous. I came away with the decision not to allow that large a separation to occur again, although, since that depends on the determination of BOTH parties, I'm not always successful . . .
Photographers, even very well trained and aware ones, are not as responsive as people who don't have cameras. This should be taken into account in the dive execution.
I think, if I were you, I'd surprise my wife with a few out-of-air drills on the next few dives, until she reacts a bit faster
I'm a fan of the buddy system as there are something's other than OOA that a good buddy can help with (medical issue, entanglement etc) but otherwise a redundant source of gas makes a lot of sense
It is much harder than one imagines - as you explained - to swim any distance OOG and get someone else's gas. Even in ideal circumstances its hard with any distance at all (e.g. 10m) and circumstances are rarely ideal.
