Buddy Air Balancing?

[WesTexDiver]

I heard a scary story a few days ago about a PADI instructor who teaches this so called " BUDDY AIR BALANCING"

His former student told me that this is part of the class. Proof that it has nothing to do with the agency, meerly the instructor you choose.

This is what he tells his students. "It's not in the PADI book, but basically when you get down to 600psi you help your buddy breath down his air supply....by way of his Octo...and then when he reaches 600psi you switch back to your own air supply, and surface normally.":11:

 

[dgreenh]

Whoa, I certainly wouldn't teach or even tell my students about doing that. Although I do air balance with my wife on occasion since she doesn't seem to use any air at all on a dive. But I'm not going to advise anyone to do it.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I've seen it done quite a few times. On a shallow reef, I don't think it's a problem with a regular buddy.

 

[Thalassamania]

I can see circumstances where such a procedure would make sense, but an entry level PADI course is not one of them. Perhaps this is why PADI discourages its clients from adding skills that are not on the cue cards?

 

[redacted]

I do it with my wife/buddy if our remaining gas is 300 - 400 psi different and it is compatible with the dive requirements. It is a great opportunity to practice gas sharing. But I do it when the shorter gas supply is at 1000 psi so there is stillo plenty of gas for 2 to safely finish the dive should a problem arise. And with a long hose rig, it really is quite easy to do while still continuing the dive in a fairly normal fashion.

 

[trtldvr]

My octo is for an emergancy. I don't care if I have 2500 PSI and an hour of NDL time, if my buddy is low on air, WE are going up. Period! Any instructor teaching this practice needs to be called on it.

 

[redacted]

My octo is for an emergancy. I don't care if I have 2500 PSI and an hour of NDL time, if my buddy is low on air, WE are going up. Period! Any instructor teaching this practice needs to be called on it.

Do you really see air sharing as that dangerous of a drill?

 

[Meng_Tze]

.. basically when you get down to 600psi you help your buddy breath down his air supply....by way of his Octo...and then when he reaches 600psi you switch back to your own air supply, and surface normally.":11:

This is stupid. Just because someone breathes faster, you use the other's gas to have both divers now on low gas. You basically narrow down the overall gas supply available. The faster breathing diver can run VERY low (should there be a delay to surface) and then you end up with two divers on less than 600 psi surfacing probably empty....

Sounds dangerous to me.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I do it with my wife/buddy if our remaining gas is 300 - 400 psi different and it is compatible with the dive requirements. It is a great opportunity to practice gas sharing. But I do it when the shorter gas supply is at 1000 psi so there is stillo plenty of gas for 2 to safely finish the dive should a problem arise. And with a long hose rig, it really is quite easy to do while still continuing the dive in a fairly normal fashion.

My wife and I have done this many times. Usually when I was teaching or something and did a dive where she sat out, then we go to do a fun dive alone before heading home and I didn't bother to get a top-off.

At no time is anyone out of air or even low on air given the depth and conditions so I don't see anything wrong with it. It isn't any different than just practicing air sharring. So, we swim around on an easy dive sharing air...so what?

edit: I should add that my wife and I have almost identical sac/RMV and we've done this more at the beginning of a dive. You know the saying? What's mine is mine and what's hers is mine.

 

[timle]

I haven't done this - after I stopped being an air hog my wife and I are actually pretty close air consumption wise, but I see no harm If both divers have an ammount greater or equal to what they need for a safe ascent for both divers - some might use rock bottom calculations here - whats wrong with both divers breathing the more full tank down to rock bottom also?

This does in no way suggest that a diver breathes his tank down to 200-300 PSI and then both divers proceed to do that to the other tank. Air sharing or not you must begin to ascend with enough gas for each diver to safely reach the diver in each tank.

Teaching this to new OW divers seems pretty iffy at best as many of us agree they aren't taught proper gas management in the first place.