Buddy Air Balancing?

[Thalassamania]

Other than practicing air sharing, I don't see any benefit from doing this.

The benefit is a longer dive, but only if it's done well before Bingo air.

 

[rakkis]

The benefit is a longer dive, but only if it's done well before Bingo air.

That is obvious; though thank you for trying to clear it up.

Let me put it in a different way. I do not know of any agency - recreational or technical that advocates this practice. If someone knows of one, please educate me.

While it would technically work in good conditions with an experienced pair of divers, I would never advice people in a forum about "Basic Scuba Discussions" to do this. All it takes is a bit of unexpected surge just as you're starting to inhale to potentially separate you from your buddy. Even in a pool, all it takes is one buddy to go left while the other goes right... and you are inhaling water. I'm not being unrealistic about the chances of this happening - yes it is unlikely. But it can happen. And I would feel horrible if this happened to one of my students or friends because they didn't know any better. I would not advice anyone to attempt to do this. It's silly.. just end the dive when your own air supply warrants it. Spend some dives in developing better breathing technique and maybe even get a bigger tank if advisable for your size/personal physiology.

 

[spectrum]

I'll do it with my wife at times. She is the bigger air user so sometimes when she hits 1000 PSI and I'm at say, 1750 she'll take my alternate for a while. If you're going to play this game I think it's important to do in such a way that each diver continues to have significant air in their own cylinder and can get out on their own comfortably. If you wait until one diver hits 500 PSI or less then it's a rescue, not gas management move. Meanwhile it's a perfectly fine air share & coordination drill.

Pete

 

[TSandM]

Every dive I do involves a discussion of rock bottom -- minimum gas to get two divers to the surface from the deepest contemplated point of the dive. That gas volume is sacrosanct. What I do with the gas above that amount depends on the dive.

My husband is bigger than I am, and uses gas faster than I do. We have often shared air during a dive to equalize volumes. We do it well above rock bottom. With a long hose, as said above, air-sharing is easy, and if we got pulled apart, well, that would be just like losing your own regulator, wouldn't it? And we're all supposed to be able to cope with that.

I disagree with teaching this to beginners, for whom air-sharing is going to be stressful and often involve loss of buoyancy control, and for people not using some kind of long hose setup, because air-sharing on a 24" hose doesn't permit any kind of enjoyable diving. And I vigorously disagree with teaching that this be done close to or at rock bottom.

 

[sambolino44]

I was wondering when somebody was going to bring up the concept of rock bottom. It would seem that as long as you have your basics covered it shouldn't be a big deal for experienced divers, in calm conditions, with no other distractions, using a long hose, with no swell, oh, well, you get the picture. Taught in a beginner course? Wow.

 

[trtldvr]

What 2 regular buddies do is their own business, but beginning divers being taught this by an instructor is wrong. Students must be taught that if is time to share air it is time to call the dive.

 

[Cacia]

Let me put it in a different way. I do not know of any agency - recreational or technical that advocates this practice. If someone knows of one, please educate me.

I don't dive for any agency. The agency is there to offer guidance, a framework. I don't consider any agency to be my dive Bible.

I don't need someone to advocate it for me. You dive long enough you start to get creative. It's not a bad thing to be able to swim well together on a long hose. If we ever had to get out of a wreck on one tank, we have experience moving together. So...we just are practicing when it is also convenient for the dive.

never advice people in a forum about "Basic Scuba Discussions" to do this.

I'm not advising anybody to do anything...I think it is essential to know common practices so that you don't assume there is a big emergency. I thought maybe the instructor was just making them aware that some
divers might be seen doing it. If somebody thinks it is too dangerous, then it probably is--for them.

It escapes logic that divers should drill, but just never when it is also happens to be convenient.

 

[mrjimboalaska]

I don't see any problem with this practice at all, except, it probably shouldn't be taught at BOW.
I have been diving solo for some time(my bad), so my gas is all I rely on.
When diving deep, with a buddy(which when deep is essential to have), in a team situation, I don't think that I would balance gas with my teamate, if I'm sharing gas, it's time to boogie baby!
You call the dive at turn pressure, using the biggest consumer as the guage.

 

[MikeFerrara]

But Mike, again, running out of air is not what we are talking about, redundancy is, your buddy is your redundancy and therefore breathing his tank down and then switching back to yours to find--oops--a problem has occurred of some sort--no redundancy.

I won't have to much fun with it, I promise, but at the same time let's figure out what redundancy means, you seem to be saying it is OOA only, I include mechanical or even human factors. Your buddy could have a stroke, your MKV turrent could blow off because the hack service tech thinks a torque wrench is a pair of pliers from Sharper Image?

I did not read the OP to closely--I admit---did he say shallow--how shallow is shallow?

I would think that using your buddy's air supply or vice versa to extend your dive--rather than calling the dive when the first buddy hit's the agreed upon minimum pressure would be the same as using a pony to extend your bottom time or going into your reserve capacity on doubles to extend your dive beyond the planned "call" point.

Here is the part of "gas management" I do understand, N<---back on top with 1/3 in reserve or at least some agreed upon minimum amount.

Maybe I am misunderstanding the OP


N

I agree that if either tank is at the predetermined ascent pressure it's time to be ascending. Assuming that both tanks have more than that, think of it more like independant doubles where you switch between the two keeping the pressures close to equal for the specific purpose of having an equal reserve in each.

 

[MikeFerrara]

That is obvious; though thank you for trying to clear it up.

Let me put it in a different way. I do not know of any agency - recreational or technical that advocates this practice. If someone knows of one, please educate me.

While it would technically work in good conditions with an experienced pair of divers, I would never advice people in a forum about "Basic Scuba Discussions" to do this. All it takes is a bit of unexpected surge just as you're starting to inhale to potentially separate you from your buddy. Even in a pool, all it takes is one buddy to go left while the other goes right... and you are inhaling water. I'm not being unrealistic about the chances of this happening - yes it is unlikely. But it can happen. And I would feel horrible if this happened to one of my students or friends because they didn't know any better. I would not advice anyone to attempt to do this. It's silly.. just end the dive when your own air supply warrants it. Spend some dives in developing better breathing technique and maybe even get a bigger tank if advisable for your size/personal physiology.

What agency doesn't advocate practicing air ahares?

If two divers can't swim around sharing air without fear of drowning, they need to get back into a pool until they have it down.