Buddy breathing and GUE?

[vlada]

<snipped>
It seems the only real situation that it would be useful in would be in the event of a lost deco mix right?

Has anyone on this thread actually encountered this situation. I personally have not, but could see the possibility that someone would prefer to share deco gas rather than switch to deco on back gas.

Buddy and i had this situation (i.e. lost deco gas). We are both Tech1 grads, but did our advanced mix through a different agency.

We were doing 240 mix dive for 20 min. Water temp was 39F on the bottom and in the low 50s above 40 ft. We were diving with 3 stages, starting with O2 clipped to the hip D-ring only.
At some point during bottom portion trying to reach SPG with her frozen fingers, my buddy accidentally unclipped and lost her O2 - i did not notice that until we were on our way up

Her suit was leaking and by the time we hit 20 ft, she was quite cold, so i figured it if we share my O2, we'd both get out much-much faster. Our instructor from other agency (Doppler on this board) stresses buddy breathing as a required skill, so we had no problems sharing gas for 15 or so min.

 

[Scuba_Steve]

Hi Vlada:

I remember reading the longer version of the above post, at TDS I think. You had a couple "interesting" dives that weekend as I remember.

They didn't sound like much fun. Learning experiences, yes I can imagine they were.

I really felt for you and C.L.

 

[GDI]

1. BB.
I would think that a GUE diver would seek out the closes air supply to him that he could get. Granted that he would most likely dive with only another DIR diver so this should not be a problem. However that may not always be the case such as on vacation, in which case he would need to share air with whatever system the donating diver has. If it is not taught at their basic level then they too are doing their students a disservice. the very essence of their training is that all divers are equiped the same and in the same way. IMO

2, Breathing from the inflator of your BCD is really not that hard. It may not be the most practical way but then any way that would get you back to the surface safely and still breathing is better than talking to St Pete at the Pearly Gates.

Start by swimming up, Using your inflator exhale as you would doing a CESA through the inflator mouth piece. As you need to breath, depress the inflator button drawing air from the BCD, Remember this is air from your tank and boyles law of expanding gas will work for you as well, Release the button and Continue to exhale again as you would for the CESA through the inflator mouth piece. Repeat this technique until you kick your way back to the surface. At the surface keep yourself afloat by kicking until you can re-inflate your bcd orally to achieve positive buoyancy then relax and count your blessings.Thank you LORD Thank you LORD Thank you LORD Thank you LORD Thank you LORD.....

 

[Scuba_Steve]

I took DIR-F after accumulating about 70 dives on my OW card, and still had my 'head' handed to me. A couple of us (including a buddy with twice as many logged dives, and an AOW ticket) nearly gave up diving anyway! (We no longer felt qualified to even conduct a bathtub dive)

Hi Freefloat my buddy!......you and I had this conversation on another board recently, didn't we

Well, you made an impression on me, with what you said.

So with triple the dives, which hand will Dan use to hand me my head......so I can be ready for it

Does the bungied reg stay with the body or the head?

Just trying to get it all figured out before hand!

This is gonna be fun, isn't it

 

[MHK]

Thanks Michael, I think that this is the proper way to approach tech and tech based training. Assume nothing, check everything.

Now tell us what you think about buddy breathing, and from your unique perspective how does it fit into the DIR philosophy.

It seems the only real situation that it would be useful in would be in the event of a lost deco mix right?

Has anyone on this thread actually encountered this situation. I personally have not, but could see the possibility that someone would prefer to share deco gas rather than switch to deco on back gas.

Mark,

Buddy Breathing is a skill that while extremely rare, may be needed in extreme cases, therefore it can't hurt to practice it. However, I would add that given our investment in the team diving approach, it would be more likely we would have a support diver having a back up deco bottle for a team member then the need to switch to back gas and/or buddy breath. Whereas, certain dives like where George and JJ venture it's quite likely that having a support team strategically located is impossible so I think that is where you see JJ speaking to the needs of buddy breathing. Our approach to teaching is to build your team, which includes your support team, and practice and build along that fashion.

For example, you suggest loosing a deco bottle as a reason for having to buddy breath. I would look at this from the perspective of if you are on your deco gas, you should have been met by your support team. Your support team will have an extra deco bottle and eliminate the need for buddy breathing. I guess it's possible that you arrive at your first deco stop early, ie; prior to the pre-determined time your support team is scheduled to arrive, and then have a failure. I think in that scenario it would be more appropriate to shoot a bag to alert the support team and they can meet you in a few minutes. If it were me I wouldn't bother buddy breathing, I'd stay on the highest F02 mix available and wait for the suport team, but I suppose it's concievable that buddy breathing couldn't hurt. But I hope you get my point that the building of a unified team is what I'm shooting for..

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Michael Kane