Buddy OOA in Challenging Conditions

[fdog]

James, isn't "air" always first? (And by "air" I'm assuming you are meaning gas -- if not, then what?)

Being OOA is the only true emergency -- despite what some on SB might think!

Now Air and Team may be totally intertwined -- but without Air, the team is useless.

Peter, as you know from our commmon training, the Team is the ultimate resource. Very rarely can a thinking team not resolve an issue.

Here's an example; I'm scootering as wingman in 20' of vis. I'm a bit behind because I was sightseeing. Bam! I have a right post blowout. Choices:

• Stop and hope they see my signal as I shutdown the post. More than likely they dissappear into the murk.
• Speed up, keep the team together, signal, stop team, resolve post.

In the above example, the common algorithm of Air first would have you use your right (scootering) hand to resolve the post immediately. Thus you split up the team and are vulnerable to further problems.

So yes, you are correct that Team is entwined with Air. Without the Team there is no donation possible. The Team is my backup equipment cache. Air is taken en passant by Team.

Team above all else.

Wish I could take credit for this way of thinking, but it was passed on to me from Andy.

All the best, James

 

[Jax]

Yes, the 13 does look small. Well, it has always looked small, and that's why some of my buddies call it my "puny bottle." But now that I've used it for an OOA emergency I need to rethink the size. I hate to add more weight to my set up. As it is, I'm getting to the point where I sometimes need help hauling myself out of the water. I wish I could be self-sufficient on the boat and in the water, but as I get older, I suspect I will need more and more help. I probably need to do some strength training. I already do light weight training, but that's more to keep flab at bay than to build strength.


Thanks, James.

James, in my limited experience, the weight difference between the 13, 30, and 40 cf bottles is pretty negligible, especially underwater. As TSandM says, you can unclip and hand it up before you get on the ladder.

 

[Cave Diver]

beiji, if you decide to use a bigger pony bottle (a 30 or 40) you can sling it like a stage bottle, in which case you can pass it up to the boat personnel before climbing the ladder. Makes life easier!

I agree. A 40 is the way to go. It's not significantly more cumbersome than a 30 and will serve you well if you decide to pursue more advanced diving in the future.

 

[TSandM]

James, the way I read your assessment, you are taking entire responsibility for team on yourself.

Team is central; I agree. But in your example, your buddies should note that you are gone. If they don't, or can't do it fast enough to find you, you were all going too fast for the viz -- which I think we all are guilty of on the scooters. Gas is a life-saving resource. I honestly think that conserving that is an action that serves the team. If you have to stop to do it, your buddies should very quickly realize you are gone and circle back to find you. If they can't, maybe scooters were a bad decision under those conditions. Just my thoughts on it.

 

[fdog]

Actually (assuming a 3 person Team) I am working 100%, at my 33% share, at keeping the Team together.

1. Team
2. Air
3. Light

The implication is that Team is the most important arbiter. If faced with a simultaneous failure of Light and Air, fix Air first, then the issue with Light.

If faced with a simultaneous failure of (Team separation in progress) and (Air ne Gas loss) then keeping the Team takes precedence.

• If I keep the Team together, and can resolve the Air issue myself, great.
• If I keep the Team together, and switch to alternate gas, my Team can (maybe) fix the issue for me.
• If I keep the Team together, and have no onboard alternate gas source, the Team will be my only salvation.
• If I keep the Team together, and keeping that costs me all my onboard gas, the Team has gas for me. And further issues can be dealt with, too.

• If I let the Team fall apart, and can resolve the Air issue myself, great.
• If I let the Team fall apart, and have no onboard alternate gas source, what happens next will not be pretty.
• If I let the Team fall apart, and that allows me to save some of my onboard gas, the Team will not be there to resolve any other issues. Like I might not now have enough gas for deco.

As soon as you make the choice that Air is the top of the pyramid, you abrogate any advantages from the Team. In an emergency you may become solo.

When we talk about Air on top, there is always the undertone of "well, I'll go to my buddy for an air share" or "if I'm maskless my buddy will switch gases for me" or something else that always relies on the Team. Without the Team, those options are closed. So why not codify it? The Team is everything.


All the best, James


PS - My usual extended range dive buddies all know my commitment to Team, as is theirs. They've seen it when I've been blind, and down to a single post, and they've asked for my last reg - I gave it to them, knowing they were part of a thinking Team, and they'd take care of me. Isn't that supposed to be the power of the way we dive?

 

[gcbryan]

James, would your decision be the same in that scenario if you were using a single tank rather than doubles?

 

[gcbryan]

To the OP, you did a good job. I agree that 100fsw and current isn't a great idea for a treasure hunt. It's also not a set of conditions I would do with a diver I didn't already know. I don't even like those conditions myself unless they were my local conditions and I was used to it. Fighting current is not my idea of fun when combined with an anchored boat (as opposed to a drift dive).

As most have mentioned, donate the air before the other person is OOA if possible. Good job however!

 

[fdog]

James, would you decision be the same in that scenario if you were using a single tank rather than doubles?

Absolutely. In fact, even more so. I would trigger up as fast as I could go to catch up with my buddy, rather than reaching back and trying to re-seat something.


All the best, James

 

[CrispyCritter]

It is actually pretty simple. For most divers a typical SAC rate would be about .5 to .75 cu ft per minute. What I would use for emergency - is about 1.0 and I think of it as SSAC - Stressed Surface Air Consumption. Now be careful - these are surface numbers so you have to calculate them properly for the actual depth.

Example: A stressed diver would use up your 13 cu ft pony in 13 minutes at the surface which converts to 6.5 minutes at 33 feet (2ATA), 3.25 minutes at 66ft (3ATA) and so on. These numbers are a reference I use, now you have to do some additional simple math and use your ascent time from any given depth, include a safety stop, average the depths during ascent and... You guessed it - that 13 cu ft Pony looks VERY SMALL all of a sudden - doesn't it?

My hat goes off to you - you did the best you could at that time and you learned from it. You also had the guts to share the story so we could all learn. Happy Diving

Thanks for posting Beiji, I learn a lot from these types of posts.

PSFlyer, is this calculation for consumption correct? I am fresh out of OW so I may not understand correctly, but shouldn't the rate at 3 ATA be one third of the SAC (and not one fourth)?

 

[danvolker]

Beiji,
You've had some great advice so far....things I would add:
Close to 100 feet deep, an 80 cu ft tank is the wrong tank for 90% or more of recreational divers.....not that this will fix the buddy, innattentive to her own low air, but she would have had more time to see her pressure guage and kick herself for not seeing when she got to 2000 psi....more importantly, you would have had more gas to help her with.

Obviously your buddy made too many mistakes to go over again now, but the whole anchor diving issue in a current clearly contributed a lot to the errors.
Probably she had never worked so hard as she had to, in pulling down a line against a current....even if she checked her tank psi at the wreck, her heart rate was way elevated, and she was likely breathing much more gas in the next 5 minutes than she would have "imagined". It would be nice if you had checked on her gas a few minutes after reaching the wreck , but you are not DIR buddies, and this is a behavior not taught to the mainstream.

If you have to dive with "insta-buddies" on 100 ft dives, the slung 40 cu ft pony along with your 100 cu ft steel tank, would make you a "force to be rekoned with"