Deco and low air

[flyguy]

I'm curious about the situation described below. I know theoretically it should happen but you could get caught on someting and take a while to free yourself or be swept by a strong current.

The situation is you're diving and your computer goes into deco and you're getting low on air. You know that you won't make it to the surface if you make all your deco stops before running out of air.

Is it better to shorten your deco stops or do as many for the full lenght before jetting to the surface?

Personally I would thing the first but curious what others have to say.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Use your redundant gas supply.
Don't have one? Share with your buddy.
If he doesn't have enough, send him to the boat and have him bring you another tank.
No redundant gas and no buddy? Oh well, poor planning - try option one and hope you're lucky.
Rick

 

[Diver0001]

I'm curious about the situation described below. I know theoretically it should happen but you could get caught on someting and take a while to free yourself or be swept by a strong current.

The situation is you're diving and your computer goes into deco and you're getting low on air. You know that you won't make it to the surface if you make all your deco stops before running out of air.

Is it better to shorten your deco stops or do as many for the full lenght before jetting to the surface?

Personally I would thing the first but curious what others have to say.

Well, the obvious thing to say about this is that, save a major equipment malfunction, you're never going to get into this situation if you monitor and/or plan your gas correctly. Instead of thinking about a cure, thinking about prevention is better at this point.....

But ok, it's a hypothetical question so to go into the question a bit, in terms of bail out you have some options:

- use your redundant gas supply if you have one
- share your buddy's gas if he has some to share
- make use of a murphy bottle or a deco bottle slung under the boat if it's there
- send another diver without a deco obligation to the surface to bring more gas to you if you have the time
- send a slate with a request for more gas to the surface using your deco-buoy
- and so on.

Once again, planning ahead eliminates the need for these kinds of contortions.

In the event that you have no other options then there's really only one thing to do and that's to make as much of your deco as you can with the gas you have. Breathe it all and surface only when you're are forced to. At this point you're choosing between drowning (incurable) and a decompression accident (generally curable).

R..

 

[flyguy]

Thanks for the replies guys. I know that prevention such as diving with a buddy, spare air etc. is what's going to prevent a situation like this. Let me also say this has not happened to me, it's just a curiosity.

I was more curious on a physiological standpoint as to which option would be better.

 

[teknitroxdiver]

If your computer has JUST gone into deco and you can't do it on your remaining air, then you probably wouldn't have been able to make a safe non-deco stop ascent on your remaining air.

As for the Spare Air, that won't help you in this situation. The largest spare air is barely enough for a safe ascent from 100-130' depths.
What would prevent this is proper dive planning, monitoring your gas supply and deco obligation, possibly a pony bottle.

 

[wedivebc]

Very worst case scenario, do your deep stops and if you have to blow to the surface on your very last breath at least you will have hopefully off-gasses most of your fast tissue. These are the ones what will land you in a wheel chair.
Better yet take every precaution that this never happens and it won't be a concern.

 

[miketsp]

Don't waste time getting to your first/deepest deco stop. 9m/min.

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

Echo wedivebc.