Experienced Divers and OOA emergencies

[ozziworld]

Question #1, what were you doing at 180 ft? Dives to this depth are normally planned with twin tanks, or else with a very large single tank and an H-valve together with a stage bottle.

A good diver never runs OOA.

And a diver who runs OOA is not a good diver.

You should always keep your depth shallower than 130 ft, until you take some tech training.

And in the range of 100 ft to 130 ft you should rely on the Rule of Thirds, where you use 1/3 of your total SPG pressure on the outbound leg of your dive, and the second 1/3 to return to the anchor line, saving the last 1/3 as a reserve. Your tank size should be determined to meet this Rule of Thirds, large enough so that 2/3 of it meets your needs for the dive.

Most recreational scuba is done in the range of 50 to 75 ft, and when you venture deeper, you need to plan your dive and your dive gear better.

That is how you prevent an OOA emergency from occuring, for single-tank diving.

And no, I have never run OOA. There is simply no excuse for it, other than amateurish inexperience.

Of course you're right, there are no excuses for running out of air. The rules are posted and published everywhere and so many applications what to do how to calulate etc. In the end it is a matter of varying situations, experience and circumstances that create such emergencies.

In my case, I have to say that it appears most of these OOA emergencies applied to inexperience at the time of the incident. We were all inexperienced at some point right? My situation was following a DM/guide and totally trusting their judgement and assessment of my skills ("you've done advanced right? you'll be fine" ) Ha! that was the last time I showed anyone that card for a long time (Took the Advanced Class 4 months after my OW). I suppose I would have simply said "no, thank you" to such a challenging dive if I had known better.


My other OOA was more recent, involved a vacation diver that everyone was wary of. He had been out of the water for 2 years and refused to take a refresher course. I kept an eye out for him and sure enough he had an "incident". I did not know him but I overheard others talking to him and the 'red flag' was raised.


I think the depth of experience that this board represents is most informative to anyone who bothers to pick up on others' experience and learn. Wow! I must say that if this board had been around twenty years ago, I may not have allowed myself to be led astray by somebody else's judgement.

"The MORE you know the LESS you think you know: The LESS you know the MORE you think you know" . . . . . . had to mention my most valuable lesson I have learned over the years ;-)

 

[Rhone Man]

I had an OOA with my brother once (who subsequently became a PADI instructor) entirely through our own stupidity (so stupid that I can't even face typing it here). It was in the days before Octopuses (Octopii?) were prevalent so we had to buddy breathe to the surface, and then surface swim back to the boat.

Not proud of getting into the situation, but pleased that the training paid off, nobody panicked, and we got out safely.

 

[wetvet]

Hate to admit it, but it happened to me. In the Galapagos....I had about 250 dives in. We were diving an underwater crater....DM stressed several times, NOT TO LEAVE THE GROUP!!! Very currenty.....long, long way from anywhere, and he told us that we could easily surface a couple miles from the boat....heading for Hawaii. Anyway...we got to the bottom at about 110 feet, and he proceeded to try to use his light to lure in some grouper and/or other bigger fish. Vis was poor, and current was strong. We stayed waaay too long. I was watching my spg the whole time, but couldnt even let go to signal my buddy, as I would have been swept away. By the time the DM let go, I was down to about 750psi, and had 6 mins of deco. I went to my buddy, we discussed the situation (interesting hand signals), and came up.....I drank my tank DRY, and then we drank his tank DRY....he wasn't much better off than I was. We covered our deco obligation, but didn't do our usual 3 min extra of safety.

I look back at that dive, and sometimes feel trapped by circumstance, and sometimes feel like I was a complete idiot. Still not sure what the rightest way to handle that situation was. I can criticize the DM (believe me, I did), but once there, it was hard to decide the safest course of action.

Wetvet

 

[Web Monkey]

This is always my worst nightmare when diving off cattle boats in the open water.

Nice job of handling it well. But of course, that is what would be expected of a scuba instructor! (Dive god.)

It isn't a nightmare, it's just realistic practice.

Terry

 

[TSandM]

One of the many examples of the weakness of a single tank.

True, but there is no way I would recommend that everybody doing a 30 foot simple training dive be in doubles! In this particular case, I could have headed for the surface, breathing off my primary reg (it was the backup that was freeflowing) and I would have made it most of the way there before having to CESA. As it was, I had two attentive buddies who realized the freeflow almost as fast as I did, and I had two longhoses shoved at me before I had gotten far enough through the process to realize I needed them.

 

[sea nmf]

18 years, over 1,000 dives, no OOA.

I came close once because I spent way too much time chasing an instabuddy against a current. Then I just thought "screw it" and ascended to ss, then to surface at the boat.

 

[nereas]

18 years, over 1,000 dives, no OOA.

I came close once because I spent way too much time chasing an instabuddy against a current. Then I just thought "screw it" and ascended to ss, then to surface at the boat.

They cannot get away from me anymore with my X-Scooter DPV!

 

[ozziworld]

I look back at that dive, and sometimes feel trapped by circumstance, and sometimes feel like I was a complete idiot. Still not sure what the rightest way to handle that situation was. I can criticize the DM (believe me, I did), but once there, it was hard to decide the safest course of action.

Wetvet[/QUOTE]

Sounds like what happened to me. Except I was also convinced by the DM that I had sufficient training and equipment (single tank to 180ft.!) Is there a way to make DMs more responsible as there will always be inexperienced divers that would be led in any direction, even the wrong one.

Maybe this can be a new thread to discuss what kind of liability DMs should be faced with for poor leadership and judgement that can endanger other divers. Of course we should take responsibility for our own diving but many inexperienced divers will be prone to letting a DM take the lead and make decisions.

 

[B.L. Justice]

I was a new OW diver at Ocho Rios. The DM sent my buddy and me down to the anchor to wait as the group came down (6o'). He had issues with the group and took a long time for the group to come down. By the time the group got together I was under 2k. We swam along looking at nothing exciting. I got to 1500, then 1200 then 1k and the DM kept doing the "No Problem Man" thing. At 750 I grabbed his fin and stuck my SPG in his face. He got real wide eyed and signalled me to go up to the boat. My buddy and I began to go up while I eye-balled my SPG with concern. Did my 3 min stop and popped up at about 150.

That was the closest I have ever come. Lesson learned!

 

[lowridersvt]

Being from the great lakes area i have gotten used to the free flow and out of air . That thermocline in lake ontario is a killer freezes the lesser regs in a second . Thats i dive my double 130's everywere . Saved my but under the ice with a massive freeflow and many other people i dmed on deeper dive in lake eire and ontario.