Fatality off of Point Lobos, California

[tye1138]

If they come from behind you, or out of your peripheral vision, yea it can happen.

Not only have I seen it happen due to poorly maintained gear resulting in a forced OOA situation, but I train my students to expect it to happen. All this hub-bub about someone calmly swimming over to you making an out of air gesture, isn't the real world. Next time you wanna test this theory, have someone turn off your tank when your casually swimming along with your buddy 10 feet in front of you. When you don't expect its your last breath, all those "gestures" go right out the window. Only thing you think about is grabbing someone's reg.

By the way, during my instructor training, my teacher pulled this stunt on me to see if I'd freak out. He swam open hand to me as fast as he could from an angle and side swiped the regulator out of my mouth. SOB did it when I was breathing as well, just to prove a point. It was a brilliant test, he proved the point that it can happen at any time, so be prepared.

---------- Post Merged at 11:06 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 11:04 PM ----------

And quite frankly, if you (generic "you" not Don "you") can't ditch someone's ditchable weights or you can't figure out how to unclip them from their BC/tank/reg/octo, then maybe you shouldn't be diving in the first place.

A+ Ken

 

[3D diver]

All this hub-bub about someone calmly swimming over to you making an out of air gesture, isn't the real world. Next time you wanna test this theory, have someone turn off your tank when your casually swimming along with your buddy 10 feet in front of you. When you don't expect its your last breath, all those "gestures" go right out the window. Only thing you think about is grabbing someone's reg.

Actually, in both cases where I've had to share my octopus---once on a 100+ feet wreck dive, once at Lobos---my buddy did come over and do the throat slash gesture. On the deep dive weight management meant getting a firm grip on him and dumping his BC---he looked like he wanted to bolt to the surface. In both cases they still had enough air for a calm octopus exchange.

As for having your tank valve shut...yeah a friend did that to me once too. Fortunately, we were in my folks pool & I just had to swim a few feet to the surface. It's quite a surprise to suck on that reg and get nothing---especially when you just exhaled!!!

This thread has me thinking how my octopus is stowed. There isn't time for any fumbling in a real OOA.

 

[alwaingold]

Whether the emphasis was on gas planning ON THIS THREAD was not the assertion made. Allison said "boards like these".

As Ted already pointed out, the comment about boards like these had nothing to do with gas planning, but about divers properly weighting themselves. The fact that you decided to attack my post and then argue with Ted about it without even bothering to read it carefully (or comprehend it) is why I don't post on here much anymore.

Going dark,
Allison

 

[Peter_C]

Going dark,
Allison

Please don't Allison, myself and I am sure many others would like you to continue sharing your thoughts and experience, as I/we respect it. On the other hand I also understand about arguing on the internet...

 

[Ayisha]

As Ted already pointed out, the comment about boards like these had nothing to do with gas planning, but about divers properly weighting themselves.

I mentioned all of the areas you mentioned - including gas management and proper weighting. Yes, the importance of proper weighting is quite prevalant on this board. I can read and comprehend what you said quite well:

- Figuring out the proper weighting for your rig is a relatively simple, one-time task. Once you've got it, it's not something you have to worry about on each dive, whereas gas planning, checking your gauge, etc. are things that you do have to take care of on each dive, and are thus more subject to screwing up on any given dive.
- This isn't something that I see emphasized at all in typical classes, or on boards like these.