Funny situation - or not?

[NYCNaiad]

It's safe as long as the receiver and donor maintain enough gas to surface both of them safely should either system fail. (Rock bottom)

I often extend my wife's dives as I dive two tanks and with her back she can only dive one. So we each get one and a half tanks out of it...

When I've seen this done, it's occurred when the receiver had little to no air left. In your case, it seems reasonable because both you & your wife are taking precautions to maintain enough gas. But if a DM was doing this with my dive buddy, I wouldn't have any faith that they were also taking the same precautions.

 

[hammet]

I don't want to stereotype here, but I was in Turks and Caicos a few months ago with a guy visiting from China who came up with 0 psi on the boat.... TWICE!

 

[AdivingBel]

I often extend my wife's dives as I dive two tanks and with her back she can only dive one. So we each get one and a half tanks out of it.

My wife & I do this regularly when drift diving in Coz (we let the DM know before we splash). I do a bit better on gas, so we "balance" our tanks. When she hits 1000 psi she grabs my octo, and we breathe my tank down to 1000 psi. Then we split up and finish our dives independently. We get more bottom time and generally surface with the DM (cuz it's Coz). Since she knows we're going to do this, it takes a bit of stress off her (doesn't worry about cutting my dive short & us having to surface separately from the group) and she actually does better on her gas. Plus we get to hold hands while diving (not like we NEED an excuse ). Win-Win.

 

[BRT]

My wife has gradually gained on me until she uses quite a bit less air than I do. I use little enough that I don't get low until most others are low. Another guy in our group in Mexico this year uses lots of air. He was diving AL100's but still cutting dives short so my wife started sharing with him during the dives. They didn't wait till he was out. First time a divemaster turned around and saw that he had full panic mode. After that they told the divemasters what they might do.

 

[KatieMac]

As I read this I was thinking how fortunate I am to have three people to dive with that don't seem to breathe. So all four of us can do a typical 60 minute 60' dive and come up with about 1000 PSI. But @AdivingBel, I really like your solution. I think it may come in handy as I'm sometimes better on air than my hubby.

 

[Patoux01]

Meh, as long as the Ho's tank isn't empty (sorry that was easy), safety is not an issue, there's still enough air and sources for everyone down there IMO.
However I refuse to do that kind of stuff with people whos reaction is not easy for me to predict if something goes wrong.

Edit: I'll just add however that IMO:
- one should not be holding to the 1st stage like it's done in your picture
- the two people involved should be side by side.

 

[stgcph]

Thank you all for your replies.

As is usually the case when dealing with real world scenarios, there are different points of view, so I will be cautious to draw any general conclusions.

Some of the replies describe situations, where people who know each other well (e.g. husband & wife) or people in a training environment (instructor & student) share air. These situations are characterized by being planned in advance and/or taking place in a controlled environment.

The actual scenario was unplanned and unexpected, we did not know each other or our possible reactions very well and we were only three divers, so the possibility of pairing up with another diver or joining another buddy team did not exist.

So in the (unlikely) event of an OOA situation the question remains if this would not have been “more critical than usual”. My own perception is that it would.

I guess my thinking is that if again I find myself in a situation like that with the same options, I will choose to end the dive (and run the risk of being mobbed for being a sissy).

 

[AdivingBel]

The point about known buddies sharing air is just to point out that it's not an unusual event. What you didn't address is whether or not Mr. Ho was actually OOG. Based on your earlier post you said he wasn't on the earlier dives and you felt the DM/guide had shown himself to be safety conscious. Based on that, I would have checked his remaining gas before calling the dive. Thing is, it's your dive, you can thumb it for any reason. Those are the rules. In this case, nobody else would be "bothered" or called you a "sissy" since there were only the three of you on the dive. Not that it should matter. You make those calls based on your own experience and instincts in the moment. I applaud your effort to revisit the decision after the fact and seek other opinions. In the long run it should make you a safer diver. All IMHO, YMMV. Safe diving .

 

[stgcph]

You make those calls based on your own experience and instincts in the moment.

Exactly!

(The "sissy"-thing was ment as a joke; I couldn't care less).

 

[FinnMom]

Sharing air is common is not unusual and OK IMO, but it the how-to and we're-gonna-do this should be discussed in advance and practised as a drill before the real thing. And you never share air for fun when someone is already low on gas; you share air earlier in the dive, so both persons will be just fine for gas if sharing is interrupted and cannot be resumed. When someone is genuinely low you should go home.

So although I happily share air on occasion just for funsies, I would not have been pleased with what you saw.
I think it was not appropriate
(1) not for someone who hasn't been taught and practised air sharing, preferably more than twice,
(2) not for a diver already low on air and
(3) not for an inexperienced diver already under stress (from knowing he is low on air).

It's not good to further stress an inexperienced diver who already has some reason to feel insecure. It's too easy to have someone like that become seriously unhappy, frightened and unpredictable.