Gas Sharing in Deco

[Rick Murchison]

Buddy breathing in and of itself is a necessary skill for any technical diver. One that a team should be able to do while maintaining a deco stop. But it's among the *last* solutions, not the first.
My point is that to have buddy breathing a deco bottle as a necessity after a single bottle failure is *not* good planning. As Epinephelus says, if your gas plan has you sharing a deco bottle in the event of a single bottle failure, then put two seconds on your deco bottles.
Buddy breathing is what you do after the whole world turns to worms.
Rick

 

[cadet diver]

First I would like to say that I teach buddy breathing for my OW classes. Second I would like to say I do not propose buddy breathing as the next option, but in the case of some huge catastrophic loss of gas; something unforseeable. In a cold water ocean and wreck enviorment, things go wrong.

 

[faye]

Don't stage your nessessary deco-gas if you can possibly lose it.
If you can't finish your deco on back gas then put a 2nd reg on your mandatory bottles.
Buddys stay together through deco and do the same deco.
If you can't finish the dive without certain bottles then have surface suport and a means to communicate.
If you poorly planned a dive, (ie can't finish the dive with the loss of one bottle), buddy breathing is a skill to have when the reapers on your shoulder.

 

[Doppler]

Guys: this is not complicated... And who really wants to put two second stages on a deco bottle... that's an unnecessary complication to your gear configuration. After all is said and done, sharing deco gas is an unlikely contingency situation.

Dear Genisis: Your post about doing deco on back gas is not relevant here. We are talking about losing deco gas not back gas, so the person who lost their deco gas still has their own back gas and plenty of it... the point is that by decoing on back gas, the hang may be inordinatly long and it will inevitably split the buddy team... one able to follow the schedule the other unable to keep pace.

Both divers start the dive with sufficient gas for both her and her buddy to complee a full deco and the point of that is that it's there if you want to share.

As for the post about sharing deco gas is too difficult, well that's nonsense. If it's too difficult then practice it until it's easy. Buddy breathing deco gas is a straightforward and effective contingency plan. It involves on extra complications, and not special gear... just competancy.

Graduates from a decompression class should be able to share deco gas while hovering in mid-water... simple rule, simple technique, simple solution to an Oh **** situation.

Someone stated that you shouldn't stage deco gas if there is a chance you'll lose it. Excellent point; however, there are times when deco gas has to be staged. In these situations, it is generally prudent to employ support divers. However, there may still be a time when buddy breathing allow a team to stay on a schedule while help is on its way.

The message here... learn to buddy breathe and forget the complicated apparatus and dive schedules using back gas... deco on 16/50 is not pretty!

Dive safe

DD

 

[Rick Murchison]

Doppler once bubbled...
deco on 16/50 is not pretty!

HHHhhhaaaarrrrr!
You definitely have a point there!
I would, however, as a practical matter, either hang an extra deco bottle or put two seconds on the deco bottles we're carrying. I want buddy breathing to be after at least two, not one, failure.
Rick

 

[Doppler]

Rick Murchison once bubbled...

HHHhhhaaaarrrrr!
You definitely have a point there!
I would, however, as a practical matter, either hang an extra deco bottle or put two seconds on the deco bottles we're carrying. I want buddy breathing to be after at least two, not one, failure.
Rick

An extra cylinder waiting somewhere on the way up or hanging from a support diver is a nice, comfortable solution... not always doable though.

Must admit I have a problem with two second stages on a deco bottle. Sharing gas is a contingency and therefore is not an everyday episode... whereas one must configure and carry that extra reg on all your dives. Makes for an overly complex rigging issue... IMHO. And if complete regulator failure is the issue, then swap the whole regulator from one bottle to another... but of course this a a different topic... swapping regs on an empty bottle doesn't bring back lost gas.

Incidently, to get a handle on how unlikely a deco gas sharing episode is, how many times has anyone been in a situation where deco gas has dissappeared... either bottle emptied mysteriously or bottle lost in some way (Running out of deco gas doesn't count that's simply poor planning).

My peer group execute something like 400 person mix dives in the Great Lakes annually and I think in the past four years we've had two, maybe three, instances of people having to share deco gas... 1600 to 3 are long odds.

Thanks

DD

 

[Epinephelus]

Doppler once bubbled...
Incidently, to get a handle on how unlikely a deco gas sharing episode is, how many times has anyone been in a situation where deco gas has dissappeared... either bottle emptied mysteriously or bottle lost in some way

Never seen it yet. Don't plan to see it. PPPPPPP.
E. itajara