Had to donate air...

[teknitroxdiver]

After 130-odd dives and never dealing with an OOA situation, I got TWO divers get low last week. I spent last week at Greenwood Beach Resort on Cat Island, Bahamas. Most of the wall dives are multilevel, deepest around 130' then back up to the top of the wall at 60-90'. At the end of one dive, we were getting close to the boat and I noticed one diver break off from the group and head for the anchor line, after showing her gauge to another diver. I followed her and at the line took a look at her gauge. ~300 psi, and a 3+ minute safety stop was definitley in order after this dive. So, reg out of mouth, hose over head, backup in mouth. Offered the reg to her, "ah, thanks, yes, I'll take that!". :10:

After the dive she commented how convenient having 7' of hose was.

2 days later, different diver, same story.

I'm sold on the long hose for sure now, it's wonderfully handy in a low-on-air/out-of-air situation.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I've done the same thing on two occasions but did not really consider them full fledged OOA incidents, since I got proactive and initiated the switch before the other diver went dry. I think the ability to do that and still have the ability to make normal and largely independent ascents in loose formation is one of the key benefits of a 7' hose.

That extra 200-300 psi of air then becomes handy on the surface as it allows a faster BC inflate and allows the diver access to air if the surface is rough, they slip off the ladder, etc.

With a short hose, the close proximity required to share air presents a trade-off in that the ascent is more complicated and the receiving diver often spends the whole ascent with the regulator feeling less than secure in their mouth. Bouyancy is also much more of a balancing act with 2 BC's and 2 divers in contact. Consequently, air sharing on a short hose is much more stressful and it becomes less clear whether it is better to wait until the tank goes dry or switch while there is still a couple hundred psi left.

I was initially hesistant to use a long hose in recreational situations as the two OOA incidents I had been involved with before switching to a long hose all had a semi panicky OOA diver. I felt it was important to maintain the face to face strong grip on each other sort of approach to keep the OOA diver calm. Consequently, I felt much of the advantage of a long hose would be negated with a recreational diver. However with the donated second stage not facing at an odd angle or feeling like it is about to be pulled out of their mouth, the OOA diver normally calms right down. And when you add the ability to easily share air and ascend before they empty the tank, you avoid the panic in the first place and are also ascending with a diver who knows even if he or she loses the donated second stage, they still have air of their own to breath while the two of you hook up again.

On both occasions where did a proactive air share, I got the same comment about how easy it was to share air on a 7' hose. Once you've done it with one, you'll never want to go back.

 

[Saudi-Diver]

Well done teknitroxdiver your situational awareness was brillient. Your so right about having a 7 ft secondary it makes life so much easier I am configured slightly different I breath my primary and have my long hose bungeed to my tank with secondry reg in standard Octo location but to be honest in the two out of air situations I have been in it was me that donated cos when I asked them what air they had they had blown the planned minimums for the depth we were at. 30metres 60 bar asked them to tell me on pre dive brief at 110 bar. Dead easy brief first one to 110 bar we start working our way up the Reef blew that so put him on my octo when he went below 30 bar ended up about a kilo from the boat a nightmare. I think Its a case of brief the plan then Dive it