Have you ever run out of gas, or been close?

[spoolin01]

I've never had to rush an ascent, blow off a safety stop, breathe someone else's air, or arrive at the surface in distress and gasping, so... No, I've never been OOG by any reasonable definition (said definition being everywhere and always situational and personal). Not even sure I've ever sucked the last breath from a tank, though I've thought I seemed close. To be fair, I've ended up on the surface with less air than would be convenient for the conditions (long swim in the chop, ducking under stretches of kelp cover, crossing the surf).

 

[DaleC]

Why yes I have. While fixated on videoing a wreck at 100' I forgot to do a reg switch and sucked my tank dry (well, not dry dry, just sorta dry). Because I sometimes dive a J valve I was used to the sensation of increasing breathing resistance and immediately knew what was happening (dope). So, I switched regs and had another 2450psi at my disposal. Rather anti climatic I know but ya gotta love those independant doubles!
I did learn that a camera is probably the most dangerous piece of equipment I can take along diving though.

 

[g1138]

I did learn that a camera is probably the most dangerous piece of equipment I can take along diving though.

Try a pole spear

 

[DaleC]

Is that a challenge

 

[tac747]

In 1976 I was close to going OOA but now I look back and realize that was not the only mistake. On the last of my checkout dives the first time I was certified it was the instructor and 2 students in monterey. The other student had been having a lot of trouble the whole class and lost it when we hit the water for the last dive. The instructor said "you know what you are doing so just go have fun, I have to work with him." So being young and stupid, off I went. I was just so amazed by everything under the water that I lost track of time and before I knew it I was 40" deep and felt like I was sucking mud through a straw. All I can say is I was really happy they had "J" valves back then. Luckily the only consequence was a long surface swim back to the beach.

 

[Tortuga68]

Not really, although I did manage to shut down both of my posts during my very first in-water valve drill /doh... so I had plenty of air but none coming out either reg

 

[TSandM]

Oh, Tortuga, I've been there! I suspect most of us who have done valve drills or taken classes with failures have turned all of either our own or our buddy's gas off at some point

 

[BTravlin]

I've never run a tank dry but have intentionally run them low before with lowest reading on SPG of 200. Always at my safety stop before going this low.

 

[tkdgodess]

I had a free flow when training, I lost quite a bit of gas, but I was able to turn the left post off. Just training in the shallows. I've "ran out of gas" before a dive even started in the pool..... I knew it would happen, but I had to dive the near empty tank, not a student. I've also stayed in the water on one of those glorious summer days, in waist deep water, enjoying the sun and letting the waves lap me back and forth over tidal pools to 100 psi or less, I just stood up. I've had "one it's gonna be close" assisting on the padi deep diver course. I was acting as DM and had alot of work to do, I was glad to be ascending, and not having students relying on me, a tank was tied off for the safety stop and I used it so I could surface with air (iirc it was 300 psi). The common thing for me is I was AWARE of my pressure at all times.

 

[StuartT]

Never ben OOA on purpose but have breathed my 40 pony dry to see what it feels like to run out of air but still had plenty of gas in my 130 on my back. I have also donated my pony reg to a buddy that was low on air a few times in the shallows (10-20 fsw) near the end of a dive so we didn't have to surface with a long swim. Have also taken an al80 down to 150-200 psi in Maui in 10-15 fsw reef shore dives at the end of the dive. Most of the people I dive with carry 30-40 ponies for redundancy not deco so we always have plenty of reserve gas available.