Have you ever sucked the bottom out of your air tank?

[Bear Hunter]

Herman I didnt want a a verbal tounge lashing on your personal scuba diving ethics...I just wanted to know what others exp. were! You have not had one so you need not reply!

Does it make you feel better to tounge lash people for their mistakes on a public forum? Man it must be tuff being perfect!

 

[herman]

I apologize if I stepped on your fins too hard. Am I perfect, no way, have I screwed up, you bet. I suppose my comments were a bit pointed but really, and be honest with yourself, is there any excuse for 3 buddies to allow one of their own to come so close to harm? Do I feel better? Well, I am sorry that I hurt your feelings and truly do apologize for that but, if one diver, old,new or want-to-be sits back in his/her chair and rethinks his air management practices and makes changes for the better then yea I guess I do feel better.

 

[Iguana Don]

Originally posted by Bear Hunter
Herman I didnt want a a verbal tounge lashing on your personal scuba diving ethics...I just wanted to know what others exp. were! You have not had one so you need not reply!

Does it make you feel better to tounge lash people for their mistakes on a public forum? Man it must be tuff being perfect!

Bear Hunter,

Surely you know that anytime you get on a public forum and make any kind of statement you are open to either praise or criticism (hopefully constructive). There is no need to get feathers ruffled from the responses you have gotten as I have gotten basted several times myself from statements that I have made.

You asked the question "Have you ever sucked the bottom out of your air tank?"
Not just directed to those that have, also to those that have not.

If you call this perfection then I am guilty also and will strive to maintain this level.

You made some serious mistakes, hopefully you and others have learned from your experience.

ID

 

[mlove]

I suspect alot of divers have gotten too low on air at least once. While diving on Little Cayman the current changed at about 90 ft. It was along swim against the current back to the boat. We desended slowly on the return swim.After a safety stop I was getting on boat almoast empty.
I did learn some valuable lessons from that dive and relize how close I came to something worse.
Mike

 

[keralucu]

Originally posted by TexasMike
One of my instructors shared with me a good rule of thumb about when to start your return to the surface based on the amount of air...

Multiply your "max" depth by 10. Thus number is your "start heading" up number so you as you get shallower, you will have enough for any required safety stops or a below surface swim to the boat.

For my benefit (because I am not too crash-hot at mathematics... duh...) could someone please give me the above rule of thumb as applied to metric? I can't work it out - or is that I don't understand the entire rule??

Ta.

 

[joewr]

Bear Hunter,

My soap box has somewhat of a reputation on this Board and I hesitate to add more to it, but..............

If you will read a few old threads around here, you will discover a disquieting number of stories about divers who died while diving or got bent. I am trying very hard to keep myself out of those categories! I suspect you have a similar goal.

Running out of air is a damn good way of running out of life. The gods of scuba just gave you a very cheap lesson and they do not suffer divers who ignore their lessons. There are two things to consider here:

(1) You have an obligation to your lungs (and your loved ones) to keep an eye on two gauges--air pressure and depth. If you use a computer, you also keep track of your Nitrogen. You need to get into a pattern of reviewing their status regularly--so it becomes second nature. And you need to act on the information they are transmitting.

(2) You have a buddy for a reason: to help when trouble starts. That alternate air on your buddy's BC is there for a reason. If you got that low, you should have used your buddy's alternate on the way up.

I have got to side with Herman on this. Those lessons you had during certification were not just academic: they were intended to make you a safe and living diver. You risked both DCS and asphyxiation on one dive...not good, fellow diver!

You also did not mention whether you and your dad had a post-event discussion as to what happened and how to avoid it in future. You need to do that. Whenever something does not go according to plan, you need to discuss the event with your buddy so the event does not repeat itself.

Asking your forgiveness in advance if I stepped on the same fin that Herman did.

Joe

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

The lowest I've ever had a tank is 500psi. Then again, I don't have as many dives as most people... I try to err on the side of caution. If it means cutting a dive short, so be it. I'll be alive to dive again another time.

-Frank

 

[TSandM]

I have only been diving four months, but I have not gone below 500 psi.

If I ever sucked a tank dry, I would be deeply chagrined, because it would mean:

1. I did poor dive planning. I didn't think about how deep, how long, and do I have enough air?

2. I did a poor job of monitoring my air supply during the dive. I should have known long before the tank was empty that it was time to go home.

3. I did a poor job of keeping track of, and communicating with, my buddies. Long before my tank quit, I should have been on somebody else's air.

4. I did a poor job of decision making at multiple points in the dive.

Even in the face of an equipment malfunction, aborting the dive and acquiring a new air source are things which can be quickly done.

 

[fishb0y]

While diving on one of my first dives after I was certified I ran out of air at 60 feet deep.

My father,uncle and I were diving on a reef that was 60 feet deep looking for lobsters!

After catching a few and about to run low on air, I found a hole on top of the reef that had 5 big lobsters in it!!!!

After cantching 2 of the lobsters I noticed that it was very hard to breath, so I look down and my air guage was less that 100lbs.

Trying not to bolt to the top after being down for 40 minutes I did a rapid ascent because I could not breath anymore!

after getting on the boat I got the worse head ache ever and a little nauseated.

I feel that I was luck, because that was all that I got!

I chalked that one up to inexperiance.....also havent came close to doing that one again either!

So what has you exp. been?

later
Jason

Hey I won't lie to you or preach about how evil and disgusting a person is running a tank dry. 140 ft, slightly narc'd... I looked down at my gage and had 400 psig and said to my self that I should start heading up, looked down again a second later and well... I did get another breath at 80ft. Went to 75% O2 at 50 feet and did a little extra deco. Not my proudest moment but I did learn alot, now I'm usually on the boat with 500 psig if I'm just out tooling around.

 

[HowardE]

Did anyone notice that this thread is 4 years old?