Have You (or Your Buddy) Ever Run Out Of Air?

[Storker]

I've never run out of gas. At least so far. And if it ever were to happen I'd be properly embarrassed since would mean that I had been quite stoopid. I usually follow my min gas table even though I only dive rec.

I've had one occasion when my buddy (not my regular buddy, but another clubmate) cut her safety stop short because her reg started to become harder to suck on during the SS. So no drama, but poor practice anyway. She's not my favorite buddy.

 

[TheHuth]

I think Lermontov's story wins the internet for the day.

 

[Lizard Leg]

Tl;DR. After rescue course/pool work and OW check outs, had a panicked diver climb my back OOG at 80'. Never thought I'd have to use rescue but glad I took the course. All ended well.

I've gotten low on gas, but never OOG. Last year on the Russian Freighter my wife and I were drifting around, taking pictures and having a great dive. 40' vis, strong current. A diver from a different boat approached me and through a wonderful imitation of underwater hand signals, asked to join our buddy group. Tried signing where is YOUR buddy, but no luck, and no luck on getting his pressure. Both boats dropped about the same time and I was at about 2500 psi, so figured he was good. This diver stayed further away than he should have but appeared to be following us okay, but never would look up long enough for any types of signing.

About 5 minutes later, I feel something grab my fins and start climbing my back. Yep. I pushed him away some to get some room. His signals were way off, but I eventually got low on air. Asked for his pressure, nothing. Grabbed his SPG - 200 psi at 80 feet. Not that big of a deal, but he was hoovering at this point, so it could turn south fast. Offered my second, he refused. Offered again. Nope. Signaled we're heading this way and started off toward the drop line - into the current at this point because I had drifted with him sorting this out. We held hands as we did this (he didn't want any other contact other than that.). The way he was breathing I knew he would need gas very, very soon so I had my second out and ready. He wanted the surface badly so it was more of a drag than a swim but a drifting ascent in that current with the fishing boats buzzing around like flies - no thank you. We made it about halfway back and I felt him immediately start fighting like a fish on a hook. Put my second in his face and purged to get his attention. He grabbed it, calmed down slightly but was breathing much too fast. Look at me, calm down, breathe. Showed him my spg with over 2000 psi left. Made it to the drop line and started our ascent, signing look at me, calm down, breathe, okay the entire time.

We made it to 60', he looked up saw sunlight on the waves, spit the reg and bolted. Without getting into a flame war, I didn't let go (if he would not have responded very, very fast, yes, I would have let go and hoped for the best). Reeled him in, put the reg back in his face and purged again. After a second or two, he grabbed it and after calming him down again we started up. This process repeated again very shortly at about 40' with the same results. When it happened the third time, I had no choice but to let him go or go with him, so I let go When I surfaced, he was floundering in the 2-3' waves, mask off, much to close to the bow of a 60' dive boat bouncing in the waves and wouldn't let go of the anchor line to get to the stern. I yelled to the boat to alert them, told them we didn't need another diver in the water (the boat crew knows me) and then started trying to get him straightened out. He wouldn't listen. I got in close behind him, manually inflated his BC and finally got him to put my second in his mouth and his mask back on. Started working him to the back. When we got near the dive ladders, Chris (one of the DM's from his boat) jumped in to assist. He had to submerge to try to get the guys fins off. He was panicked, trying to climb a dive ladder in his fins. He was kicking the crap out of Chris, but Chris prevailed and got him back on board. I signaled okay, descended, met back up with my wife who was on the granny line waiting for me at 15'. Looked at my spg, still had enough to get in another 20 minutes or so of bottom time, but I sighed, and thumbed the remainder of the dive and went back to our boat. I knew the adrenaline would kick in very shortly.

We later found out that him and his buddy had gotten separated as soon as they reached the bottom, drifted much too far with the current and he sucked his tank dry in 10 minutes. His buddy was back on board when we surfaced and told the crew he had decided to stay down. Sometimes I wonder why the Accidents forum doesn't have more posts.

 

[Neilwood]

I've never run out of gas. At least so far. And if it ever were to happen I'd be properly embarrassed since would mean that I had been quite stoopid. I usually follow my min gas table even though I only dive rec.

I've had one occasion when my buddy (not my regular buddy, but another clubmate) cut her safety stop short because her reg started to become harder to suck on during the SS. So no drama, but poor practice anyway. She's not my favorite buddy.

Not necessarily - could be mechanical failure but if it is a wetware incident as someone else has termed it - then feel free to be as embarrassed as hell!

 

[agilis]

Maybe this should go in accidents and incidents or near misses, I don't know... I was chatting with another diver on a dive boat recently and he was extolling the virtues of the bungeed octo and primary 2nd stage donation. I don't want to start that debate here. But, when he peered at me and said "You know, an OOA diver will just rip that 2nd stage right out of your mouth, right? You would be better off with a bungeed octo like me."

I asked if that had ever happened to him, an OOA diver approaching and needing to share air (outside of a class where you are practicing). In 16 years of diving, he said no, it's never happened. Not a panicked, primary 2nd stage-grabbing diver, nor a calm, air-share requesting diver.

So I started wondering... how many of us experience a personal OOA or another diver needing to share? In one of my classes we did have someone run out of air on the deep dive, but he calmly shared with his buddy and they were okay. Other than that I've thankfully not seen anyone run out of air in my vast experience of 33 dives.

I'm curious about your stories. Was it that the OOA diver just wasn't watching their SPG, or did they get entangled or have some malfunction causing a loss of air? Or was it a new diver that didn't realize they would use a lot more air at depth? (That's what happened in my class, I think - we were at 126 feet and in low vis, so air went pretty fast for all of us!) It seems like a lot of accidents include someone running out of air, and I'm just trying to understand how and why that happens.

I dove our offshore oil rigs last weekend for the first time (oh, they were majestic, it was amazing!). Before going I was a little nervous about the "bottomless" situation over the Eureka (it's like 750 feet). I kept thinking of some incident report I read where a diver jumped in and their BCD was leaking, so they began sinking, adding air and adding air, and ran out of air as they sank. Found on a deep wall with 1 weight pocket partially removed. I think it was in Diver Down. I read a lot of dive accident reports and I always try to learn something. Anyway, the dives went fine and I had no problem with my buoyancy over a deep depth (that was my first dive where the objective was to stop well above the bottom). It was actually getting back on the boat that was a bit of a challenge/ rodeo. I wasn't expecting that. Learn something new every weekend it seems!

So, anyone want to share any stories?

Run out of air? Don't be silly. I'm a certified scuba diver. Barring equipment malfunction or a brain tumor that affects rational thought, it's impossible for a trained diver to run out of air under normal recreational diving circumstances..

I've seen divers apparently run very low while on group tourist dives in the Caribbean. The DM would then stick his octo in their mouth as he escorted them to the surface, their eyes bugging out so far from their sockets they were in danger of exopthalmotic blindness.

These could not have been certified divers because they apparently were unaware they should be checking their SPG more or less continuously.

 

[Lizard Leg]

What website is the diver down forum I keep seeing?

 

[BB`]

I was out with a semi-regular dive buddy who was known to be an air hog. We had planned a shore dive to go down to 90ft and look for a sunken sailboat. It is a bit of a swim to get there because it was right in the path to/from the boat ramp and there was a sailboat race at the lake that day with lots of activity topside. Plan was first one to 1700psi on AL80s would call the dive and we would head back up to the shallows and putter around.


12 minutes into the dive my buddy signals that he is down to 600psi at 93ft and starts making a fast but controlled accent. I chase him down as he starts his safety stop and offer my octo (2400psi in my tank) but he refuses to take it. I pop my safety sausage and we head up into the boat lane for a great (terrifying) view of a 30ft sailboat swerving to avoid my marker and my buddy is sooo excited that he finished up with only 50psi in his tank and joking that he really got his moneys worth on that fill.

It was a very silent 10 minute swim back to shore and then I ripped him a new one about ignoring our gas plan and refusing my octo when he so clearly was LOA and should have switched.


After an hour we did a 30ft dive with no problems and he managed he air as planned with so we decided for out third and final dive of the day we would go looking for that sailboat again.


Got down and after 15 minutes he signals that he is down to 500psi again and we need to direct accent into the boat traffic again I offer my octo and grabs my BCD harness instead and we make a 45 second trip 90>15ft and then he accepts my octo. Due to the multiple deep dives and quick accent I was planning to hang out for 5-8 minutes just to be safe (2200psi in my tank). 30 seconds into the stop Captain Asshat inflates his safety sausage and doesn't let go of it and gets dragged with my octo in a death grip to the surface instantly.


Bitchin headache and mild body ache started in about an hour after the dive which resolved quickly with an O2 treatment.


Outcome: I signed up for my rescue diver course and learn how to better control situations like that and swore off ever getting into the water with that guy again.



Lizard leg - Diver down is a great book that all divers should read.

 

[Reku]

I was out with a semi-regular dive buddy who was known to be an air hog. We had planned a shore dive to go down to 90ft and look for a sunken sailboat. It is a bit of a swim to get there because it was right in the path to/from the boat ramp and there was a sailboat race at the lake that day with lots of activity topside. Plan was first one to 1700psi on AL80s would call the dive and we would head back up to the shallows and putter around.


12 minutes into the dive my buddy signals that he is down to 600psi at 93ft and starts making a fast but controlled accent. I chase him down as he starts his safety stop and offer my octo (2400psi in my tank) but he refuses to take it. I pop my safety sausage and we head up into the boat lane for a great (terrifying) view of a 30ft sailboat swerving to avoid my marker and my buddy is sooo excited that he finished up with only 50psi in his tank and joking that he really got his moneys worth on that fill.

It was a very silent 10 minute swim back to shore and then I ripped him a new one about ignoring our gas plan and refusing my octo when he so clearly was LOA and should have switched.


After an hour we did a 30ft dive with no problems and he managed he air as planned with so we decided for out third and final dive of the day we would go looking for that sailboat again.


Got down and after 15 minutes he signals that he is down to 500psi again and we need to direct accent into the boat traffic again I offer my octo and grabs my BCD harness instead and we make a 45 second trip 90>15ft and then he accepts my octo. Due to the multiple deep dives and quick accent I was planning to hang out for 5-8 minutes just to be safe (2200psi in my tank). 30 seconds into the stop Captain Asshat inflates his safety sausage and doesn't let go of it and gets dragged with my octo in a death grip to the surface instantly.


Bitchin headache and mild body ache started in about an hour after the dive which resolved quickly with an O2 treatment.


Outcome: I signed up for my rescue diver course and learn how to better control situations like that and swore off ever getting into the water with that guy again.



Lizard leg - Diver down is a great book that all divers should read.

Good Job being a responsible buddy. I would not buddy with that guy again. The sad truth is you may end up seeing his obituary someday here. You are luck he didn't kill you.

 

[Reku]

Run out of air? Don't be silly. I'm a certified scuba diver. Barring equipment malfunction or a brain tumor that affects rational thought, it's impossible for a trained diver to run out of air under normal recreational diving circumstances..

I've seen divers apparently run very low while on group tourist dives in the Caribbean. The DM would then stick his octo in their mouth as he escorted them to the surface, their eyes bugging out so far from their sockets they were in danger of exopthalmotic blindness.

These could not have been certified divers because they apparently were unaware they should be checking their SPG more or less continuously.

Just curious,

I can't really tell are you being sarcastic or serious? I've seen DM's and instructors suck down air like a jet intake. I really hope you are just making a point because that is some flawed logic if not. Being certified doesn't mean ****.

 

[BB`]

Good Job being a responsible buddy. I would not buddy with that guy again. The sad truth is you may end up seeing his obituary someday here. You are luck he didn't kill you.

I am pretty sure that you are right.

It is kinda sad that his plan/dream was the get his DM cert (he had rescue at the time of this) and go work in the Yucatan as a guide.