How easy we forget our basics.

[fairybasslet]

You told your mother??? If you haven't, DON'T. Take it from me. I'm a mom and I wouldn't want to know. Besides, the one OOA situation I was in (not really a big deal 'cause I was doing my SS) I never told my mom. I don't think I told my son either. I can't really remember.
Glad you are ok and everyone can learn from your experience. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bradshsi]

Yes you guessed it OOA at 20m, but the shock was my guage was still reading 30bar.

I guess my question would be at what pressure (assuming for a moment that your gauge was accurate), would you have begun your ascent ?

For me Rock Bottom pressure for 20m (assuming an AL80 and a direct ascent to the surface), would be about 70 bar.

 

[Torgo]

I Pulled the Pin at 80bar by my guage, was aiming for the 100bar.
Yeah best let this one slip by my ma for now, just tell her what the wreck looked like..
Perceptual narrowing for sure. But also a chain of events, tangles and the like as you do with line and real practice causeing too much focus on the one thing.
Thanks for the input guys.

 

[Cacia]

Don't forget to work on your innate sense of "time". The one that says ...100ft is only about ten minutes of messing around. Rob's answer good...mess around...check in with yourself periodically, get that rhythm going in your dive style. Try and become an instinctive diver. I know some excellent gauge divers who do not notice things like the current shifting, noises, the subtle signs of various things happening. You mentioned you skipped your safety stop. Assuming your buddy had enough air, you probably could work it in next time.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

A BASIC skill that I used to teach was to never CHECK your air pressure. Each time you consider reaching for the guage, stop for a moment and think what the pressure should be. If you are not really sure what it should be, or if your guestimate is off by more than 200 lbs, you are not checking the guage frequently enough. I feel that this is a very valuable tool and becomes habitual. It is very similar to Catherine's reference to "innate time clock" . I think most good, experienced divers do this, although I suspect that many of them may not even realize they are doing it.

This technique is especially valuable if you are diving in a new environment, deeper than normal, or working on a task that is different than something that you've done 50 times before. It is also an excellent and quick check on your level of narcosis and situational awareness.


And if anyone cares, I used to stress this with open water students from the first night in the pool. When I would show them my guage, that was the signal for them to tell me how much air was in the tank, but they were NOT allowed to look at their guage, first they had to give me hand signals to represent the pressure, THEN they were allowed to look at it and to show me. My students learned very quickly to expect a "pop quiz" on their air pressure at any moment in the pool. Once they reached open water training dives they were allowed to just show me their guage. I have not been teaching for a long time, is this "common knowledge" or is it my own wacko idea?

 

[Cacia]

dumpster diver, I like that! I have never heard that method---I look forward to playing around with that. As we become more dependent on technology, we run the risk of losing some awareness of our environment. There is a fantastic book Deep Survival you might like.

 

[DandyDon]

I think most good, experienced divers do this, although I suspect that many of them may not even realize they are doing it.

I would not call myself either, but I do it - check with an expectation often enough to not be surprised. I started off carrying my Spg in my hand all the time, later added a retractor - but still carried it much of the time. Now that I have a camera, I have to remind myself to work on this more, but so far am staying in touch.

Never would have thought to suggest this to someone else, tho. Thanks.

Oh yes, Torgo - don't ever tell your mom. It'll serve no good, and she'll worry horribly like moms do.

 

[Darnold9999]

I would add one more thing to the "what pressure do I think I will see when I look at my guage practice". Didn't realize I do it until very recently. I keep track of my buddy's air using my own. Get a very quick feel re my air consumption vs theirs in the first few minutes of the dive, and from then on have a mental model that says something like "if I'm at 2,300lb they must be at 2,100 (or 2,500 depending on the buddy)" each time I check with them I know the number I expect them to give me - if it is different I adjust the mental model. If it is really different I want to know why. i.e is this person in trouble - or am I in trouble and not yet aware of it.

I suspect we all do this once you have been diving for a little bit, but I didn't realize that I was doing it until a few days ago when my buddy burned through the last few hundred lbs of air far faster than I was expecting.

 

[fairybasslet]

Very cool idea Dumpster

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Thank you for the kind comments.

And if anyone cares again, in order to introduce the idea to new students, I used to ask everyone in my openwater (classroom session) how much gas is in their car's gas tank. They would look at me strange, but nearly everyone I ever taught, pretty much knew (+- a quarter tank) how much gas was in their car. I would try to explain to them that just as a good driver instinctively knows about how much gas is in their tank at any one time, a good diver always knows how much air is in their tank.