I went diving with a group from a local diving club. There was a total of 8 of us. I had dove with everyone there before, except one person. She was the wife of one of the guys I had previously dove with who was there. He is a very advanced diver (cave diver) & went with went with the other half of our entire group for a deep dive. The guys wife (lady #1), another lady (lady #2), one of the guys & myself decided to stay in the shallow end of the quarry. Lady #2 & myself were still getting used to our new dry suits, Lady #1 (my buddy) had been out of diving for a while & the guy with us just wanted to do an easy dive. Experience- wise Lady #1 had only a couple of dives outside of OW (because of her pregnancy), Lady#2 is a Dive Master in training with a couple hundred dives, The guy in our group is a rescue diver with over a hundred dives & I am a rescue diver with just under a hundred dives. This was Lady #1's first opportunity to dive since having the baby. She also was from sunny FL, so wasn't familiar with diving in cold water (56 degree surface temp.). I'm afraid it was rather a severe shock for her to be in water that cold. But then, experience has taught me that it takes some getting used to both mentally & physically to be able to handle cold water. She was wearing a 3mm & a 7mm wetsuits. She & I decided to buddy up & Lady #2 & the one guy buddied up for our foursome as we were surface swimming to the drop down point. Because of swimming out before deciding on buddy teams, we all failed to do pre- dive buddy checks & just checked our own equipment. Unfortuantely I dive with most of the people there & we had bcome rather too lax on this point. My buddy & I swam out to a buoy in about 20' of water to give her a line to descend on. Other than the cold water, this should have been a rather easy, shallow open water dive. We were going to descend on the buoy & line & then swim over to a training platform to wait for lady #2 & her buddy to join us. She was a bit under weighted & had a bit of trouble getting down. We descended on a boat & swam over to the platform. Once we began the swim over to the platform, lady #1 relaxed a bit. At that time the guy in our group had his regulator free flow suddenly while surface swimming out & he couldn't get it under control. It emptied his tank quickly. He got back to shore & decided to pack it in for the day. His buddy (lady #2) then came back over to the platform to join us as a group of 3. Within a couple of minutes my buddy (lady #1) swam up to me & signaled OOA to me. This was only about 7 min into the dive. Lady #1 was using an AL 80 tank. Even though her breathing was a little quicker than normal, it was nothing to be overly concerned about. I quickly found my secondary & offered it to her. I grabbed her BCD & we made a controlled ascent from 20'. Lady #2 joined us at the surface a minute later, after working out some issues she was having with her drysuit. When we got to the surface I had lady#1 to inflate her BCD, as she was a little freaked out (not panicked, but very nervous). To keep her from panicking, Lady #2 & I towed lady #1 back to shore. We got her out of her wetsuits & warmed her up. After she got warm I quietly talked to her about the situation. I first complimented her on the way she handled the emergency. Then I showed her her mistake of not checking her air pressure before & during the dive (she had her husband set up her equipment) & showed her how to avoid another similar episode. I als pologized to her for my failure as her buddy to do the pre- dive check. Her husband came up from his deep dive about 20 min. later. I assured him that she did everything she was supposed to during the incident, correctly. We looked at her gauges & the tank was empty. There was no noticeable leak, bubbles or noise before or during the dive. Her husband had told her that he had filled her tank (he is a volunteer firefighter rescue diver & the dept has a breathing air compressor). I'm not sure, but I believe that lady #1 took her husband's word that the tank was full & failed to check the pressure herself. I also failed her as her buddy for not doing the pre- dive buddy check. The tank had to have been mostly empty by the time of the dive. We're not sure why. Her husband said the tank may have come loose with some others from it's tie downs & the valve may have gotten turned & let the air leak out. I really don't think that she could have sucked down an AL80 tank in 7 minutes at 20'. For someone who had only a few dives under her belt, she was a real trooper through the ordeal & did everything she was taught during the emergency. I was also glad that my training kicked in automatically & I was able to quickly respond to her needs. I was very proud of her for not panicking. It did make for an interesting dive. She learned the importance of knowing & watching her air pressure. And I learned the value of pre- dive buddy checks. It was a situation that could have gone very badly, but worked out in the end. I believe that both my buddy & I are better divers for the experience.
