My first out of air incident!

[Mustangfreak]

If someone told me to dive with a half a tank and no gauge, I'd tell them to get lost.

 

[SeaHound]

I am a little amazed about the number of reasonable people that think you are a troll. My comment about the Instructor that used a mushroom anchor on an Intro the other day was in that thread. (not that I approve). I think there are some things that happen that you just should not talk about. It could frighten potential divers. It is just very unsettling to some people. Still, I really enjoyed the story. I could see your face when they told you no pressure gauge again. .

I can show you my face when I was being pulled out of the water after my first OOA situation. Some guy was on the boat clicking pictures and he captured the moment when I have reg out of my mouth and the look of total disorientation :11:

 

[shuurltt]

I am reading this and shaking my head. Why would anyone put themselves in that type of position? Sheesh!

 

[DiverBuoy]

I can show you my face when I was being pulled out of the water after my first OOA situation. Some guy was on the boat clicking pictures and he captured the moment when I have reg out of my mouth and the look of total disorientation :11:

You may be referring to the moment the picture was taken only ... but for the new divers on the forum reading this I want to ensure - you kept the reg in your mouth on the way to the surface throughout the 40 foot ascent, correct?

The first stage regulator may not be able to deliver a breath from the tank with the ambient pressure in the water column at more than one atmosphere, but as you ascend and the pressure changes another breath might come out. Additionally, the reg will prevent the gag reflex from causing you to suck water into your lungs.

 

[SeaHound]

You may be referring to the moment the picture was taken only ... but for the new divers on the forum reading this I want to ensure - you kept the reg in your mouth on the way to the surface throughout the 40 foot ascent, correct?

The first stage regulator may not be able to deliver a breath from the tank with the ambient pressure in the water column at more than one atmosphere, but as you ascend and the pressure changes another breath might come out. Additionally, the reg will prevent the gag reflex from causing you to suck water into your lungs.

Thats true! Just to second what you wrote, I could BARELY breath anything at 40! I had been told in my Open Water class that tank doesnt EMPTY on you all of a sudden and it just becomes harder and harder to breath. My first OOA situation wasnt like that! The tank FROZE and I was pulling with all my lungs for that tuny bit of air. I could breath but it was really hard. When I began to ascend the tank became breathable again at around 10 feet and I was able to pull some air out of an almost dead tank. On the surface I spat out the reg cuz I needed more air then the what was coming from that damn thing.

 

[Diver0001]

My first OOA situation wasnt like that! The tank FROZE and I was pulling with all my lungs for that tuny bit of air. I could breath but it was really hard.

That has everything to do with the type of reg. Unfortunately, some of the information being passed along in teh OW course is based on the experiences of the previous generation of divers, who were using crappy material by today's standards.

I did an experiment once with two tanks & two regs. One reg was a 1972 Aqualung Aquarius that I have kicking around. That's an unbalanced piston 1st and an unbalanced downstream second. The other reg was a modern high-performance one with a balanced 1st stage and a balanced 2nd stage.

The results, or I should say the differnce, was astounding. The Aquarius (old reg) started breathing heavy with about 10 bar left in the tank and continued to get stiffer and stiffer for about 5 minutes before the tank was empty.

The high-performance reg, on the other hand, just stopped. No warning at all, maybe 2 or 3 breaths, that's it. When that happened the tank pressure didn't register on the spg anymore. In fact, the pressure was so low that I could open the tank valve and blow air back into the tank with my mouth.

Lesson to be learned by this is to make sure if you have a high-performance reg to get an spg. If you insist on not using an spg (which I would not advise to anyone), then you're better off using an older reg with both unbalanced 1st and 2nd stages.

R..

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Unless something happened in that thread I don't see any reason why it should have been pulled (one or two posts, maybe but not the thread).

Seahound was receiving enough of a basting about his reckless behaviour that someone who happened across that thread should not have been left with the impression that it was anything more than on man's macho stunt.

R..

The "basting" responses were the biggest part of the reason I pulled the thread ... the other reason was that this (First OOA) thread is discussing a dangerous practice ... while the second one amounted to bragging about it. We do not condone the promotion of unsafe diving practices on ScubaBoard ... no matter what the Pakistani military chooses to do with its soldiers.

Y'all must think the mod staff has nothing better to do all day than sit around and selectively edit the posts of people who know full well they're exceeding the ToS when they post their comments.

Not so ... I, and all of the other mods, have full-time jobs. We do our best to keep the atmosphere in here from getting overly hostile ... but when a thread turns downright ugly, with a sequence of over-the-top posts, it's gonna go bye-bye.

We're all adults here ... selective edits and babysitting are time-consuming, and shouldn't be necessary.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Diver0001]

We do our best to keep the atmosphere in here from getting overly hostile ...

I guess I must have missed the overly hostile bit. All I saw was Seahound flaunting a macho stunt and a few people crawling up his a*s about it, which, (a) he deserved and (b) would have been a big surprise to everyone if he wasn't expecting it.

Fortunately for Scubaboard, perhaps, these decisions are made by better people than myself. I think if he presented himself like this, he should have been left to accept the consequences....

That's also part of being an adult.

R..

 

[Scuba_Steve]

The "basting" responses were the biggest part of the reason I pulled the thread ... the other reason was that this (First OOA) thread is discussing a dangerous practice ... while the second one amounted to bragging about it. We do not condone the promotion of unsafe diving practices on ScubaBoard ... no matter what the Pakistani military chooses to do with its soldiers.

Y'all must think the mod staff has nothing better to do all day than sit around and selectively edit the posts of people who know full well they're exceeding the ToS when they post their comments.

Not so ... I, and all of the other mods, have full-time jobs. We do our best to keep the atmosphere in here from getting overly hostile ... but when a thread turns downright ugly, with a sequence of over-the-top posts, it's gonna go bye-bye.

We're all adults here ... selective edits and babysitting are time-consuming, and shouldn't be necessary.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Keep up the good (but thankless) work Bob!

 

[SeaHound]

I think this censorship logic is totally messed up. Its as messed up as saying “Lets talk about religion! But … you can’t say God doesn’t exist because that’s sinful blasphemy! You can’t say that most Holy books are man made because thats also sinful blasphemy!” If you try to talk religion under those rules then all religious discourse is bound to be one sided because counter argument has been “outlawed” even before the discussion began !!! It’s the same with some moderators on this website! Hey Lets talk diving!!! Lets have a section entitled “Accidents and Lessons Learnt” But, if someone puts something in there then the guy is “bragging” and “advertising unsafe practices” and the thread should be deleted!

The terms of service should read the following:

“We the moderators have made up our minds as to what constitutes safe diving! We will only put posts that confirm our already held view of what safe diving is! If you write anything which goes against our our preconceived views about safe diving (which we formed before even giving you a chance to speak) then your posts will be deleted.”

Amazing how the human mind sometimes works isn’t it?