No air left. Unable to do controlled ascent!

[scubette]

Hi Rick, thanks for the info - but since I'm new to this site, how do I refer my instructor to this thread? Thanks again!

 

[openmindOW]

This is a man who should have lived, but he traded his life for a $25 weightbelt.

I doubt it. Most likely, he panicked.

I am convinced that most Instructors should get their students to spend more time drilling the skill of dropping the weights while on the surface.

 

[BabyDuck]

Hi Rick, thanks for the info - but since I'm new to this site, how do I refer my instructor to this thread? Thanks again!

tell him 'hey, i found this great site to talk about diving called 'scubaboard'. i told the board about my ooa and wonder if you'd like to come online & talk about it, too.'

you did great. and padi may not emphasize buddy breathing (both people sharing one second stage) but they usually sure do emphasize breathing off someone's octo, so boo on your instructor. it doesn't put your buddy in harm's way to have you both breathing off his gas unless he's that low, too, in which case that's two people who should be paying better attention & i'm sure will be from now on.

 

[Scott L]

I've read all the replies about what my instructor has said to me. His reasoning why is that PADI has done away with "buddy breathing" and he told me that since I swam back down to get air, I had put my buddy at risk and in harms way and I shouldn't have done that. I beg to differ as I needed air because I had no air to exhale while ascending and he had enough air for the both of us. I know when we made it to the surface, my buddy attempted to inflate my bcd by way of my octo but there was nothing left in the tank.

Last night I was thinking that since the drysuit inflator button was in the middle of my chest it could have been accidently pushed by my Zeagle Zena BCD which zips up the front. I did have to unzip the BCD about 2" to clear the drysuit inflator button....maybe that could have been the cause of my losing the air so quickly?!??

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments and I will definitely look into the rescue course as that will be very beneficial in all regards !

I wonder if PADI monitors SB? That faulty logic with regards to an underwater OOA situation should be corrected quickly...

 

[Wookie]

I doubt it. Most likely, he panicked.

I am convinced that most Instructors should get their students to spend more time drilling the skill of dropping the weights while on the surface.

Actually, I watched him die. I was standing on the top of the wheelhouse when he surfaced and signaled. He was probably out of air (we never recovered his gear. When we stripped it off of him, it sank immediately), and kicking like a duck to stay at the surface. Autopsy showed a tunnelled coronary artery. Since that time, doctors have told me that a person with a tunnelled coronary artery could die in the emergency room and there wouldn't be anything anyone could do for him.

This man was 6'8" tall, and weighed in excess of 450 lbs. He was one of the biggest, strongest men I've ever seen. His sons were with him on the trip. The boys were in their 20's, so I'd guess he was in his late 40's, early 50's.

I agree, I think instructors should at least demonstrate droping weights from the surface starting in OW class. Then, I think we should bring back ditch and don, too. But that's a subject for another thread.

 

[Scott L]

I doubt it. Most likely, he panicked.

I am convinced that most Instructors should get their students to spend more time drilling the skill of dropping the weights while on the surface.

That mind set is prevalent in all facets of life, not just scuba diving. It exsists!

 

[Scott L]

Hi Rick, thanks for the info - but since I'm new to this site, how do I refer my instructor to this thread? Thanks again!

Scubette,
Simply copy and paste this link onto an e-mail to him then suggest he contact Rick for information how to enter the instructor to instructor forum. Please keep us posted. Thanks!

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ne...-no-air-left-unable-do-controlled-ascent.html

 

[TSandM]

Scubette, PADI is no longer teaching "buddy breathing". Buddy breathing is a procedure where two people share ONE second stage regulator, passing it back and forth to take turns breathing from it.

PADI has most certainly NOT done away with sharing gas with your buddy via an alternate air source! It is still the first choice in the event that you are entirely out of gas.

The absolute first imperative in a situation like this is that the diver not drown. Being in the water with no source of breathing gas is the highest risk situation you can be in. It takes a few moments to realize that you are actually OUT of gas, and to make a decision about your options. If you decide to go to the surface, you have to initiate that, and assuming you were more or less neutral before you ran out of air, you are now NEGATIVE because your lungs are empty. You have to overcome that with kicking, so your ascent rate is going to be slow at the beginning. My guess is that it would probably take 30 to 45 seconds to get to the surface, at a minimum, with CO2 building up the whole time, and tremendous anxiety. Far better to swim the few feet to your buddy, acquire an air source, and execute a controlled, air-sharing ascent.

You should not be 7 feet above your buddy, though! There is definitely a lesson here.

 

[scubette]

My dive started at 2875 psi. My spg showed 000 while still somewhat deep. When my buddy and I surfaced, he tried to inflate my bcd to see if there was any air left, there was none. That's why I'm thinking my BCD that zips up the front and had to be unzipped about 2" to make room for the drysuit inflator button was maybe depressed from my diving movements without my knowing. I don't know. I couldn't hear it as I had a hood on as well. I did attempt to inhale on the way up 2x, but could not and could not exhale either and that's when I bolted back down to my buddy.

I am just very, very thankful and I want to give my sincere thanks to everyone for their replies because I could not make sense or justify what I was told more than several times.

 

[AfterDark]

I've read all the replies about what my instructor has said to me. His reasoning why is that PADI has done away with "buddy breathing" and he told me that since I swam back down to get air, I had put my buddy at risk and in harms way and I shouldn't have done that. I beg to differ as I needed air because I had no air to exhale while ascending and he had enough air for the both of us. I know when we made it to the surface, my buddy attempted to inflate my bcd by way of my octo but there was nothing left in the tank.

Last night I was thinking that since the drysuit inflator button was in the middle of my chest it could have been accidently pushed by my Zeagle Zena BCD which zips up the front. I did have to unzip the BCD about 2" to clear the drysuit inflator button....maybe that could have been the cause of my losing the air so quickly?!??

Thank you all for your suggestions and comments and I will definitely look into the rescue course as that will be very beneficial in all regards !

You did the right thing. I'll say this, if you had continued the ascent the air left in your lungs(there's always some left) would have expanded and you could begin to exhale. I did it long ago from 70' after a exhale. It wasn't fun, scared the crap a of out me but, it can be done. Question for PADI has the requreiment to have a octp. been dropped since BB has been dropped?