No gas -- what do you do?

[Sask Diver]

I do what I was trained to do, buddy up and use his alternate

 

[String]

I do what I was trained to do, buddy up and use his alternate

Thats handy if:

(i) your buddy is there
(ii) within reach
(iii) realises whats happening
(iv) has a working alternate and
(v) enough air to get you both to the surface

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Thats handy if:

(i) your buddy is there
(ii) within reach
(iii) realises whats happening
(iv) has a working alternate and
(v) enough air to get you both to the surface

Its snowing right now and I am board enough to take a bath with my dry suit on (1 month 10 days to my next dive)!

So I am taking time to say you are preaching to the converted here on SBoard, I have surfaced with someone (not even my buddy) attached to my alternate. I expect many here on the board can claim the same.

Moral of the story, the when the person in question realized they were dangerously low on air (300 psi -110 ft) they had the presence of mind to find the closest person to donate air, rather than find their buddy who was elsewhere.

We can list the many poor decisions that were made that day, but at least being close to a group of divers turned out to be a good way to compensate for a same day same ocean insta-buddy.

 

[Mike Boswell]

This is a great read.

My take is: Your gear breaks, jams, corrodes, wears out, gets banged up, oxidizes, etc. etc. and the best you can do is buy good stuff, be careful with it, and service it regularly. But sooner or later, gear tends to fail, unpredictably.

And when your gear fails, it's best if that was a part of your plan to begin with.

 

[theduckguru]

The comment was made in another thread that, in the event that your regulator stops delivering gas, you should, as a recreational diver, have the immediate reflex to go to your own auxiliary reg. I found that surprising. I am not aware of a failure mode that will cause a second stage to stop delivering gas, when the rest of the system is functioning normally. As far as I'm concerned, if my reg stops delivering gas, I'm going to signal my buddy immediately and share air.

Is anybody else aware of a failure mode in any reg other than an upstream regulator, that will cause a 2nd stage to stop delivering gas? Would anybody else go for their own backup reg, before requesting gas from a buddy? (NOT talking about people who carry pony bottles here.)

I think I would try my purge first, then signal buddy and then go to the octo.

 

[HiQPen]

I would immediately find the nearest reg that I KNEW had air coming out of it, which will most likely be the one in my buddies mouth. Once I had some air, then I would start to trouble shoot my failure, see if my alt air source was working, check my tank gauge, valve, etc and determine the next course of action, which almost certainly would involve a trip to the surface.

 

[PfcAJ]

Hold my breath and bolt for the surface while inflating my BC?

 

[Garth]

Hold my breath and bolt for the surface while inflating my BC?

No gas would mean no inflation of bc, otherwise I would do the same ... ;-)

 

[theduckguru]

Hold my breath and bolt for the surface while inflating my BC?

Hopefully you mean expelling air from your lungs as you bolt to the surface.

 

[DevonDiver]

Seek the quickest reliable source of air.

That could be:

1) AAS.
2) Your buddy.
3) Any other passing diver.
4) The surface.

(Yes, there is an order to those).