OOA Buddy starts to drag you up by your octo - What would you do?

[captain]

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All excellent points ...but in the interest of full disclosure, I actually was the OOA diver once (and that's all it took ...ONCE). It was in the olden days of the J valve with the pull wire along side the tank and we didn't dive with octopus rigs or spare-air back then. Somehow between the surface and the bottom the valve had gotten activated (probably on entry). After a bit of diving at 100' + I checked my SPG and it was at (or about) 500 PSI so I decided to pull the wire and realized that it had already been activated. A couple breaths later I was pretty much OOA and had to make a "whistling" ascent. I was wearing an old CO2 cartridge horse collar (BCD's were pretty new back then) and it was empty so toking off the inflator valve wasn't an option. I broke the surface like a Trident Sub on a full combat ascent ...and lived to tell the story.

Where was my buddy, you may ask ?? He had signalled to me that he was headed up about a minute or two before I realized my situation. I could see him above me as I started upwards but by then I was hell bent to get to the surface and reaching him and asking him to donate his primary wasn't my first thought.

This may not be totally on-topic but the point is (and someone mentioned this in an earlier post) that sometimes YOU are the OOA diver and it is due to cirmcumstances beyond your control (well ...almost). FWIW ...I never dove a J valve set-up again and I now head back to the boat when the gauge reads 1000 PSI.

This was about 30 years ago and I had well over 200 dives without incident.

I am not sure if I would consider 500 psi at 100 feet exactly an OOA emergency. I have made normal ascents from 80 feet with 200 psi.

 

[do it easy]

If I donate and my buddy is still clawing for the surface, then they just violated both of my rules- don't run out of gas and don't panic. At that point, if they really want a solo rocket ride, have at it. I wish I could say that I never dive with instabuddies, but it's just not true.

 

[shellbackdiver1]

It amazes me that divers get themselves in OOA or low on air situations.

 

[Adobo]

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Excellent question. That particular diver was AOW certified and had a thick logbook ...so I did not think that experience was going to be an issue. We were both gathering fish for our marine aquariums. He got careless and sucked his tank dry. Guess it could happen to anyone. Not sure I could have "prevented" what happened that day in retrospect.

That said, I do not dive with anyone I don't know any more. My wife is my dive buddy and if she decides to skip a dive I dive solo.

I also don't make 125' dives any more. I collect fish pictures now instead of fish and rarely dive below 60 feet, a depth from which both my wife and I can make a free ascent.

Again, said with nothing but humility:
A thick logbook and a fancy c-card does not tell you the "mindset" a diver takes when diving. For example, I know for a fact that many of the veterans in this forum take a "same ocean buddy" approach to diving. That mentality may not even really be evident just by casual chit-chat at the surface. Diving with strangers in bunny slopes first might be one way to find out whether or not one's diving approach is compatible with an insta-buddy. Not always practical but it is an option all the same.

 

[Footslogger]

I am not sure if I would consider 500 psi at 100 feet exactly an OOA emergency. I have made normal ascents from 80 feet with 200 psi.

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I agree ...but when you inhale and your cheeks implode you're OOA, whether the gauge says there is air left or not.

 

[Footslogger]

It amazes me that divers get themselves in OOA or low on air situations.

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Quite frankly ...it amazed me too. But it happened.

 

[Adobo]

It's not always your buddy that's OOA. In fact, if you choose buddies carefully, it probably won't be your buddy. You never know who's going to be OOA.

Terry

If I run out of gas, it will almost certainly be because I had an equipment failure. I have been taught gas planning to the degree that "losing track" of my gas is simply inexcusable on my part.

And if I do have that equipment failure, my buddy will almost certainly be in position to donate to me. My buddies and I have almost no tolerance for lack of awareness for each other. Put another way, I don't dive "same ocean buddies" style or solo - even though I dive doubles pretty routinely.

One could argue that in that moment where I need help from my buddy, my buddy could turn into jello. Maybe so. But in the dozens and dozens of out of gas drills I've done with my buddies, it strikes me that they are no longer thinking about what to do when I flash them the OOG sign. They are just reacting instinctively - that is, shove their primary regs out for me to take from them. (If I understand the discovery channel correctly, there is a reason that the military do drill after drill after drill. And it is not because they expect that someone who has been so much training and drills is worse off than they were prior to the training.)

There is also an outside chance that I inadvertantly get separated from my buddy. In the time it takes me to scan the area for my missing buddy and then to ascend to the surface in the event that I am unable to locate my buddy, I might run into an equipment failure. So I suppose that there is that "corner case" within the corner case.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I would donate a regulator to the panicked diver.

I would grab them by the shoulder strap and get in their face and try to make eye contact. I would not let go of the diver if it was a no deco dive.

If they began swimming upward very fast, I would deflate their bc and then also try to do the same to my BC to slow the ascent as we got shallower.

I would not try to stop them in the ascent but would just try to calmly take shallow breaths and use my fins to make as much drag as possible and essentially ride the diver up. Trying to swim down would require loss of control of the diver and would probably kick them in the face and flood their mask

To say that you would yank your reg back if the diver didn't stop panicking is crazy. Either you are a buddy who will risk your life for someone or you are not a worthwhile buddy. (Are you only gonna help if they don't really need it?)

My perception of diving with most everyone is that they are a safety liability to me, but I will accept this and the responsibility to provide assistance even when it will endanger my life (or scare the crap out of me).


And another thought, deliberately taking a working regulator from a completely panicked adrenaline-pumped buddy might well result in you losing the battle. I suspect that if I was really panicked and in dire need of my buddy's octopus and then s/he forceably took it away from me, they might well receive a punch to face which could quite likely break the mask and knock them completely unconcious; THEN I would take the regulator back. Taking a regulator away my escalate the situation much more than people realize. I also have experience ridding a buddy to the surface..it happens very fast.

 

[ReefHound]

Actually Bob, a 15' hose might be better in this situation so you can still do a safety stop when they are on the surface...

I'm going for the 100' hose so I can continue my dive.

 

[ReefHound]

Never thought much about it, but that's a great reason to donate a pony.

If the other diver panics, and you can't stop them, at least you can unclip the pony and wave goodbye.

Terry

Just donate them a Spare Air. Then point to your chest and hold up three fingers. That's to let them know that's how many breaths they will get.