OOA Frequency

[Diver Dennis]

In light of recent threads about OOA incidents, I was wondering how many people on the board have been involved in one, either directly or have been in the water and have seen one happen? Solutions and causes have been debated Ad Nauseam on the other threads so I would like to avoid discussing them again here. I'm just looking for your OOA stories.

 

[String]

Directly involved with one. Saw 3 or 4 this summer working.

The one i was involved with someone swap up to me signalling out of air, i unclipped octopus, gave it them, ascended. No issue, no attempt to snatch my main reg or anything.

The others i saw all a result of group diving and mainly the result of poor diving with the pairs involved failing to monitor their own supply. Again all of them resulted in normal air sharing and ascents.

Should add this was in a busy resort with diving mainly attracting once-a-year holiday divers and at a guess throughout the season an average of 10 divers a day each doing 2 dives (so 20 "dives" a day) for 6 months. Going by those numbers the frequency even there with bad divers is very small. Very roughly 4 incidents in about 2500 total "dives".

Ive never experienced one or seen or even heard of one in the uk/club style diving.

 

[jpcpat]

Had an instabuddy go OOA on a shallow reef dive and signal by grabbing my primary.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Thanks String. It would be helpful to see how many had panic involved, an explanation like yours is great.

 

[String]

Should add in one of the incidents i saw at least initially the person appeared to be panicing slightly while trying to locate the octopus but the donor cut that problem short by unclipping and handing it to them. At no point did the person attempt to grab primary. Various club surveys etc in Britain have been done like this and generally it seems in OOA people go for what they're trained for (octopus mainly unless specifically trained to take primary).

Oh and just for the statistics, none of the above incidents were caused by equipment failiure - it was all user error.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Excellent, String.

 

[lamont]

Around dive #20 I had a valve which someone turned all the way off but 1/4 turn on for me on the dive boat. I jumped in, the regulators breathed fine on the surface. At 60 fsw the second stage basically quit delivering gas and I went OOA. This was not actually an OOA since it was just a gas delivery/access issue. Panic wasn't an issue, the long hose helped because I lost buoyancy control upwards but was able to get it together without dragging the donor up with me.

A few months ago I was involved in the rescue attempt here which resulted in a fatality that was causally related to an OOA, but it wasn't anyone on my team and we didn't encounter the situation while underwater.

 

[Cacia]

two in 30 years.

One at 80 ft. reg fell apart in my hand. (no mask, no alternate...crazy picture dive on the Rhone)

One at 60 ft. (Air turned off accidently on boat) Ambient pressure exceeded first stage at around 60 ft.

curious that I have not ever seen an o-ring burst.....underwater that is. Or a free flow at depth.

 

[String]

When my regs used the old A-clamp system i had a few o-rings go on holiday but had 1 let go at about 3 meters on the descent but im the only one i know of to experience this. Not really an OOA as just surfaced from 3m, changed tanks and went on the dive.

The only "OOA" ive experienced myself was a frozen first stage freeflow and jammed tank valve (see the 1/2 turn back thread..same incident). Uncontrolled freeflow emptied tank in about 90 seconds. Solution was just stick pony reg in mouth, signal up to buddies and ascend with stop. Then swear a lot at it for making you cut a dive short.

 

[beautybelow]

I have had two. The first one was a diver who was "experienced", but hadn't dove in quite a while. We were at a "check out" type site and it was only 25 minutes into the dive at about 45'. I had already checked her air once about 15 minutes or so into the dive and she was at about a half tank. I was actually just getting ready to check her again when she gave me the OOA. Her husband was right beside her, but she swam to me (thankfully) and I donated my prmary and we swam slowly back to the boat rather than straight up. She got on the boat and was happy that everything came back to her like it did. I am still not sure how she went from a half tank to no air in that short of time, but she did. I was paying more attention to their son, who was 15 for most of the dive, but knew she was breathing heavy.
The second one was another woman who had been on a few dives that week already. She gave me the half tank signal, but didnt give me the low on air signal, just straight to OOA. Another AOW certified diver. She swam right for me agian, rather than her husband and we did the drill and surfaced from 40'. Both people commented on how calm they felt during the situation. I was happy they were calm also....
The moral for me is though, it does happen. Luckily I was close enough to help. Either "buddy" could have probably gone either way with helping, or possibly not reacting right and causing a panick.