OOA Frequency

[beautybelow]

I think I would share air at 20 ft, just for fun. No reason not to, really.

The OOA that would scare me the most would be the drunken blissed out state, with a camera, below 100 feet. I know that could happen, so I treat it like driving after a drink.

I kind of wanted to see if I could make it to the surface from there with the air blasting out like it was. The diver was a guest who happened to be a DM. I was doing the math the whole way up...watching my computer which at that time was air integrated. I was kind of amazed at how fast the air was going and glad to have someone there if I needed them. It was a good experiment though.

 

[Thalassamania]

'night all ... happy yule!

 

[Diver Dennis]

Same to you Thall.

 

[Crawl79]

So far no OOA for me but was surprised to see the amount of people buddy breathing at the safety stop on a liveaboard trip. From hearing some of them talking it was not for the practice but to make sure the buddy got back onboard the vessel with air as this would cut their diving for the rest of the trip. I like to practice buddy breathing at the safety stop but I'm not comfortable putting my buddy in a LOA situation so we can have a few more minutes on the reef.
Merry Christmas to all.

 

[TSandM]

Kevrumbo, I learned a ton of things about how best to manage such a situation (free flow) from that dive. I still don't understand why the instructor waved off my buddy when he wanted to close the valve. It's the right thing to do, IF you have practiced skills the way we have. It might not be the right thing to do if you have someone who is not going to handle an air-sharing ascent gracefully, and might lose the donated reg and have to go on their own backgas in a hurry.

We actually spent a great deal of time discussing this with a PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer on our Indonesia trip, because he was really perturbed that one would consider turning off one's only gas supply, no matter that one has obtained gas from a buddy. After much talk, we came to the conclusion that the reason this strategy work where it's taught is that the people involved have PRACTICED air-sharing, and air-sharing ascents, and are HIGHLY unlikely to become separated or lose control of an ascent. If you have someone who hasn't done an air-share since OW, and has NEVER done an air-sharing ascent, it may be better to leave their valve open even though they're losing their only gas supply, because they may lose what they're breathing and really freak if their own supply is shut down.

 

[nadwidny]

If you have someone who hasn't done an air-share since OW, and has NEVER done an air-sharing ascent, it may be better to leave their valve open even though they're losing their only gas supply, because they may lose what they're breathing and really freak if their own supply is shut down.

If they think those people are going to freak if their supply is shut down, what do they think is going to happen when the gas runs out because the valve is left open?

 

[merxlin]

In a year and a half I've had 2. The first was my 3rd OW dive in Hawaii with a DM (guided dive) and my buddy who was a DM several years ago. Actually had a good dive, and when I got low on air the DM brought us up, did our safety stop, then right to the back of the boat. Only poblem: wrong boat. Rather than surface swim the DM suggested we drop down and make the 200 yards underwater. Easier I know but I think more to save the DMs rep. I don't think she wanted to be seen swimming back to the boat. Again, my 3rd dive so that 500PSI my guage said I had went awfully quick. I signalled OOA and the DM gave me her Octo. All seemed OK except that once she gave me the octo, she got above me, I suspect to hold me down since with an empty AL80 I was a bit bouyant. Only problem was that the octo had a torn diaphram and I got nothing but H20. Tried to clear it, still not good. Took a few breaths by wet breathing while purging until I could get her attention and let her know, in no uncertain terms, I was surfacing. We were only at about 10-12 fsw so it was not hard to do. She was quit apologetic, but that was of little consolation to me. My buddy when he found out was furious. He said he knew something was wrong but it looked like the DM had it under control. I was just happy that after 3 dives I didn't freak out.

I was also on the other end of an OOA. Had an insta bubby as a 3rd member with my regular buddy on a dive. We are 15 minutes down and at 94fsw when we do an air check. My buddy and I both have 1800-1900 psi. This guy has 400psi! I see his eyes get big, so I handed him my primary and switched to my AirII since I was the closest to him. Had to grab him to keep him from making a beeline for the surface. We made a controlled ascent with a safety stop. Turns out he had grabbed a 63 cf tank instead of the steel 85's we were using, and he was an air hog on top of it. On his 2nd dive he ran low on air in about 20 minutes at 45 ft with a full larger tank.

 

[diver 85]

Wife & I in about '86 were diving off Caye Chapel, Belize...It was only she & I & the DM diving when toward the end of the dive, she showed him she had 500 # left...He seemed to not care & we con't the dive...Being fairly new to diving then, she con't on too...Thankfully we were finishing up the dive(2nd morning dive & had not gone too deep maybe a 50'/40 min. profile). All this was happening @ about 30' & she kept 'easing up' keeping one eye on her depth gauge & one eye on the scenery...I really didn't see the actual guage reading of 500# & assumed she had a little more than that....anyway, when the OOA situation happened, she calmly gave me the OOA signal & started an emergency swimming assent ...I followed & when we surfaced, let's just say she was not pleased too much...All in all, I tried to explain it was her fault & that's the reason we're certified divers...Taught her( & myself) a very good lesson, the MOST responsible person looking after you is YOU....I'm assuming if we had been @ great depths( we had dove the North Wall off Grand Cayman the year before to 135'), she would have handled the low air situation differently...In the end, her 'training' kicked in & was very surprised she decided on the swimming assent vs buddy breathing but was glad she did.....

 

[Meister481]

Two in one dive, this little bitty gal sucked her tank dry in like 15 minutes at 60 feet, then she sucked the DM's dry right at the surface. She didn't make the second dive.

This was the next day after my OW checkout dives.

 

[Puffer Fish]

I had an unfixable freeflow on single tank at 6m deep in Cozumel this past August, with my dive buddy nowhere in sight: had to feather the tank valve to complete a relatively nominal MDL ascent.

Lesson learned Lynne --that is usable gas and you should try to conserve it by shutting it down initially if you can (i.e. you can even attempt to "feather & sip" any remaining breathing gas from the tank directly from the valve itself as a last resort measure). . .

I just had (this Sun) that same thing happen. I was solo diving at a spring, testing out my newly rebuilt Octo, when, at around 50 ft, I noticed it was leaking. I went over to a shallow platform, and knelt down to play with it.

Hummm.. leaking.. here, lets try breathing off of it..... nice, but boy the purge sure seems really touchy... still leaking... here, let me push the purge.... Wow.. look at the gas come out of this thing... Lets stop it..... wow, the thumb over the mouthpiece does not work.

I tried everything I knew to stop it... and ran out of air... Ok, in only 8 ft of water, and I just surfaced, but it went thru air really fast.. at 100 ft, I would never have made it to the surface.

Normally, I would have turned the tank off and retried it, but I don't think it would have made any difference, in that the valve is stuck slightly open. I will look at it this week, but bet there is something stuck in the seat.

In all these years, this was my first time to be the one out of air. I went through 1600 psi so fast... it surprized me.

Interestingly, I never pulled the pony reg and used it, but it was not by thought. I don't remember even thinking about using it. I was first playing with the Reg and then doing accent.