OOA Situations?

[Kunk35]

As a new diver, I'd love to hear about real life out of air situations. What caused them, how did your buddies react, how close by were they at the time. How many of you practice out of air drills with new dive buddies? Is OOA a thing that pretty much happens to everyone at some point, or, is it a fairly rare occurence in general?

Just curious. I don't want to be surprised if/when it happens to me for the first time.

Thanks all,

Kory

 

[cummings66]

If you watch what you're doing it should not happen to you. I've never been OOA, or that close to it, but I have been surprised by my buddy going OOA when he said right before he was ok. They react strangely, my buddy by my side tried to take the DM's reg away and I was there at his side with my Octo out and ready. I had to actually stick it in his face to get him to notice it.

The surprise then to me was how fast he sucked my air supply down.

Lessons learned that day were important, rock bottom concepts being at the top of the lists. The other lesson was to actually look at the buddies SPG if he's a new to me buddy, don't trust that they say they're ok. Verify it.

I learned a lot more, but those were the important ones. By the way, if you're properly weighted they can drag you to the surface if you lose control of them, another important lesson learned.

Be vigilant.

 

[plot]

I've never been in an OOA situation and in hopefully never will be. I don't think it's something that eventually happens to everyone... and even though it's a good idea to practice OOA situations with buddies, I never have. Most of the guys I dive with I trust can fully handle a situation like that... new buddies I tend to keep my eyes on their guages just as much as mine.

In my opinion, the only excuse for being in an OOA situation is equipment failure. Watch your guages!

 

[herman]

In my opinion, the only excuse for being in an OOA situation is equipment failure. Watch your guages!

I totally agree, short of massive equipment failure there really is no excuse in being OOA. The odds of you being involved in one depends a lot on where you dive and who you dive with. I have never been close to OOA nor have any of my buddies. I keep an eye on my air, regularly ask how much air they have and inform them of mine. How often depends a lot on the buddy, a new unkown one gets ask often. For those I dive with a lot I scale it back because I know how they track with me but if I notice any unexpected difference the rate goes up. Anyone who has a problems with me asking or telling me theirs is quickly taken off the "will dive with" list.
I have been involved in a couple of "where the hell did you come from" OOA's. So far they have gone pretty smooth but I have no doubt the paniced one is coming one day.
As for what causes them, I would say 99% are simply lack of attention and/or task loading.

 

[OE2X]

In 30 years of being certified I've never had an OOA. I do drills and have done numerous airshares because a buddy was getting lowish on gas and we wanted to extend our time in the shallows.

You might want to look into using a long hose and practicing OOA drills at any and all depths that you dive to. It should get to the point of conditioned muscle memory.

 

[do it easy]

I went OOA in the pool once- a friend was playing a prank on me and turned my air off while I was talking at the surface. I descended to the bottom of the 4' pool and started swimming off with my buddies. I got about 3 breathes and then the reg bottomed out. I knew I had air in the tank, but I instinctively checked my SPG, which read 0. Then I realized what had happened and reached back and turn my air back on. I didn't break trim and my buddies didn't even notice, but one of them was blind, so it would be unlikely.

 

[Rick Inman]

I had a buddy go OOG. Actually, he wasn't my buddy, but halfway through the dive, his buddy gave the thumb and split on him, leaving him to hang out with me and my buddy.

As if he didn't do enough wrong, he finally ran OOG. Totally, sucked-the-tank-dry, OOG. To his benefit, he didn't panic or anything. He calmly spit out his reg, made the prerequisite slash across his throat and took the reg from my outstretched hand. We were already heading toward shore, so we just kept going and finished the dive.

I guess if you're going to screw up, you should at least get points for being cool about it.

 

[nolatom]

I think it's pretty rare. And on some boats, if as you come up the ladder you can't get a breath off your reg due to OOA, you're "grounded" due to bad gas management.

I've never seen an OOA, had a buddy once signal it at depth, but it was really a low on air situation, he accepted my octo, uneventful shared-air ascent.

 

[rocketry]

have done numerous airshares because a buddy was getting lowish on gas and we wanted to extend our time in the shallows.

can you elaborate on this? I don't quite understand the reasoning on this, what if YOU had an equiptment failure? this seems like overall very bad practice. even an OW will teach you that! and besides, how did you enjoy the shallows with a buddy tethered to you, even WITH the long hose?

 

[Rainer]

can you elaborate on this? I don't quite understand the reasoning on this, what if YOU had an equiptment failure? this seems like overall very bad practice. even an OW will teach you that! and besides, how did you enjoy the shallows with a buddy tethered to you, even WITH the long hose?

I haven't done this myself, but if you stayed above rock bottom, I don't see what's wrong with it. Probably not super comfortable, but really not problematic on a long hose.