Out of Air at 84 ft

[simbrooks]

Actually, sometimes we do continue a dive while sharing air ... I do it with students at times to help them build a bit of confidence in air-sharing techniques.

But it's not something you'd want to do while drift diving ... :11:

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I've done it for a few hundred feet without surfacing (there was a load of rock in the way), then we found the cave entrance and all was well again

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've done it for a few hundred feet without surfacing (there was a load of rock in the way), then we found the cave entrance and all was well again

I did an extended air-share with a student just a couple of weeks ago. I was helping out another instructor with her AOW class, and we were coming up from a wall dive. I had two students in my care, and one of them had showed some curiosity in my rig before the dive. So when we got to our safety-stop depth, I handed him my primary reg, popped the necklaced reg in my mouth, and gave him the Stop sign. We hovered, letting just the barest hint of current take us gently over the top of the wall, for about five minutes while air-sharing. I was able to direct him and his buddy into a wing-on-wing formation and watched them hold it quite well for inexperienced divers. He stayed on my reg the whole way to the surface, and his buddy did a beautiful job of maintaining eye contact with the two of us the whole way up. I was a very proud instructor when we hit the surface.

Back on the boat I said "now you know why I like that setup". He told me he wanted one ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Uncle Pug]

My, how the worm has turned!

 

[Snowbear]

So what happens when you are on the long hose (7ft) and the viz is only 3ft, you both swim either side of an obstruction (<1ft wide), it snags both of your regs and pulls them out of your mouth - now what??????

Well, if the viz was so bad we couldn't see each other or we have difficulty staying together, we would be in touch contact (donor has a hand on the donee's arm. Usually.)

I'm having a hard time envisioning the obstruction that snagged the bungied reg? If it did, I would just retrieve it and put it back. Since the donee either had the long hose looped behind his neck or a loop of it in a hand (depending on which side of the donor he's swimming), it would again be no problem to just retrieve it and put it back.

Since we were in touch contact, swimming on either side of the obstruction is also a non-issue - just back up and go around...

 

[simbrooks]

Snowie, the posed situation is that both of you are on each other's long hoses (offshoot of derwood's thougths), so there are two 7ft hoses stretched out between you and you are swimming that far apart too!! Its as hypothetical as other aspects of this thread

Personally i wouldnt do it that way, but nor would i dive with someone who kept rushing off or that i couuldnt keep buddy contact of some sort with, if i had to tell them about it and they did it again, then our comes the thumb and bye bye

As for the rest of the get outs, of course touch, back ups and avoiding/moving around stuff would be the key. BTW when the donee is on the right side (ie donor on left), and the hose is going over their neck, doesnt the donee also grab the hose with their left hand to ensure no snagging, accidental pulling out etc??

 

[Snowbear]

Snowie, the posed situation is that both of you are on each other's long hoses (offshoot of derwood's thougths), so there are two 7ft hoses stretched out between you and you are swimming that far apart too!! Its as hypothetical as other aspects of this thread

OK, Gotcha! That's pretty much as goofy a hypothetical as some of the others in this thread
How come in this "hypothetical" thread, it's not an option to plan your dive, including the gas management part, dive your plan, practice good buddy and communication skills? It seems a whole lot more reasonable (and realistic, hopefully) than oops!! I ran out of air at 84' 'cause I never checked my guage, with a deco obligation, and an inconsiderate, incompetant boat buddy who's 30' deeper than I am, with inadequate training (me as well as the buddy), and have only 2 options - swim furiously to catch up with the buddy I wasn't keep track of or blowing for the surface and hope I survive the probable bends???

I like my way better.

 

[simbrooks]

I like my way better.

So do lots of other people, but that wasnt the question! I take you read the rest of the posts that agreed with your solution? Quite a few of those in here. I would do the same.

 

[Snowbear]

...but that wasnt the question!

 

[Far_X]

Ok, this is what i would like to hear about, what did you take home/realise from this debate PF? I would like to know from others too, obviously there are funnies in the thread, but its nice to know if/what signal got through some of the noise!!

I think I learnt "don't dive to 84 feet with your buddy if he has the Spare Air..."

(Yeah, I know, I am a slow reader...LOL)

 

[derwoodwithasherwood]

So what happens when you are on the long hose (7ft) and the viz is only 3ft, you both swim either side of an obstruction (<1ft wide), it snags both of your regs and pulls them out of your mouth - now what??????

See, that's the beauty of it: You would do the same thing that you would do if any problem arose while breathing your buddy's octo: Switch to your redundant air supply, conveniently located on your back.

Hey, I was just thinking aloud. I never said it was a good idea or even well thought out. But it would ensure that your buddy never wandered off 30' as postulated in the original question and it would ensure that redundant air was always readily available. Every basic OW diver should possess the necessary skills and knowledge already and there's no pony bottles adding drag and weight. Who knows, it might even be a workable idea.