Out of air emergency at 105 feet

[under water]

Nuts,
Nice job. I'm a Dm and I always check my air and everyone who is diving with me, but that's just me. I would have stopped air permitting for at least three minutes. Like everyone else is saying if he wanted to go, I would have stayed and waved at him.
Stay safe,
Shinny

Clearly, Everyone else is not saying that.
I would be hesitant to use you as a DM or even buddy given your statement that you would prefer to hang out at an unnecessary 15' stop rather than let me share your air to surface and get to safety if I were in a similar situation.

 

[nuts4corals]

I have to tell you that looking back at this incident, I really see no other options than the steps I took to get myself and the DM to the surface. I know there has been some debate over weather or not to skip the safety stop and many folks made great points on both sides. However, I guess you have to decide if you are one of those willing to save someones life in the first place even before you step off the boat. I could have swam like hell when the DM came to me with panick stricken eyes and left him to try and find someone else but how could I ever live with myself with such a poor decision. What I'm saying is when you get in the water with someone you are relying on them and they are relying on you in case of an emergency. If you know you can't do that for someone than may I suggest doing something else? I suspect though that most here in the same situation would offer their Octo in a heart beat. No question about that.

I'd like further clarification on a comment that some of you mentioned as an option that I liked best which is bring the OOA diver to the surface and once under control at the surface communicate that you're going back down for a safety stop. My question though, does anyone know if there is any definitive science that there is much benefit to doing a safety stop AFTER surfacing? I'm pretty sure that under the same circumstance I would have done the same thing with only one exception, go back and do a safety stop. Additionally, is there any other thing that you can do to further your safety if you skipped an safety stop? perhaps doing a longer safety stop (air permitting)? Is there any known scientific benefit that shows doing a safety stop after surfacing is better than no safety stop at all? If there is anything that I can read I would love to if someone can point me in the right direction.

Again, much appreciated...

 

[Aspendiver]

I'm a little surprised that nobody has mentioned that the DM's out-of-air tank at 105' was probably breathable at 20'. Not necessarily, but probably. Not that they should have thought of that, but it deserves mention as a another possibility for the DM to get to the surface so the OP could do his safety stop.

Well done, though, Nuts, for ensuring that two divers lived to dive another day.

 

[Thalassamania]

Going back down to redo an omitted safety stop as though it were an omitted deco stop is a complete waste of time. You did not need to make the safety stop in the first place if you had a normal ascent rate, they are completely optional and have a very, very, very small change of having any effect what-so-ever on the probability of you getting DCS.

 

[H2O Gal]

it just didn't seem like the right thing to do and besides he had my octo in his mouth, so do I snatch it???

Do we need to have 15' octopus hoses??

Good job, nuts4corals! I'm glad we have octopi now...is anyone else here besides me old enough to remember having to learn and practice buddy breathing? Can you imagine having to do that from 90'? If that were the case I can guarantee NO ONE would wanna make a safety stop.....

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

...is anyone else here besides me old enough to remember having to learn and practice buddy breathing? Can you imagine having to do that from 90'? If that were the case I can guarantee NO ONE would wanna make a safety stop.....

Yes and yes.

But only did it from 60', practicing with a buddy. Never in a real emergency. Not a big deal if both are trained to do it and stay fairly calm.

Best wishes.

 

[scubadmike]

I just got back from vacation where I experienced a divers worst nightmare... An out of air emergency.

The dive started out with a briefing and a plan with the dive master on the boat. This was to be my last set of tank dives while in Mexico. I was diving all week long and loving it. After the briefing a pre dive check with the buddy teams and we were in the water and on our way down to the reef. The plan was to dive to around 95 feet and work our way to the top of the wall at around 55 feet and then ascend to our safety stop and on to the surface. About 15 minutes into the dive the dive master spotted a huge grouper under a ledge at about 105 feet and finned over to it. Being a bit of an air hog at depth, I decided to stay put at 97 feet as there was a fair current and wanted to stick to the plan anyway. I was able to see his huge head peering from under the ledge anyway so I was cool with staying put. In the distance, I notice the Dive master checking his gauge and swim towards me from a fair distance. Thinking nothing of it I turn in the direction we were heading and waited for the DM to get in the leading position. However, he came in front of me and motioned that he’s out of air. Without thinking I reached down and grabbed my Octo and brought it up as he wasted no time in taking hold and taking a nice big breath of air…I motioned if he was ok…. All ok…In the short few seconds this was going on I noticed we drifted a bit off the wall so I motioned to the DM to get to the wall so we had some shelter and control from the current. At the wall I checked my gauge and had about 1700 psi. We both looked at each other and motioned to surface after he motioned for the rest of the group to continue on the dive with the second group in the water. We began our ascend to the surface from around 90 feet. At about 40 feet I noticed my dive computer alerting me to slow the ascend a bit. He was understandably nervous so I motioned him to slow the ascend which he did slightly… As we were heading to our safety stop depth of 20 feet I check my gauge and we had a bit under 1500 psi so I motioned to level off and do a 3 min. safety stop. He paused for a moment and then motioned to me no safety stop lets go to the surface. After thinking about that for a moment I followed his advice and we began our final ascend to the surface thinking he‘s a dive master and perhaps there is something wrong that he needs to get to the surface. I think the only reason I listened to him and ascended without a safety stop is that he was a dive master. However, if he was another diver I would have probably made the person do a safety stop and watched the gauge like a hawk.

At the surface we had a few minutes and the first thing that I asked was… “What happened?” this is when he told me that he never checked his gauge getting into the water and he went down with a half tank of air. I remember thinking- ok dumb a$$ move but I guess it could happen especially if you are responsible for 8 divers, but what about checking the gauges when you descend to the bottom or every few minutes??? We were just about a half done with the dive and he never bothered to check his gauges. The very next question is why didn’t we do a safety stop. He said that in an emergency the thing to do is to get to the surface. However, I remember in my PADI class that in an emergency you still do a safety stop (air permitting). I mentioned that we had about 1500 psi when we reached our safety stop depth of 20 feet an by that point he was calmer so I felt that we should have done the stop.

Looking back on this unfortunate incident I would like to get a better understanding of what actually should have happened in terms of a safety stop. Air permitting should we have done the stop for 3 minutes? Or was it the right thing to get to the surface right away when sharing a single tank? I can honestly say that I am glad nothing happened and we are both safe and the best advice to anyone in the same situation that I can give is in an emergency being calm is soooo important. I feel that I was very calm and very level headed and that made all of the difference IMHO. Any pointers and/or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, the second and final dive of the trip was awesome and very relaxing and the DM did check his gauges probably more than anyone.

Glad you made it .. My buddy & I check our gauge & goof I have 3200 what do you have ?? Most of the time he has the better fill..
I went to a class about first stage failed & second stage failed .. ??
WHAT DO YOU DO ?? After class the first thing I did was buy a PONY TANK !!! Things happen ..I tell all divers expect the unexpected !!!! { scubadmike }

 

[Walter]

I'd like further clarification on a comment that some of you mentioned as an option that I liked best which is bring the OOA diver to the surface and once under control at the surface communicate that you're going back down for a safety stop. My question though, does anyone know if there is any definitive science that there is much benefit to doing a safety stop AFTER surfacing? I'm pretty sure that under the same circumstance I would have done the same thing with only one exception, go back and do a safety stop. Additionally, is there any other thing that you can do to further your safety if you skipped an safety stop? perhaps doing a longer safety stop (air permitting)? Is there any known scientific benefit that shows doing a safety stop after surfacing is better than no safety stop at all? If there is anything that I can read I would love to if someone can point me in the right direction.

Again, much appreciated...

I'm glad you're thinking about it and trying to improve in case there's a next time.

You already did things perfectly. Going back for a safety stop is useless as far as preventing DCS. The only thing going back down for a missed safety stop would have accomplished would have been to put two divers at additional risk. You needed to, and I believe you had a moral obligation, to get the OOA diver on the boat. Unless you are a qualified solo diver, you shouldn't be diving alone, even for a safety stop.

 

[DandyDon]

I'm a little surprised that nobody has mentioned that the DM's out-of-air tank at 105' was probably breathable at 20'. Not necessarily, but probably. Not that they should have thought of that, but it deserves mention as a another possibility for the DM to get to the surface so the OP could do his safety stop.

Well done, though, Nuts, for ensuring that two divers lived to dive another day.

Nah. While probly true, changing him to his own reg and clearing it would have blown that, and it's still not part of the need to get a panicked diver out of harms way.

 

[bsee65]

Going back down to redo an omitted safety stop as though it were an omitted deco stop is a complete waste of time. You did not need to make the safety stop in the first place if you had a normal ascent rate, they are completely optional and have a very, very, very small change of having any effect what-so-ever on the probability of you getting DCS.

I would have to assume that the concept of a safety stop exists because there are some rare occasions where someone who stays within the rules still has DCS-related problems upon reaching the surface. If the cure for those problems involves recompression in a tank, then would self-recompression by jumping back to 15' be as useful as the safety stop itself would have been? Would shorter exposure to 1 atm, as compared to waiting for symptoms and transporting to a chamber, before getting recompressed limit the likelihood of complications? Would it also be true that the closer your dive gets to no-deco limits, the more likely it is that your safety stop will have real value?