Out of Air on Final Open Water Cert. Dive

[Scuba_Steve]

Thats what I'm trying to do here Scuba Steve. I appreciate all the help everyone has given me. I haven't purchaced any equipment from the dive shop yet except a mask.
Thanks

OK, good. Just don't go rushing the purchases.

One more word of advice if I may. Once you decide what you want, don't let them talk you out of it because it's more of PITA (or whatever) for them to get one for you.

Man, that happens.

Get what you want, not what they have. If it's really that important, it's important enough to wait a week to get one in.

 

[catalina03]

I believe this can easily happen, espeically to less experienced divers. I am a strong believer in a RBS set up. My 13cf RBS cylinder sits on my left side with a 6 foot hose up and over my right shoulder to be attached to the left. If you have a total failure of your primary gas, the RBS may be a life saver. Of course, the RBS is not designed to provide you with simply additional gas...it is strictly used as an ascent gas.

Keep diving and keep practicing emergency skills.

 

[fldiver1]

The fact that a "cave diver" ran into him in Blue Springs is not far fetched at all. And wouldnt make me question that diver's ability either. For those of you not familiar with Blue Spring, the cavern itself is only about 6-10' wide X 25' wide or so. It can get VERY cramped in there when you have a class or two and then a few other divers. Gets a little tight to get by other sometimes. Myself and some friends dive there often and have gotten quite used to wiggling our way past OW classes. BTW, most of the instructors here take lots of pictures of their students on check dives AND training dives. Doesnt mean they are "preoccupied" or anything like that. The pics are an afterthought to them. The reason I am sure he was told to bring up the rear in this case is that you can't enter Blue Spring 3 or 4 at a time. 1 or 2 going in is about it. If the instructor goes in first(which is probably what happened) to watch the students descend, he may have asked HARLEY to come in last because of his demonstrated abilities at that point. If he was stronger at the skills and had more confidence that the others, he may well have asked him this to "keep an eye on others" on their way in. That is what I assume anyway. Seen it at this particular spring ALOT. That is pretty much standard if the instructor is by himself, i.e. has no other help with him to keep an eye on them.

 

[harleyxx]

fldiver1; you described the conditions there to a "T". I'm planning on going back this weekend with my daughter to get some more practice & get a better look at the spring. The 1/8 mile walk from the parking lot to the spring with my gear on will do me some good.
The last time we were there my daughter slipped on the wooden walkway with all her gear on and went down hard. The instructor was in front of me and before I even had time to react he was running down the walkway to help her. He had all his gear on, a big steel tank & a pony bottle, but still moved faster than I could. I was impressed. I realized I was out of shape.
Later, at home, I decided to strap my tank on while in the house and just walking around with it to get my "sea legs" so to speak. But my wife told me that I looked like an idiot and made me stop.

 

[JamesD]

This link here shows what I consider to be the easiest, least ambiguous system for conveying numbers underwater.

I have to concur, this system works really well, been using it for most dives now, much easier than flashing hands. ASL looks like it would be fine in good conditions, but once you start to have thick wet gloves on I can see it getting very confusing, no way you can mis-read any of the numbers in the link above, really, just if it's straight up it's 1-5, if it's on it's side it's 6-9 (no tens required, and 0 is just the big O)

 

[fldiver1]

Hmm, Blue Spring is probably not the best place to go to "get some more practice" my friend. Hard to practice bouyancy in the current and not much room to practice finning around without silting in that little space. I am going to pm you to talk more. Later bro.

 

[WesTexDiver]

Did not have time to read all of the posts. Sounds like you did good, but to avoid this in the future....a tip maby...I try to look at my gages every minute or 2, you dont miss very much in the 1 second it takes to glance down.

 

[harleyxx]

Did not have time to read all of the posts. Sounds like you did good, but to avoid this in the future....a tip maby...I try to look at my gages every minute or 2, you dont miss very much in the 1 second it takes to glance down.

Thats a good tip!! Thanks

 

[halocline]

I'm just going to add my $.02 that you did a very good job of maintaining your cool.

A "Cave Diver" ran into you? Hmmmm Makes me wonder about that divers training? I would think a Cave diver would be trained to be aware of their surroundings enough not to crash onto you. (I am just rambling, you can't teach someone not to be Stupid)

This is exactly what I was thinking...cave diver crashes into OW student, then disappears? Is that the kind of person you'd want to dive an overhead environment with? Even if the collision was the OW student's "fault", maybe due to less than perfect buoyancy control, the more experienced cave diver should have at least checked the situation out a little more carefully. Also, I'm sure this has been mentioned, but the OP's buddy probably should have been more on top of things, although that person was also a beginning diver. Most importantly, the instructor probably shuld have noticed a full on free flow, if that's what drained the tank. It's pretty hard to miss!

Of course, I'm trying to imagine the situation just from the description, and it could have been quite different than I'm picturing it. It's probably not a bad thing in the long run that you have experienced an OOA situation and handled it well; you'll be that much better prepared the next time you're running really low on air.

 

[Reefmedic79]

Good job on keeping your head! aside from what has already been mentioned in other responses,One thing I noticed in your post was you switching to your snorkel during your accent. In my training your should leave your reg in your mouth until you reach the surface for 2 reasons.
1. as I'm sure you were taught air expands as you rise and although you may not have been able to get a breath at 15 feet there may be a small amount of air in your tank that would allow a breath the shallower you get. At 15 feet it may not be much, but at 90ft you'd be surprised.
2. There reg will prevent you from inhaling water. After you body hasn't had air for a while you will involuntarily take a breath.