Out of Air

[DandyDon]

WOW, for diving 35m you ran out of air? If the guage was showing a 'decent' amount of air you should've known something was fishy after a certain amount of time. Did the accident happen at 35m? You need ample reserve air for deco at this depths, I assume you were deco diving?

35 meters is 114.83 ft. Not a deco dive. I certainly hope a 30 dive newbie was not approaching deco.

Yeah, take your own reg & mask with you on trips - always.

 

[dherbman]

You need ample reserve air for deco at this depths, I assume you were deco diving?

Why do you assume that?

 

[Darnold9999]

I also remembered not to hold my breath but to slowly exhale. I started to relax, swam to my buddy signaled my distress and we shared air.

Welcome, you will find that on this board "experienced" has a different meaning than in the world at large. Compared to most divers you are "experienced" so I wouldn't take the previous comments personally - on this board the experience level is pretty high so that 30 dives is still just a beginner, moving toward "might have what it takes" status. Had the same issue when I joined

Just as a minor thing, no need to exhale while travelling to your buddy to get air. This is only required if ascending. It can also help to exhale to calm your body's urge to breath i.e. you can trick your brain by exhaling. Personally I would wait until I was nearing the end of my ability to hold my breath before using this one - YMMV and there may be a reason to do it continuously that I am unaware of.

 

[TSandM]

Darnold, it might depend on where in the breath cycle the air supply stopped. I discovered the other day, when practicing this scenario, that if you stop on full exhale, you not only have to swim to your buddy, but you have to swim UP (doh). If your air supply stopped on full INHALE, you are going to climb above your buddy -- thus the need to exhale while swimming to him.

BTW, here's an object rebuttal to the people who told me there was no value in practicing a scenario that never happened!

 

[PerroneFord]

New divers are trained to exhale any time a reg is not in their mouths. I was reminded of this on the weekend as I helped an OW class.

 

[shark.byte.usa]

35 meters is 114.83 ft. Not a deco dive.

I guess that depends on how long your at max depth, according to my tables 12.5 minutes is the NDL limit for 115fsw. So you could easily go into deco [albeit according to tables], wether planning it or not.

 

[lamont]

I discovered the other day, when practicing this scenario, that if you stop on full exhale, you not only have to swim to your buddy, but you have to swim UP (doh).

you'll get more practice at that kind of thing with valve drills in doubles too. if you shut down your right post and suck it dry on an inhale you'll start dropping until you can switch (and the first dozen times you practice it you probably won't switch fluidly).

 

[BrianV]

Why do you assume that?

Ugg my math was misfiring today. For some reason I was thinking it was around 160ft. Duh, 3.3x 35.

 

[Tollie]

Well done Pietfer,

There are many things you might have done to make a bad situation worse... and you did none of them. In fact you took good care of yourself once the problem was upon you. Training works.

Diving is the kind of sport thats great as long as everything is going well. When you have a problem you need to have a mix of strong training, stamina and a bit of luck. Now that you know things dont always go well you have some motivation to kick the training up a few notches. The best accidents are the ones that you avoid. An ongoing commitment to routine, strong training and broad awairness of your gear your team and the environment in which you dive will help you to head off problems in the future.

 

[Darnold9999]

BTW, here's an object rebuttal to the people who told me there was no value in practicing a scenario that never happened!

I started diving in the days of J valves, as someone else posted, when you ran out of air it was always just after an exhale - and finding your J valve already pulled meant that you had just exhaled, and now had spend a few seconds finding the rod already in the down position - now deal with it - no air, just exhaled, 5 seconds wasted already. No problem at all with the idea that such things should be practiced - none at all. Anything that increases your comfort zone and allows you to push panic a few more seconds into the future is a good thing in my books.

Interesting that new divers are taught to always exhale if you don't have a reg in your mouth. New to me, see the reasoning, fewer rules to learn, but not always functional. I think if I am swimming laterally I want to keep all my air as long as possible. Open to reasons not to however.