Out of gas - what happens next?

[doctormike]

Hi,

In another thread, we were discussing strategies for donating gas, and the question came up of what happens in real out of gas situations. I have frequently heard that an OOG diver will grab another diver's primary reg, but other instructors have said that they have experienced divers more calmly taking an octo (invited or not).

Does anyone have any actual experience with this situation? What do real OOG divers actually do?

 

[AZNetEng]

Personally never witnessed one but the popular reported action seems to be the OOG diver coming after the primary 2nd stage.

 

[Miyaru]

Swimming behind a group, I noticed a steady stream off bubbles coming from the side of the last diver. Octopus was freeflowing and the diver was unaware. Depth 25m.
At the moment I was above him, he went OOA, panicked and went to his buddy with clawing arm movements. The buddy didn't recognise this and backed away (could see a fearful look in her eyes). Both divers turned out to be inexperienced (fresh out of AOW).

I held my reg in front of his face and the diver quickly changed regs and breathed. Took him to his own DM, handed him over to his air supply and went back to my own group.

The diver didn't hear the bubbling reg.
The diver didn't check his SPG, obviously didn't notice the heavier breathing (piston reg).
The diver didn't give his buddy an OOA signal, but started grabbing for her reg in her mouth while he was still 3m away.
Inexperience probably caused the panic reaction.

Even while in distress, he did recognise my reg, saw bubbles coming out of it and took it without any hesitation or checking who offered.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

I've only experienced a couple of low on air divers. I simply handed them my long hose primary and switched to my backup on a necklace. Easy peasy. No grabbing and holding onto their BC or having them in my face the rest of the dive.

 

[boulderjohn]

As I mentioned in the other thread,in the only time I have ever been near an OOA situation, the OOA diver calmly reached for her buddy's alternate, took it, and they surfaced together. I then surveyed the other instructors in my shop for their experiences, and all reported events similar to that.

 

[decompression]

This is certainly one of those things that gets passed on without any real substantiation. In thousands of dives I can't recall a true OOA but several "dude, you're really low on air" situations. Regardless, I'll stick with the donatable primary and necklaced back up.

 

[shurite7]

While working in the tropics and diving in mountain lakes I have dealt with a few oog, free flow, and low on gas. Never did anyone panic, although a few were very anxious. All showed me his gauge which in turn I donated. Because of this I'll never go back to a the recreational config of the short yellow hose.

What I have seen is the boyfriend/husband who insisted on checking his female buddy's spg before donating.

 

[stuartv]

I was diving with the woman I was dating at the time. She had more dives than I did, but it was still less than 100. It was her first NC wreck dive and our first time diving together.

She had previously told me that she was really good on air and always the last one back on the boat. I was diving a single HP120 and she had a single HP100. We stayed down (around 112') until her Cressi computer hit 0 NDL. My Atom still had 2 or 3 minutes left. I think she was not paying attention to her SPG because she was accustomed to having to surface because of other people getting low.

We ascended to the hang bar at 15'. She gave me the Low Air signal (fist to chest). I didn't know what the signal meant at the time, so I returned a blank look. She never gave me the OOA signal, but when I didn't do anything in response to her Low Air signal, she bolted for the surface. Once we were back on the boat, she said her reg started getting hard to breathe. And, I didn't offer her air when she gave me the Low Air signal (why would I, even if I had known what it meant??).

I don't think, in the heat of the moment, she even thought of signalling OOA. Nor did she think of breathing off the reg they had hanging down from the boat, at the end of the hang bar. Fortunately, the safety stop she skipped was optional....

 

[Landau]

Recently saw a diver (not my buddy) swim up to the DM, signal trouble and calmly grab the the DM's octo. They shared air through the safety stop till surfacing.

The diver really was at 0 psi at about 15M depth. The diver claimed it dropped suddenly to 0 PSI but the SPG appeared to be working normally on the next dive so I suspect it was a case of not monitoring it. The diver had some other issues that made me doubtful.

 

[stuartv]

Also, don't be a doofus, like I was on one dive, and turn the exhaust valve all the closed when you thought you were opening it all the way. Then spend your safety/deco stop upside down and hanging onto the anchor line to keep from corking.