Out of gas - what happens next?

[Steve_C]

I've seen two people bolt to the surface because of that (and then have to sit out the second dive. Apparently the captain didn't trust them not to do it again)

On boat I usually dive with if you make an emergency assent you don't dive a second dive. Even applied to a crew member who had equipment issue at 70 ft that resulted in no air. Put on O2 for a bit and if seem ok boat dives again but they do not.

 

[GlennL]

Since I've drank a few, the thought crept into my mind what would an astronaut do if they were ooa (working in their spacesuit whatever). Firstly they probably wouldn't. Likely they had sufficient training (excluding catastrophic failure) to prevent said problem. So bottom line, train yourself to watch your gauges.

 

[RainPilot]

Astronauts are on a rebreather system with a bailout scuba tank in the backpack.

 

[GlennL]

Astronauts are on a rebreather system with a bailout scuba tank in the backpack.

Well dang, why burst my bubble. Can't I just get drunk, get on SB, and wish I had enough money to get off work to go diving?

 

[RainPilot]

Well dang, why burst my bubble. Can't I just get drunk, get on SB, and wish I had enough money to get off work to go diving?

Of course. Spent many an hour of my life doing just that.


Or so I'm told.

 

[The Chairman]

The best OOA situation is the one you prevent.

Since I started using SPGs, I've never run out of air. In addition, I've never let my buddy run out of air either. It's our mutual job as a buddy pair to know their air supply, just as we know our own. I have anticipated and prevented more OOAs than I've experienced actual OOAs from other divers. It's not hard. Lots of bubbles means low air. Usually you can swim up to them and look at their SPG without any problems. People who aren't aware of their air supply are aware of precious little, so they probably won't even notice. It's my opinion that a diver with less than a hundred PSI on the surface can be problematic getting back on the boat.

 

[GlennL]

It's our mutual job as a buddy pair to know their air supply.

Funny you mention that. I was diving at the blue grotto once and I hitched myself to a couple. It was their first time. I'd been there over a dozen times and I didn't want to interfere with their diving. I was just trying to log some time. I was diving my steel 117 and they were using al 80. I had a feel for my sac rate and questioned their air supply. I signaled for them to tell me their air but they had no idea what I was doing. Eventually I just grabbed their console to check. I got them to follow me to the air bell for a WTF conversation. Anyway, should we be just as much responsible for our buddy as we are for ourself? If you checking your air in adequate intervals why not signal your buddy for their air pressure periodically? Maybe not as frequently,but at a reasonable interval.

 

[Storker]

aside from a catastrophic equipment failure I just don't understand how people run out of air so nonchalantly.

Well...

You answered it yourself:

I mean do people seriously not check their gauges?

 

[GlennL]

Well...

You answered it yourself:

Point taken. I just can't fathom why people don't pay attention to what they rely on to keep them alive.

 

[Kevo88]

Point taken. I just can't fathom why people don't pay attention to what they rely on to keep them alive.

I think a lot of it has to do with instruction and habits ingrained by a diver's instructor. I imagine that for every 1 of us who comes here to read about the nuance of hose routing and d ring placement, there's probably 10 vacation divers who just read the book and follow their instructor blindly. On my confined water portion of my ow class, our instructor asked us our air exactly once, towards the end of dive 4. Along with that, he was wearing an ai computer, so none of the students got the monkey see monkey do chance to see him checking his gauges. That 1 spg check resulted in more than half the people in the pool realizing they had no idea how much air they had.