I have had experience with a few the largest difference I have noticed is whether the OOA diver was able to handle the emergency without panicing. 2 were calm and the other was almost dangerous. I shoved the long hose at him and that was it. the distance the hose provided was nice to have while the diver settled down. To this day each dive day I make with the wife we do an OOA from various distances. The evolution is a major check on skills and a reminder of the importance of proximitry. practice is the only thing that can make an OOA successful outcome. I cant imagine having a paniced diver twice your size OOA and me having a short hose..
Out of gas - what happens next?
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The Chairman
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Yes. Yes. Yes. Buddies provide redundancy for each other. Redundant mask, fins, eyes, air and brains. Most buddies dive similar tanks and have similar SACs. When one buddy is low, the other is probably not far behind. I've seen one buddy pair actually run out together and another buddy pair, where the one didn't have enough gas to share with his buddy, so they came to me. The worst was probably an instructor and his brother on the upline from the Speigel Grove. He signalled to me that his brother was low on air. I was a diver or so above them and dangled my long hose in front of him. He finished his safety stop on my gas and then ascended on his own having about 50 psi on board. Both brothers were surprised they were so low when neither should have been. If you're too broke to pay attention, perhaps you should consider another sport, like tiddly winks.
BTW, here's a shortcut to extrapolate your buddy's air without checking all the time. Check and compare gas supply before you splash. Hopefully, your buddy has about the same pressure as you, or you need to remember the difference. When you do your first check, ask your buddy for his pressure as well. You used 500 while he used 650, so you know he's going to turn the dive. You're diving to 100 ft so your ascent pressure should be 100psi (10 psi/ft x 100 ft=1000 psi). So, when you consume 1500 psi, he's probably gone through @ 1950 which is very close to your ascent pressure, n'est pas? Check his air again and make a decision to stay down another minute or two or to start on up. This protocol goes out the window if you see or hear his or your air consumption increase dramatically. Then you should check a lot sooner and re-evaluate your dive limits. BTW, this works well for dissimilar size tanks.
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@Edward3c in all scenarios I witnessed, the mugging was done by diver not part of the buddy team.
regarding the HSE report, if it was done with professional divers, it has no direct correlation to recreational divers. It is a completely different world
@GlennL in both situations that I was mugged, the tanks were not empty but the divers thought they were out of air. One was due to a tank valve not being opened completely.
Regardless of frequency of checking, in training they are typically not pushed to a limit where they are truly stressed. It is a downside of most of the recreational training. In a cave, I will typically check my gas every 5-20 minutes. In open water, depending on tank size, I will check it every 20 minutes or more.
Part of gas planning for me says that I should check my gas in certain intervals based on depth and tank size. In sidemount for cave diving, I want to check my gas in intervals that roughly correlate to 600psi because that is what is convenient for thirds. With the LP121's that I dive in a cave that is roughly every 20 minutes when diving in a 100ft deep cave and when I'm on an AL80 stage, it's roughly every 6 minutes. That's a quick check to let me know that it is time to switch to the other tank in sidemount as well as making sure that I'm on track for my gas consumption. That goes up and down depending on my environment.
If that dive was a 60ft reef dive on an AL80, I would plan to check roughly every 1000psi which is roughly 20 minutes.
The frequency will decrease as you get more comfortable and stable with your diving and the environment you are in. Right now I'm on the tail end of conducting open water training. I'm diving double PST 130's, average depth of 20ft, and 3 dives per day of 30 minutes average. I only check my pressure when I set my gear up, and when I shut the tanks off for the night. I should be burning somewhere around 1500psi for that day and I check the gauges at the end of the day to verify.
regarding the HSE report, if it was done with professional divers, it has no direct correlation to recreational divers. It is a completely different world
@GlennL in both situations that I was mugged, the tanks were not empty but the divers thought they were out of air. One was due to a tank valve not being opened completely.
Regardless of frequency of checking, in training they are typically not pushed to a limit where they are truly stressed. It is a downside of most of the recreational training. In a cave, I will typically check my gas every 5-20 minutes. In open water, depending on tank size, I will check it every 20 minutes or more.
Part of gas planning for me says that I should check my gas in certain intervals based on depth and tank size. In sidemount for cave diving, I want to check my gas in intervals that roughly correlate to 600psi because that is what is convenient for thirds. With the LP121's that I dive in a cave that is roughly every 20 minutes when diving in a 100ft deep cave and when I'm on an AL80 stage, it's roughly every 6 minutes. That's a quick check to let me know that it is time to switch to the other tank in sidemount as well as making sure that I'm on track for my gas consumption. That goes up and down depending on my environment.
If that dive was a 60ft reef dive on an AL80, I would plan to check roughly every 1000psi which is roughly 20 minutes.
The frequency will decrease as you get more comfortable and stable with your diving and the environment you are in. Right now I'm on the tail end of conducting open water training. I'm diving double PST 130's, average depth of 20ft, and 3 dives per day of 30 minutes average. I only check my pressure when I set my gear up, and when I shut the tanks off for the night. I should be burning somewhere around 1500psi for that day and I check the gauges at the end of the day to verify.
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The reaction of a diver who is OOA is going to cover the full spectrum. I suppose that how they respond will be determined by all kinds of things... their experience, "how" out of air they are, where they are (15' vs 150') and so on.
Speaking from experience, the one time I ran out of air under somewhat comical circumstances, I was in 90', my better half was snapping pics just "over there" so I swam up behind her, calmly took her octopus and it was all very dull... I don't think that was typical. At the time, I'd logged about 4000 dives and Mrs. Stoo and I have long been in the habit of extending our dive time with me hanging on her octopus. She's my little Spare Air. ;-)
Speaking from experience, the one time I ran out of air under somewhat comical circumstances, I was in 90', my better half was snapping pics just "over there" so I swam up behind her, calmly took her octopus and it was all very dull... I don't think that was typical. At the time, I'd logged about 4000 dives and Mrs. Stoo and I have long been in the habit of extending our dive time with me hanging on her octopus. She's my little Spare Air. ;-)
Your experience was in a pool. That is definitely true there--you get no warning.
Once you are deeper, you are more likely to get a warning when the breathing gets harder and harder. It will happen with balanced regulators as well, although not as much.
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Oops! Sorry!
And, take my word for it on this, you do NOT want to breathe the gas that is inside my drysuit!
... as a former instructor of mine once famously put it on the topic of OOG, "I'd suck a fart out of a donkey's arse if it'd get me to the surface alive" ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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You're killing me, Smalls.
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