Planned air sharing/Hose of shame to extend bottom time

[PsyWulf]

Meh,while not ideal in a perfect world I have no problem with a controlled share where there is backup reserve should crap hit the fan. I've done the same,breathe to 100bar then share with someone less prone to sucking down a cylinder

Nowadays if it's going to be a deeper dive or a nice reef i'll throw a spare al80 on and me and my wife can breathe it if the need arises

 

[spectrum]

I agree, it's perfectly OK if done right. I would never do it with an insta-buddy or someone you are not totally in tune to. You need to consider it a gas planning exercise, that is borrow when there is plenty just to even the field and be on your own at a point where you each have ample gas to complete the dive with contingency.

You never want to take yourself perrilously low in pressure and rely on sharing to complete the dive.

My wife would use some air to get to a certain pressure , like 2250PSI. She'd then borrow air until I was down to a pressure where I could comfortably match her 2250 runtime and then off we'd go. Since runtime is now a function of time not pressure turning a reciprocal dive becomes more a factor of time than pressure. This worked great in Bonaire where we'd do the return leg 20-30 feet shallower for an additional duration margin.

Pete

 

[Freewillow]

Where is the danger if this is planned, both cylinders have air and, as said in others posts, a long hose allows for enjoyed share air.:blinking: I am glad that I have seen other couple do what I do with my wife. My wifes has a bad back. Therefore I quite often have a larger tank than she has. If, for example, we are to dive on a pass margin and wait at depth for sharks to show up. We are both on a reef hook and share air from my cylinder until we have similar pressures. Perfectly easy and safe IF you are both experienced divers and both of you have enough rock bottom air in each tank.:kiss2:

 

[DivemasterDennis]

This is not a "normal" practice. Nor is it a good idea. As new divers gain experience and competence, their air consumption rate will decline. Initially, they will have shorter dives than other divers. That is normal. As a working DM, I believe I need to preserve my "extra air" for bona fide emergencies: equipment failure, entanglement, sear for missing diver, etc, rather than just be someone's "spare air." That should be your view too. Fortunately, there were no consequences from the experience BB had. I am sure all other divers in the DM's group were lucky they had no equipment failures or other emergencies.
DIvemasterDennis

 

[redacted]

This is not a "normal" practice. Nor is it a good idea. As new divers gain experience and competence, their air consumption rate will decline. Initially, they will have shorter dives than other divers. That is normal. As a working DM, I believe I need to preserve my "extra air" for bona fide emergencies: equipment failure, entanglement, sear for missing diver, etc, rather than just be someone's "spare air." That should be your view too. Fortunately, there were no consequences from the experience BB had. I am sure all other divers in the DM's group were lucky they had no equipment failures or other emergencies.
DIvemasterDennis

I don't understand why a DM would claim the it is not a good idea for new diver to practice safety skills. Sure, there are safe and unsafe way to practice such skills, but why not focus on that rather than simply suggesting a prohibition?

I think the practice should be encouraged as long as both divers have an adequate gas reserve in case of an emergency. My buddy/wife and I do this fairly often before the low tank falls below 1000 psi.

 

[tracydr]

I have no problem with people sharing gas to extend bottom time, if a few conditions are met. It has to be done before anybody is low on gas, and not continued until anyone is limited on ascent gas. People have to be stable enough to be able to maintain gas sharing comfortably. (I do worry about the novice diver who sinks or rises and pulls the reg out of his mouth and panics.) And the gear configuration has to be such that two people can share gas while comfortably swimming side by side, which means a 5' or 7' hose.

My husband and I often do this when we are somewhere that constrains both of us to use Al80s. Five or ten minutes of sharing will equalize supplies and allow us to finish the dive happily together.

I totally agree with this statement. However, divers must understand that this should be discussed ahead of time and both divers must keep a reserve. Also, the donating diver must be allowed to end the dive at any time. My ex-husband was a Hoover. He learned from a Cozumel Divemaster that he could share air with someone to extend his bottom time. However, he didn't quite grasp the basics of leaving everyone with ascent air + a reserve. He would grab my air and not allow me to surface when I felt it was time. This resulted in numerous occasions where he used all his air, all my air and we were forced to CESA with no air. I still believe that I got skin bends in Hawaii from this. It was very scarey to have someone use every drop of their air, then have them grab my regulator, against my preference, and use every drop of my air. I usually dive with an AL 63 because it fits my size better and I have an extremely good SAC. When two people are using that 63 and one is a Hoover that little tank doesn't go very far.

 

[TSandM]

Tracy, you put up with a lot more than you should have from that jerk you were married to. The first time someone grabs my regulator against my will and will not relinquish it, we are going to the surface and I am never getting in the water anywhere in the vicinity of that person again. Someone who tries to keep me underwater against my will not only is going to have a fight, but I'd actually consider filing assault charges against them, especially if they put my safety at risk by doing so.

None of what you went through has anything to do with consensual, planned gas sharing, or what the OP saw in Cozumel.

The one valid point I have seen here is that, by using his spare gas to extend the OP's dive time, the DM reduced the reserve he had in case someone had a catastrophic gas loss and needed his help to get to the surface. Of course, that person should have a BUDDY, and that BUDDY should have enough reserve to get himself and his buddy to the surface. Relying on the DM to be all your redundancy is very poor dive planning, in my opinion.

 

[Damselfish]

I'm also in the "it's fine if it's done correctly" camp. I've done it on a few occasions with my husband, usually because there was something special going on. We should probably should plan to do it more often, since I'm usually up with at least 1500.

 

[Mike]

This is not a "normal" practice. Nor is it a good idea. As new divers gain experience and competence, their air consumption rate will decline. Initially, they will have shorter dives than other divers. That is normal. As a working DM, I believe I need to preserve my "extra air" for bona fide emergencies: equipment failure, entanglement, sear for missing diver, etc, rather than just be someone's "spare air." That should be your view too. Fortunately, there were no consequences from the experience BB had. I am sure all other divers in the DM's group were lucky they had no equipment failures or other emergencies.
DIvemasterDennis

The DM doing this gets back on the boat with 1500 PSI in his tank even after all the air sharing. You're assuming the DM is breathing his tank down, with the ridiculous SAC rates these guys have, that's not happening, not even close.

 

[tracydr]

I'd really rather see the diver with poor SAC using a larger tank. But, if the air sharing is consensual and a reserve is kept by both divers, it seems fairly safe in an open water environment.