Point I want to Put Out There

[Cacia]

A couple friends have told me to share my thought on my recent embarrassing OOA incident.

As I did check both regs, and the air was turned off as I was being helped off the boat, I am not really blaming myself too much.

The big mystery when it happened was: because I had been breathing fine, for what I am guessing could have been ten breaths, maybe more, it was not an immediate problem. I had gotten pretty deep. WHY?

I thought about this and I think the long hose holds a lot more air than any OOA due to a tank being off than I have ever envisioned, involving a conventional rig. When it happened, I began to switch to my bun-geed, etc. It did not add up that I could have been diving that long before the air ran out if the tank was off. So, anyway, I just wanted to run that by people that I now think you can huff off both regs, enter the water and get pretty far along before the sudden, finite, and immediate loss of gas.

Yes, If I huffed the regs while watching the gauge, I might have caught the needle move. But I did not. I did not because I was on a pitching boat and keeping my balance while talking and doing other things. Next time, I will...lesson learned.

I don't think I had the time to play with the knob while surfacing. I can do it, but not quickly and not while finning to the surface from that deep.

I don't really want to debate my solo situation or the no pony. I still haven't changed my mind on that and am not changing what I do except for observing the gauge as I test my regs. AND I did order an inflater button because it was very inconvenient not to have any air in my lungs to orally inflate.

If this belongs in the solo forum, please feel free to move it. My real point is about the long hose and my impression that it holds/provides more air to get into deeper trouble when the tank is off. Of course, I may be doing experiments about this next time I splash. With a buddy.

 

[waterpirate]

Catherine,
Have great respect for your prior opinions and posts, your honesty about a situation is refreshing. Moral: you learned a lesson without having to "to pay the price" and shared it with others.
Lesson learned and pass it on.
Eric

 

[UWupnorth]

It is a good idea to do a modified valve on the surface before every dive. I had a buddy accidently turn off my seft post on the boat thinking he was opening it. I dont need to tell you what happened when we did an S-drill. I was pretty embarresed, but it was a lesson I wont soon forget.

 

[Wildcard]

Glad you posted this. Glad your OK. Glad you have that extra reserve of air in your head... JUST KIDDING!!!!!....Sorry, had to say it. See you soon!

 

[Darnold9999]

Glad it was only embarassing. Could have been worse. I'm sure you know that the power inflator would not have helped - no air to breathe, no air to inflate!

This is probably the only thing that I do consistently, even on a pitching boat, seasick etc. Even just before a giant stride off the back of the boat with no fins MY last emabarassing moment. Had just enough time to take the reg out say "oh cr_p" and put the reg back in my mouth before hitting the water. Was the entertainment for the dive.

 

[1_T_Submariner]

How long is your long hose?
Volume = PI x (r x r) x L

3.1416 x (.1875 x .1875) x 84 = 9.277 Cu Inches = 0.773128125 Cu/Ft

That is how much volume a 7 ft hose holds. Not sure what the pressure is between the fist and second stage with that info you could figure out how many breaths you could take.

Hope this helps, I'm sure others will add more.

 

[Diver0001]

Outstanding, Catherine!

You're putting yourself out there and talking about potentially embarrassing things openly. This is going to be an excellent thread.

Just reading what you wrote I'd say that *especially* when on a pitching boat you need to be neurotically anal about making sure that everything is working before you get off the boat.

I'll admit that I buddy check myself most of the time but when we're diving on the North Sea I always get someone else to check me before I exit the boat too.

Deepest I ever got before turning on the tank was about 10 feet.

R..

 

[Diver0001]

How long is your long hose?
Volume = PI x (r x r) x L

3.1416 x (.1875 x .1875) x 84 = 9.277 Cu Inches = 0.773128125 Cu/Ft

That is how much volume a 7 ft hose holds. Not sure what the pressure is between the fist and second stage with that info you could figure out how many breaths you could take.

Hope this helps, I'm sure others will add more.

For me .77cf is almost 2 minutes on the surface.

 

[lamont]

A couple friends have told me to share my thought on my recent embarrassing OOA incident.

As I did check both regs, and the air was turned off as I was being helped off the boat, I am not really blaming myself too much.

The big mystery when it happened was because I had been breathing fine, for what I am guessing could have been ten breaths. It eas not an immediate problem, I had gotten pretty deep. WHY?

You might get two breaths on a long hose, I doubt you would get more than three. I get about 80% of a breath off a 40" hose at depth. I think when I'm doing valve drills I only get 1-2 off the long hose.

I had a similar OOA around dive #20 or so where someone barely cracked my valve. I fully inflated by wing on the surface, did test breaths, jumped in, did a normal descent, then noticed that it started breathing pretty heavy at around 30 fsw. At around 60 fsw I had caught up with buddy/DM/instructor (buddying with the DM in a big group not necessarily a good idea), and at 60 fsw it had insufficient IP over ambient to breathe off of it and I just went OOA on him. When we hit the surface, I was a bit freaked and I started to try to orally inflate, but he told me to put the reg back in my mouth, and then I hit my inflator and it worked fine. Then he reached back and turned my valve back fully open.

 

[Walter]

Well, I don't dive a long hose, but on the surface I can get about 7 breaths off my reg after I turn off the valve. I'm not at all surprised you got fairly deep before you ran out.