Ran out of air today...

[Thalassamania]

Um ... I'll willingly screw up in the way that leaves my bodily functions intact thank you very much.

 

[Slonda828]

Orans,

First off, I know I am not a regular drinking buddy of yours, but I am glad that you are safe. I think sometimes things just break. People do what they can to mitigate risk, but things still break in diving. I think the good part of this story is that you estimated your gas well enough in lieu of your gauge that you did not run out of air until you were on the deco line. Thank you for being frank and posting this, I for one am very appreciative.

 

[Slonda828]

This is how I was taught. I still "check for zero, turn SPG away, pressurize, then check pressure" each dive.

El Orans, if you are still reading this thread: Do you remember checking the gauge before pressurizing it? What would be especially spooky is if this type of failure happened during the dive, thus could not be easily checked for...

Best wishes.

Lead and DA,

I was not shown this technique in any of my courses to date. I am going to use this, so thanks for the helpful tip (and for your experience).

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Isn't that funny? I read the account, and my first reaction was how lovely it was that they initiated an air-share and still spent 2 full minutes ascending from safety stop depth. It's my personal opinion that everybody should be able to do that as a matter of course, and for that reason, we rarely announce such drills in the pre-dive briefing. All of my buddies know that a surprise air-share is fair game at any point in almost any dive, so nobody gets excited about doing one, and we all remain facile with the procedure.

Although I do not do it routinely or even often, I have had dives where we have loitered in the shallows below 500 psi, because the viz was unusually fabulous or because we found something particularly fascinating to admire or photograph. I don't recommend it as good practice, but as I am within one breath of the surface at such times, and also know I have readily available gas around me, I don't worry about it very much. One of these days, I may also have the uncomfortable experience of finding a hose dry when the gauge doesn't think it should be!

Thank you all for the reminder to check that the gauge reads zero, before you check that it reads full.

I agree that an air share from 15 feet on a non-deco stop is not a big deal.

Besides looking at your guage before you turn it on, another trick is to feel the pressure guage hose. You can feel when it gets floppy and regardless of what the guage says, a flacid hose is a bad sign.

 

[Packhorse]

No one seems to be the least concerned that he came up with les than 500PSI to start with.!!
Where I come from, that last 500 PSI is for last ditch emergencies, not for another ten mins under water. Maybe I am just conservative, but then again, I am still alive, after 30 plus years diving. Most dive ops require you come up with at least 500 psi The only exeption if your diving so shallow you could come up no problem in one breath. Not a common occurance

Perhaps he was diving doubles or a large tank instead of a small tank.

The 500psi rule is quite meaningless. Surely a better rule would be the 10 surface air minute rule? YMMV

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Thanks for sharing the event El Orans. You've elevated the importance of checking my gauge before & after opening the tank valve.

Since we don't use any rental gear besides tanks & weights, this minimizes the rinsed-with-no-dust-cap phenomenon probability for us.

I've seen plenty of failures of analog pressure gauges in the industrial world, far more so than electronic pressure devices in the industrial world. Usually problems I've seen with the electronic pressure devices are a result of someone performing a configuration mismatch between the field device (transmitter) and the control system relaying the reading to the operator (control board), rather than inherently mechanical.

I hope the rest of your class goes better.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

Yes.

The point is to surface with >= 500 psi and without any fear of DCS-induced paralysis or loss of sexual function (as thal so dramatically invoked).

If you screw that up, either way, you've screwed up the dive. Arguing over which one is better to screw up is kind of pointless.

Awww shucks, if we didn't argue about this kind of stuff there would simply be nothing to talk about, and we'd have to go diving or something .....

Best wishes.

 

[Steve50]

a flacid hose is a bad sign.

I think this is something we can all agree on

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I cannot believe there are people who were not taught to look at the gauge before you turn on the air and check the pressure before the dive. My gauge failed during dive number 13. Rental set I had purchased. Said 300 psi when the tank was empty. Read zero when I hooked it up before turning the air on.

 

[El Orans]

Worth mentioning that this sort of thing can be caused by regulator flooding - i.e. rinsing a regulator without its dust cap - something that happens a *lot* to dive shop rental gear especially. Over time the little tube inside that moves under pressure can corrode and warp leading to exactly this sort of problem.

This was almost new gear, dive #3.

No one seems to be the least concerned that he came up with les than 500PSI to start with.!!

Because his gauge was broken.....had it not been broken, he would have been around 500PSI, and this was after his safety stop, so he was safety driven

Not concerned in the least.

In Open Water, we're trained to surface with 50 bar/725 psi.

However, this isn't the first time that I've surfaced with a (lot) lower pressure (and it won't be the last time. I've surfaced with 9 bar / 130 psi).
What I do in such cases is to make sure that I've done my safety stop and can ascend to the surface immediately if need be. I might even be so shallow that I only need to stand up to break the surface. At 50 bar / 725 psi I want to be at safety stop depth.

30 bar / 435 psi is a lot of increase for a tank sitting in the sun - 200 to 300 psi/13 to 20 bar is more normal.

I wasn't sure whether it was normal or a indication of a problem but I knew that I had at least 150 bar / 2175 psi so I wasn't really worried.

... now, what I want to know is ...
............ did you put your mask on your forehead when you surfaced ??

Of course.

I did it as soon as I had orally inflated my wing.

El Orans, if you are still reading this thread: Do you remember checking the gauge before pressurizing it?

Didn't check before turning on the pressure.

Isn't that funny? I read the account, and my first reaction was how lovely it was that they initiated an air-share and still spent 2 full minutes ascending from safety stop depth.

After getting his long hose, I then tried my primary again. Still no result. Only then did we head for the surface, close to shore.

Perhaps he was diving doubles or a large tank instead of a small tank.

10 L / 70 cuft (El Zee's tanks).

I hope the rest of your class goes better.

Not a class, just a recreational dive.