If he had 500 psi at 38 feet, why didn't he just do a normal ascent?
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I don't know. Bratface said "holds his SPG out. He has less than 500 psi." I took it that she wasn't sure what small amount he had at that point. Later she added "Once on the surface I tell him to orally inflate his BC. He still tries to inflate with his inflator hose but I remind him he is out of air." It seems like a number of you missed that part. Sure, if he had 300 or 400# left and his Spg was accurate, he should have just ascended - but it seems like he was actually out. I suspect his reg was already breathing hard.Why would he need to CESA when he still had air available? At 400-500 psi (assuming an Al80) he still had 10-13 cf of air. Even with a sac of 1cfm, he had time for a normal ascent. I don't even see the need for him to have shared air, but since he did, why didn't he have air to fill his BC at the surface? Didn't he still have his 400-500 psi? Good on the Op for getting him to the surface.
Yep. Bratface did leave a little confusion with "He has less than 500 psi," vs "Once on the surface I tell him to orally inflate his BC. He still tries to inflate with his inflator hose but I remind him he is out of air," but she called it and worked it well. Dealing with a newbie who has lost his buddy or not bothered to dive with one, followed his camera so closely as to not manage his air well - perhaps finding the reg hard to breath, and not taking it upon himself to bail and head up when he finally noticed his failure - she got him up and got him to orally inflate. I would have been preparing to dump his weights for him if he started sinking and I bet she was ready for that too. We read all too many stories here in A&I of divers surfacing, then sinking - lost. There's one here in A&I from this past weekend.Tony,
I agree with most of your comments, but it is not uncommon for a distressed diver to make it to the surface only to descend again and drown. In a perfect world a diver should not need reminding to orally inflate his BC, but this happens more than it should.
That's not my experience. All of my European divers use a clenched and raised fist to indicate 50 bar. When the clenched fist is brought against the chest, it means 50 bar + low on air.Re: hand signals.
It's not uncommon in the UK and other European countries to use the clenched fist salute to indicate half tank and this might have been confused with a low on air signal.
One Inst here has convinced me that if I ever screw up enough do another one, I should pull my weights and hold them on the way up - just in case, so I'd drop them if I passed out for any of various possible reasons.