Running out of air- a perspective

[merxlin]

From California Diving News:

Out Of Air -- Simply Unacceptable!

Author : Ken Kurtis
Date : February 17, 2011
Let's start with this: Running out of air is the single stupidest thing that a diver can do. It's eminently preventable and new research indicates that it might drastically increase your chances of becoming a fatality statistic.

A recent D.A.N. study looked at 947 fatalities over a 10-year period. In roughly half of those cases, the initial trigger--the problem that started everything on a downward spiral--was identified. In 41% of those instances, out-of-air was the culprit.

And let's debunk a myth right now: These cases do NOT involve equipment failure. Out-of-air results from divers not paying attention. It's diver error, not equipment failure, that's killing people. And that's something that's changeable.

There are no reliable statistics on how often divers actually run out of air. But I believe there's absolutely no way divers run out of air on 41% of their dives. The reason that's significant is that, statistically, you'd expect a direct correlation between how often a behavior occurs and how often it produces the outcome you're measuring.

For instance if we knew that 80% of the Southern California dives occurred from boats and 20% occurred from shore (I'm making these numbers up), you'd expect that 80% of the fatalities would come from boat dives and 20% would come from shore dives.

But in the case of out-of-air, we have a behavior that seems to be relatively rare (less than 1%?) that produces an inordinately high (41%) number of the fatalities. Specifically, if out-of-air is a relatively rare occurrence, the fact that it produces a significant percentage of the fatalities likely means that running out of air is far more dangerous behavior than we think it is.

So why do divers still run out of air? There could be a couple of reasons.

One may go back to initial training. Part of the problem may be that while we admonish you not to run out of air, at the same time we tell you that if you do exhaust your gas supply, you've got some options (buddy breathing, octo breathing, and free ascent). It's a mixed message.

And that may inadvertently put into divers' minds that even though we SAY don't run out of air, it's not the end of the world... because you have options. We further imply that it's relatively easy to make a successful ascent to the surface. But the data indicates that the reality may be far different from the perception. When you look at the fatality numbers, saying "run-out-of-air-and-you-stand-a-good-chance-of-dying" is probably more honest than saying "you-have-easy-to-master-options."

Look at it this way: There are roughly 100 dive fatalities reported to D.A.N. each year. If we could eliminate running out of air, we would reduce the number of annual fatalities from 100 to 59 immediately. It doesn't involve anything more than (1) Getting divers to pay better attention to their gauges, and (2) Changing the mindset of the diving community that running out of air is an inconvenience with acceptable options and isn't the end of the world. For a number of divers each year, it IS the end of their world.

People needlessly die every year because they don't pay attention and they run out of air. How many more people have to die before we decide this an unacceptable but solvable problem and all we need is the willpower to attack it?

So what do you think? Do you believe that current beginning open water training minimizes the consequences of an out of air situation?

 

[GFuterfas]

I'm always confused by the out-of-air statistic. Does it mean that 41% of fatalities were swimming along when suddenly and without realizing it they ran out of air, or was running out of air sometimes a secondary consequence of getting lost or trapped in a wreck and then running out of air?

Look, it's important to establish a plan for divers in case they run out of air. You can't blame this emergency plan for causing divers to be nonchalant about their air supply.

 

[Rainer]

Look, it's important to establish a plan for divers in case they run out of air. You can't blame this emergency plan for causing divers to be nonchalant about their air supply.

Agree.

I don't think telling divers they are "stupid" if they run out of air is going to solve anything. Most divers understand it's something to be avoided. The failure in education isn't in getting that point across, rather, it seems one of getting divers comfortable enough with all the relevant skills so that they maintain the situational awareness necessary to track gas usage.

If Ken's suggestion was valid, we'd be better off not teaching new divers any plan for OOG situations. Personally, I think that's idiotic.

 

[Kenny13]

Look, it's important to establish a plan for divers in case they run out of air. You can't blame this emergency plan for causing divers to be nonchalant about their air supply.

I'm with this. Should the emergency plan not be taught in order to put the fear of running out of air into divers' minds? Absolutely not.

I'm still a new diver so I don't know how closely I'll adhere to this as I get more experienced and comfortable in the underwater environment. Right now, all of my diving is done with my 16 year old son and my son-in-law, and we practice frequent air checks as recently certified divers while it is fresh in our minds. Not only do we check our own air, but we have a system of hand signals to frequently check our buddy's air when we check our own. We always have a plan when we dive, and part of that plan specifies that we manditorily ascend when any diver's air is down to a pre-determined psi. That's something our instructor covered in depth with us.

 

[ScubaSam]

It most certainly is the OW training.

It was not until my Fundies class that I learn the gas on my back is a team resource. In addition to carrying gas for me, I was also carrying gas for my buddy/buddies in my tank(s).

If I had to turn the dive at the deepest portion of the dive because my buddy/buddies had a gas failure, do I have enough gas to get my buddy/buddies and I back to the boat/shore safely while doing all our required stops? They do not teach that in OW training.

 

[Rainer]

Sam raises an excellent point.

It isn't just about checking your gas, it's also about knowing what the SPG is telling you. OW training (at least what I've seen) does emphasize the need to routinely check the SPG, but new divers aren't being taught to know how much gas they need at different depths. If you're counting on being able to share gas with a buddy in case he loses his, then you need to reserve enough to get both of you to the surface from the deepest planned depth. How many OW classes are covering that calculation (often refereed to as "min gas" or "rock bottom")?

It does a diver little good to know he has 600psi if it's going to take him 700psi to get to the surface...

It most certainly is the OW training.

It was not until my Fundies class that I learn the gas on my back is a team resource. In addition to carrying gas for me, I was also carrying gas for my buddy/buddies in my tank(s).

If I had to turn the dive at the deepest portion of the dive, do I have enough gas to get my buddy/buddies and I back to the boat/shore safely while doing all our required stops? They do not teach that in OW training.

 

[merxlin]

Agree.

I don't think telling divers they are "stupid" if they run out of air is going to solve anything. Most divers understand it's something to be avoided. The failure in education isn't in getting that point across, rather, it seems one of getting divers comfortable enough with all the relevant skills so that they maintain the situational awareness necessary to track gas usage.

If Ken's suggestion was valid, we'd be better off not teaching new divers any plan for OOG situations. Personally, I think that's idiotic.

I'm going to disagree with you here. I don't think anyone is saying we should not teach out of air skills. If we agree that most divers understand that running out of air is something that should be avoided, do they also understand the consequences if they do, or are they focused on the procedures and practices that theoretically get them more air?

 

[doctormike]

From California Diving News:

There are no reliable statistics on how often divers actually run out of air. But I believe there's absolutely no way divers run out of air on 41% of their dives. The reason that's significant is that, statistically, you'd expect a direct correlation between how often a behavior occurs and how often it produces the outcome you're measuring.

For instance if we knew that 80% of the Southern California dives occurred from boats and 20% occurred from shore (I'm making these numbers up), you'd expect that 80% of the fatalities would come from boat dives and 20% would come from shore dives.

ut in the case of out-of-air, we have a behavior that seems to be relatively rare (less than 1%?) that produces an inordinately high (41%) number of the fatalities.

I agree with the concept that you are trying to advance, anything that can be done to improve situational awareness, and reduce OOA in divers is a good thing. However, this analysis is invalid from a logical and mathematical point of view.

41% of fatalities involve OOA. That in no way implies anything about the frequency of OOA overall. Yes, OOA is rare among dives in general (I would hope far less than 1%). But if you are looking at its frequency in that small group of dives that involve fatalities, I would think that OOA would be relatively common, actually. Probably more so than other causes of death (excluding non-diving related medical issues), such as equipment failure or severe DCI.

50% of fatal automobile accidents involve alcohol. But that doesn't mean that 50% of all drivers are drunk, right?

 

[Rainer]

Ken seems to (oddly) be arguing for only teaching one approach (scare and belittle new students) as a solution to what he perceives as the teaching of only one approach (what to do if you do find yourself in an OOG situation).

I've chosen training that emphasizes both how to avoid OOG and what to do if you ever find yourself in such a situation. Reality is, equipment failures *can* lead to OOG, so you're going to have to cover how to handle it in any case.

I'm going to disagree with you here. I don't think anyone is saying we should not teach out of air skills. If we agree that most divers understand that running out of air is something that should be avoided, do they also understand the consequences if they do, or are they focused on the procedures and practices that theoretically get them more air?

 

[diver 85]

stupid people do stupid thigs......