What would you do: Molested at 100' by an OOA Diver

[DCBC]

I'm into deep wrecks, so I often practice CESA's from over 100' (sometimes unsuccessfully) on ascent. I figure I have to come up anyway, so why not benefit from the experience? My regs in my mouth, so if I need a breath, I have one. No danger; so maximize your opportunities... I just fail to see whether a Diver can do a 100' CESA has anything to do with this scenario.

If your "being attacked by another diver for air," give it to him. If you can't hold your breath long enough to get to your secondary in the event your primary is taken, you shouldn't be diving in the first-place. The Instructor should have enough awareness to ascertain if anyone in his proximity requires air and should be offering his reg to the diver already. Obviously it's possible for anyone to be caught unawares, but this apparently has occurred "several times?"

 

[Peter Guy]

Not at 100 feet, but at 20 (more or less), during a Rescue class I went OOA to a student (as I was instructed to do by his instructor). The student dutifully donated his primary (which was on a VERY short hose) and reached for his Air2 and put his snorkel into his mouth! He, as he had been taught, had reached over and grabbed my shoulder strap so we were now "belly to belly" but he still didn't have a reg in his mouth. He reached again for his Air2 and again put his snorkel into his mouth.

This time he grabbed the reg out of MY mouth and started using it -- BUT HE DID'T LET GO OF ME. My primary was down between us, free flowing, and he held me so tight that I couldn't get my bungeed backup into my mouth.

The ONLY good thing was that he had so lost buoyancy control was that we finally hit the surface and he let go of me. I didn't have to resort to force to separate us but I still wonder what I would have done had we gone DOWN instead of UP.

Moral of the story -- if the person is big enough, yes you can get trapped.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Yeah that thought (a necklace would be nice now) runs through one's mind at those times. I don't wear the neck bungie for practical reasons when guiding, but at those times in could come in handy if one needed it.

what could ever be a practical reason for not using a necklaced second stage?

---------- Post added June 10th, 2013 at 02:31 PM ----------

You know what makes everone read this post? Because it is 100% BS. You are trying to tell me that an Instructor is in the sea, diving, other divers in the water, gets bear hugged by an OOA diver, at 100 fsw, and does not have a safe second stage to go to, so does a CESA from 100 fsw, while towing the other diver, and it has happened "several times" is pure BS! I bet that it has never happened since we started using the safety second stage. I would likely see this on a James Bond film but in reality...never. Please prove me wrong!

 

[Teller]

Is there an agency that endorses 100' CESAs? I would think that the instructor is breaking standards by doing this.

 

[Jai Bar]

Is there an agency that endorses 100' CESAs? I would think that the instructor is breaking standards by doing this.

Does it really matter? You won't get very far if you believe everything you read in the internet.

Scubaboard or not, written by James Bond himself or not- just take everything with a grain of salt, and be cool. Be cool. It's a good story after all, who cares if it's based on real practice or real imagination...

I really like SB, it's a great source of info, ideas and shared experiences- but remember to never ever learn scuba from any internet forums. That's NOT the way to do it.

Sent from my myTouch 4G

 

[ScubaPolishPete]

As a newer diver...I gotta ask. Why are all these people running out of air? From reading, it doesn't seem un-common for divers to be OOA.

Equipment malfunction, not paying attention to your air left, something else?

 

[maniago]

I'm into deep wrecks, so I often practice CESA's from over 100' (sometimes unsuccessfully)

Ah someone who is posting from the grave! I knew SB was a great place for info, but this is taking it to new heights!

----break---

You guys who are big and strong and are going to top rope the guy, youre thinking dryland combat. Just knock his mask off and he'll release you and shoot for the surface.

---------- Post added June 10th, 2013 at 03:31 PM ----------

As a newer diver...I gotta ask. Why are all these people running out of air? From reading, it doesn't seem un-common for divers to be OOA.

Equipment malfunction, not paying attention to your air left, something else?

I used to think this way too, but you'll find that when you get down low, air just seems to run screaming out of your tanks at warp speed. If you're checking every 5mins at say 25', its like every min at 100'. Its easy get just a little awed looking at something to forget. Or if youre narced and don't know it, you have no sense of the passage of time, and I suspect this is the major cause....

 

[tplyons]

At those depths I always have a pony, so if he grabs one of my regs, I have two others available for me.

I will try to calm him down and ascend normally.

 

[Jai Bar]

As a newer diver...I gotta ask. Why are all these people running out of air? From reading, it doesn't seem un-common for divers to be OOA.

Equipment malfunction, not paying attention to your air left, something else?

Myself, never met any *real* OOA divers at 100 feet, in almost three decades of diving. That is, not real cases in which a diver completely lost all his air/gas due to either some malfunction or just consumed it all while at 100 feet without noticing...

But I did happen to see some distracted divers that discovered they're low in air, then headed for the surface- with or without panic. I met one case of a diver who panicked to surface because he discovered he's got left 50 bars (more than enough for a safe ascent, eh?), and also divers who were left with 10 bars and just headed up without panic, with appropriate ascend rate and safety stops, sucking the last breath left in the tank at the surface.

And, also experienced some cases of divers which had plenty of air in their tanks, but the combination of some effort (e.g. against some current) and "hard to breath" regulator led them to high co2 levels, anxiety, to believe they were OOA, then panic takes in- and unfortunately in some cases led to fatalities. Witnessed three such cases :-(

The point is, it does not have to be real OOA, in many cases it's just the diver thinking that he's OOA to cause panic, and the resulting avalanche of bad judgement and mistakes that are caused by it...

Sh!t does happen sometimes, no matter how much we train and practice to mitigate risks and be ready to help any diver in distress, including ourselves.

Sent from my myTouch 4G

 

[James R]

People are way more likely to complain about something than give praise, so it makes sense that people would talk more bout an OOA diver than one they saw on a dive doing just fine.