How Much Gas is Enough - Running on Empty (Ainslie)

Just read Ainslie's article in Vol 42 of the NACD Journal, cited in the title to this tread. His story gives an insight into how things can go wrong fast - even for an experienced diver - and the safety buffer generous gas reserves provide as the mind falls into that increasingly numbing state of tunnel vision.

My take from his article is that we need more reserve gas than we may think to handle "real" emergencies. I agree.

Just wanted to say thank you, Andrew Ainslie, for taking the time to share your story, and for giving us one more reason to revisit how safely we may or may not be cave diving.

is this available online?

Sounds like a great article. Does the NACD publish their articles on their website like the CDS does, or only in print?

It'd be great to have access to the knowledge-base of the NACD, even if the articles weren't downloadable, since I don't have the ability to join another great organization right now. If the NACD helped me find a job, however, I'd send them a check tomorrow!

-Jon

Jon and Litehedded, currently the articles are not available online. But I can ask and see if this has been discussed. If you are at REACT this Saturday at Cave Excursions, the NACD booth may have some extra copies to distribute.

Sandy Robinson
pr@safecavediving.com

I believe Andrew mentioned something awhile back about putting his article online after it went to publication.

I haven't gotten my copy yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Maybe all those who constantly argue that 1/3s is enough will finely see that isn't always true.

Never mind! What was I thinking??

This was one scary dive. How to blow through more gas than you ever thought you'd need. And it brings back my old point that I think many people missed years ago when I used to openly discuss why thirds is an oversimplification - compute the minimum that you need, and BRING A LOT MORE!!! - particularly on exploration dives.

I'd like to honour NACD's copyright for a while before posting it online. But a teaser - I had two steel 85's overfilled, several stages... and nearly didn't make it a distance where theoretically one stage should have been enough.

Bill, thanks - I just hope it changes someone else's behaviour in a way that saves their life. It's a little humiliating to admit to this level of incompetence... but each of us has it in us to do the same thing under stress.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by aainslie

It's a little humiliating to admit to this level of incompetence...

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I think it took courage to write the article. Especially true given this sport that is so full of critics. Good on you for stepping up and sharing your experience.

As MTV is fond of saying, "Too much is never enough".

Finally got my journal and read the article today. Great article, Andrew! It took courage to put that out there. I hope others will learn from it. I haven't had quite the issue you did, but I've been on dives in which I exited the cave with much less air than is acceptable to me in normal circumstance. No matter how much experience you have in the toughest of situations, the mind will almost always take over, at least for a while. As an instructor I have never taught 1/3s, even in high flow systems. I don't think it's conservative enough. I hope my students keep the same mindset after my classes (I think most do), but I know at least during class, we always incorporate a safer gas management plan. Thanks for putting yourself out there by telling us about the dive!

I agree, I think thirds is not conservative enough at all, even in high flow caves. I think if a real OOA or other very serious emergency happens having counting on the flow to make the exit faster and thus reserving less gas due to that "help" is being unrealistic and overly optimistic about how stuff will most probably go in a real situation.

In no flow caves thirds is definitely not enough and I do not understand why it is an accepted and taught safety margin, I think you can never go wrong with having too much air, but you can very easily go very wrong with having exactly enough.