DPV gas planning

[LiteHedded]

I still plan it the way you taught me in DPV class. Assuming a two man team with at least one diver in backmounted doubles, one scooter for each diver: plan gas to be able to swim out with one total loss of backgas and 2 scooter failures at max penetration.

that is a REALLY bad day. if i thought that was a possibility i would probably stay home and watch football.
you also presumably have had a team failure if your buddy and his scooters are unavailable.

as aj says above it depends on the cave. there are plenty of dives where you just aren't swimming out

[Kevin Leonhardt]

Dude, it could totally happen. Picture this, a cave monster eats your buddy, and then your scooter explodes.

that is a REALLY bad day. if i thought that was a possibility i would probably stay home and watch football.
you also presumably have had a team failure if your buddy and his scooters are unavailable.

as aj says above it depends on the cave. there are plenty of dives where you just aren't swimming out

[LiteHedded]

Dude, it could totally happen. Picture this, a cave monster eats your buddy, and then your scooter explodes.

both scooters

[Danseur]

Totally possible:

http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0402901/

(Especially on a Dive Rite Arrow?)

[LiteHedded]

that is a REALLY bad day. if i thought that was a possibility i would probably stay home and watch football.
you also presumably have had a team failure if your buddy and his scooters are unavailable.

as aj says above it depends on the cave. there are plenty of dives where you just aren't swimming out

oh i totally mis-read this scenario. i was thinking you have tow scooters. you just have one each in this case. I would plan where each diver has enough gas to swim out, especially with a gavin/SS scooter. I wouldn't plan for a gas sharing swimming exit. that's just too much and planning yourself right out of a dive.
but i think hitching up to tow after losing the first scooter is a great opportunity to pick up a rock or line and bust the second one. i wouldn't plan on being able to tow out

[Webmaster]

both scooters

Well, when the first one exploded it would obviously take the other with it.

[RN]

Depends on the dive and it depends on the cave.

Sometimes enough gas to swim out. Sometimes enough scooters so that I won't have to swim out.

IMO, planning to swim out on a deep cave dive is not realistic. The deco times and gas requirements become absolutely bananas rather quickly. I always tow on deeper cave dives, and often on shallow ones too.

I also dive with pretty good buddies, which factors in a bit. So realistically we'd have to lose a pile of scooters to end up swimming.

It does depend on the dive and cave. I'm not referring to something like Eagle's Nest here. It's simply physically impossible to carry enough gas to swim out of there after scootering in or to deco on bottom gas if you lose a gas. That's an entirely different thing.

I'm referring to basic cave dives in the 80-100' depth range. While having multiple scooter failures is not likely I have heard of it happening. And I have heard of having to swim out from significant distance because of this. IMO that was just poor planning. While bigger dives require some risk assessment and deciding what is okay to do and not to do, for most scooter dives planning for a swim exit isn't all that difficult. I know I can swim out from Stage Rock in JB (2600 p) on a single AL80 and still have gas left over. I've done it to prove the math works. And I even pushed myself a little bit and was pushing the scooter ahead of me to try to get my RMV up to simulate a stressed situation. (See Kelly's post #9). So for me a couple of AL80s will get me out from pretty much anywhere in the mapped passage of JB. I might have a bunch of deco but I'd rather have to ride a chamber than not make it out at all.

[RN]

Now for another question.

Does everyone on the team need to have a tow scooter or is a team tow scooter enough for you?

[Dsix36]

a team tow scooter is enough for me

[CCRMichael]

Would your planning change if you had a way to monitor battery/scooter life on the fly during the dive?