Which reg would you donate in an OOG situation during deco (assuming the OOG diver does not snatch the one from your mouth)?
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OOG during Deco
Which reg would you donate in an OOG situation during deco (assuming the OOG diver does not snatch the one from your mouth)?
if on accelerated deco, you shouldn't have an OOG situation because you would revert to your backgas....
if this is a random diver, assuming they ask for it, I'll give them my long hose
First, theoretically there would be no reason for a buddy to grap your regulator in een OOG situation during deco. That means the diver has an OOG on an decogas, so still has another breathable gas. He/she can use his other gases in case of an oog on the decogas. You must be really unlucky or made some gasplanningsmistakes to run out of all gases or have no other breathable gas with you. Even a 10/70 is breathable for a while at 6m. But you will never do the switch from 10/70 to 100% in a good diveplan, so there must be another intermediate (deco)gas that is better breathable. If you made a good gasplanning, there will be between an 10/70 at least one another gas, the intermediate gases are breathable and makes switches to planned decogas possible.
Then, if a buddy has no decogas, you should have made a plan to finish the dive without problems. First is finish dive on backgas. This can be done on relative shallow dives with short decos, lets say adv. nitrox level. Not on the more advanced decodives. An option is to make every stop 1.5 times as long as planned. And swap the cylinder/reg around. Normally you have in a good diveplan enough reserves to do this. This means a 2 minute stop will be a 3 minute stop, then swap cylinder/regulator to your buddy and you start breathing the second best gas. Next stop is normally 4 minutes, will be 6 minutes now. Then go to next stop, swap again, etc. Let's say you have the problems on 21m, so you will breathe a ean50. The bottomgas can be an 18/45 and you will have an 100% (60m dive). In between you switch back to the 18/45 backgas Yes, you will get helium spikes, but this is an option. Another option is to use your alternative plan and try to go to the 6m save and do the deco on 100%. Normally you have looked at all options before you will make such a dive, this options are all written on slates or wetnotes, even if you use a computer. On boatdives sometimes just shoot an smb and they will drop you another cylinder.
I had 2 times a diver with an empty decogas, or had a full cylinder with a broken regulator with decogas. This is how we solved it:
On 1 dive to 40m I was diving with a buddy. We had planned the longest dive of the group. So we entered first and we would surface last. When we came back to the anchorline, there where still 2 divers swimming. That is strange, we would be last. They went to the anchor line and all was fine. This was a mixed team, 1 ccr diver, one on oc. They where following the oc divers computer. Strange enough they had more deco than we had, and we entered first, so what is going on? I asked the oc diver and he showed his computer. He was diving only an ean28. And what is in your stage I asked. He showed me, ean30. He was already running low on his backgas and had to do the switch to the stage before we reached our switch at 21m. I already could calculate he would never be able to surface on his own gas. His buddy was only carrying an 10/60 bailout, so useless on decodives without another decogas. I looked at my buddy and we decided to help them. We had first a bigger twinset, so no running out of backgas for us, and second we had an ean50 with us. We did the deco with them, and at 6m I swapped my cylinder over to the diver without decogas and took his alsmost empty ean30 stage cylinder. Then I surfaced to sign the skipper that it would take some more time. My buddy stayed with them as he had enough gas. All fine and yes, they made a mistake in their diveplan. He would never do this again. At that time he was only adv. nitrox certified. His buddy full tx. Computers can help you to get to surface safe, but don't show normally aircalculations. You still have to look in a good planner if your planned bottomtime is possible with the amount of gas you have.
Another time I had an 'OOG' on an decogas on my own cylinder. We had planned an dive to 110m, I was on oc, my buddy on ccr. I had an 12/60 backgas, an 16/45 ali80, an 50/15 and an ean80 in the diveplan. As I was diving on oc I decided to take an 18/30 with me, just in case of problems, ali80 too. This was not in any diveplan. It was just an better gas to breath shallower in case of problems was the idea. The gas was in a diveplan for another dive after this one. I could take easy 4 cylinders with me, so no problem to take this just in case when.
My stage regulator was an Aqualung Titan LX supreme of just 2 years old. It had over 450 dives without problems, and was serviced one month before this dive. I had it freeflowing a couple of times on dives to 30m, went back to shop, tried again, etc. and it looked al fine now when I had planned some deep dives (in the snow, this means cold water, so more risks for freeflows ) . So this aqualung regulator was on my 50/15. We went down all fine. On the way up we where a little bit slow, so I had to change to my backupplan (I was in 2012 still diving with bottomtimer without computer), so no problems, I had plenty of gas. Then at 21m did the switch to the 50. The reg gave a freeflow, so open-close-open-close valve, still no problem, and after some breaths, the regulator refused to give gas. I switched back to the easiest available gas, that was my backgas, 12/60, already thinking about what to do with the plans we made if this would happen. NO panic, just switched back, then signed my buddy and at the same time deployed the intermediate travelgas I still had, the 18/30 that was not in the plan. At that time my buddy donated my his bailout decogas as he was on ccr. Otherwise I had decided to breath the 18/30 to 9m, and finish the dive with the ean80.
Another diveshop found they made a mistake in the second stage with servicing. That was causing the freeflows and the block. I have done now a service course myself and do it all myself now, I have different brands and regulators. I still have that Aqualung regulator and it still works fine.
Last edited by Germie; 02-23-2017 at 03:10 AM.
Sorry, yes I meant accelerated deco. That is a good point, the OOG diver could bailout to his back gas. It would be an extremely rare event to have to donate. I was debating with someone about which reg to donate. I would opt to donate the long hose as well as my priority is my own safety (deco). And sometimes OOG divers are a bit hesitant to return regs.Originally Posted by tbone1004
Thanks for sharing Germie. Sounds like you handled both situations very well.
I definitely always have a contingency plan for catastrophic deco gas loss.
I was taught to carry a primary and backup of one colour (ie. yellow) and another emergency of different colour (ie. orange). In case of emergency, the different coloured DSMB is deployed to alert surface support. Of course, there is the need to communicate to this to the captain/crew ahead of time so they can respond accordingly.
I am planning on doing service courses as well. Always nice to have that extra piece of mind knowing the service was done properly.
i would donate the regulator in my mouth always
The most trained movement is to donate the regulator your are breathing from, so then you donate your decogas, muscle memory. But as I said, normally the OOG diver still has its own breathable gas.
Donate what you're breathing. Same response as if on bottom gas.
Sort out your business when you both have something to breath. Your buddy likely isn't out of gas but thinks he's out of gas.
I agree with donating the reg in your mouth. You know it's safe breathable gas. The flip side of this is frequently you will be donating a short hose. Depending on the psychological status of the OOG diver, you might have some trouble getting that regulator back even if you have another for him to switch too, and it can really be a ##### working out problems when you are linked up with a short hose to someone in panic survival mode. Hopefully, you won't have to deal with someone in that bad of shape. If you do...a long hose really can be a plus. In this scenario, thirds was not enough baby.
Donate what your breathing immediately, you know it works and it's quickest to deploy. Sort it out after
Sent via
Jeff Rouse
Chicago, IL
if you unclip and donate the long hose you're going to have a CF of tangled hoses to deal with. donate what you're breathing and move that diver onto a long hose if you need to (for some reason he's actually completely out of gas)
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