Kind of Close

I guess it was bound to happen at some point. On Saturday I suffered from we male divers call premature inhalation. My dive buddy felt slighted but didn't make a big deal of it. I was embarrused.

It seems that the cold of the water, the depth of the dive and frankly I was a bit intimidated by my buddy's experience...all this led to premature inhalation.

Old fool running out of air.
It was going just fine for a while when I noticed I was consuming air at a high rate. Before I knew it I was down to 500 pounds and that is the point I should have been on the surface.

Yet there I was 55 feet down under, and I still had to work my way to the surface and do a safety stop.

I motioned to my buddy that I was low on air and began my assent. I had no idea where I was in the quarry. My air was rapidly dropping so I put my hand on my reserve regulator just in case. Down to 200 pounds and I was still doing my safety stop.

By now the pressure needle was buried near zero and about that time I surfaced. We were 200 yards from shore.

He looked a bit peaved at having a good dive cut short.

In thinking this out I noticed at the begining of the dive that I was at 2800 pounds and normally I start with 3000. This tank was filled last summer when the heat caused it to read 3000, but now in the cool of winter it gave up 200.

Plus I was diving in a dry suit whick uses air too.

I need to be a little more careful next time. Thank goodness I had a big reserve tank just in case. 

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6 comments:

Ken said...

THAT, my friend...is too close.

Let me be the first to say, you should be more careful. I saw that memorial in the video!

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

I realized just how bad it was today when I went to fill the tank. The guy said it barely registered air pressure. I was down to a few breaths....but, I had a 30 CF backup ready to go. I always dive with a redundant air source.

Unknown said...

I like to think I have a pretty big reserve, myself.

Rock Chef said...

Be careful out there!

terri said...

That's a very scary thing to have happen! I'm glad you had reserve air and were ok!

terri said...

That's a very scary thing to have happen! I'm glad you had reserve air and were ok!