Quote:
| Originally Posted by [b Quote[/b] (Mark Davies @ Aug. 31 2003,23:42)]Now, I understand, and have said more than once elsewhere, that planning for OOA is just bad gas management. However, I can envisage a scenario where problems might occur on a dive which distract you from monitoring your air supply. In those very situations, your gas consumption is likely to increase. It is not unforseeable that you can find yourself sucking on an empty tank. A pony is obviously invaluable in this situation. A sharp wake-up call when the tank empties and then a separate source to get you to the surface. |
Really what you need to do is to play a game with yourself. On a dive, before you check your gas, guess what it is. Then see how close you are. After a while you get it right. A lot. When I do it now I am very disappointed if I am more than 10 bar out.
It gets to be quite strange eventually. I check my gauge on the surface and again at the bottom of the shot, or when I reach the seabed, just to make sure I have used some and I haven't accidentally shut my isolator. I still do a modified valve drill when I hit bottom just make sure all is OK. The next time I look at my gauge I will have 150bar. No idea how I do it, but when I look at my gauge for the third time it says 150 bar. I just get this feeling 'check the gauge' and I have 150 bar. It can range from 10 minutes in to 40 minutes in, it doesn't matter. I always know. It just comes from practise.
You never just 'run out of air'. I hate to be completely unreasonable, but there is no excuse to find yourself 'sucking on an empty tank'. If you know how you consume gas you will get a feel for when you are upping your comsumption, no matter what is going on around you, and adjust accordingly.
It is actually unforseeable that me, or my buddy will run out of gas. The only time I could see that happening would be if I managed to get trapped under something underwater, and at which point I hope to God my buddy has gone to get me some more gas and helpers so that he can free me!
Chris