Out of Air Method

[mndiver]

Great discussion! 

I have been in an OOA situation as the donor and the recipient.  Diving the Flower Gardens in the Gulf of Mexico, coming up from 110',  I heard a loud pop and my first stage shut off with over 1000 psi remaining (&#$% POS reg).  Close enough to my buddy to get air, far enough to make it a challenge with the current.   Another time, a diver had a free flow.  Both were educational, both were with people I had not dove with before. The second guy wasn't even my buddy, I was just close by.

Everyone is somewhere on the learning curve.  As life gets in the way, we loose buddies and gain new ones.  Even within a "like minded" group, there are new people and more experienced people.  You may end up with a SOB (same ocean buddy). You know, someone that is OOA and drowning near you in the water.  You just can't ignore them when they are drowning  because they don't dive "your way."  At some point you will end up with buddies trained different than you with skill levels differnet than your own. 

Thankfully OOA does not happen often.   When it does, bad things can happen.  So,  my suggestion is to train often, train different ways and be prepared for lots of ways to share air.  Before the dive - discuss OOA with your buddy and rehearse air sharing before.  Heck, discuss how the weight system, BCD, and regs work.  Discuss what both of your expectations are regarding "help," should it be needed.  As evidenced by this discussion, many divers have different expectations and equipment set-ups, it sure is a lot easier to figure it all out before the dive then during the dive....

NOTE: "like minded people" and "your way" are in no way shape or form intended as negative connotations for any one particular type of diving.  I am not trying to start a upwind peeing contest.  Just my PC way to include all training/diving styles.