"Why happened!?", I hear you ask. I'll tell you, and maybe we can learn how to anticipate and identify problems before they become serious.

Out of air situations are potentially life threatening, requiring decisive action to resolve, but usually they're the result of an escalating series of small issues…   

And this story is no different.

The current was strong that day, and the divers had to pull themselves down the anchor line. Exerting and focused on the descent, the diver didn’t notice their occy free flowing. A free flowing regulator is loud! But task loaded and focused, the loss of situational awareness was enough to distract the diver from what was happening with their gear.

Moving quickly down the line and breathing heavily, thus increasingly susceptible to narcosis, and with a free flowing occy depleting air, the diver also lost awareness of their buddy. Think about it! While rapidly and unknowingly running out of air, the diver was moving away from those who HAD noticed and could help!

Luckily the diver's buddy caught up in time, provided assistance, and the dive ended happily. But, it's easy to see how things may have gone differently.

What can we take from this? Firstly, relief! No one was hurt. And for our own diving:

Remember to slow down, stay calm, and leave capacity for frequent situational awareness checks. Are we ok? Are we close enough to help each other? What's happening around us? Is our gear ok? How much air do we have? And communicate clearly and regularly with our buddies during the dive, including the descent!

Diving is a team sport. It's what keeps us safe. When we slow down and pay attention to what is happening around us, we can head off issues before they become serious and have more fun diving! Don’t forget, sharing is caring… and that applies to more than our air.