Incident:  "During our first dive in a week-long vacation on Maui, we descended to about 70 feet in pristine conditions. About 10 minutes into the dive, my first stage blew out, resulting in a forceful loss/leak of air from where the first stage attaches to the tank. The impact of the blowout forced the second stage from my mouth, the resulting forceful loss of air from the tank felt like a jackhammer was going off in my ear, and my second stage was free-flowing like crazy. My buddy told me later that when he looked over he could not see me - as my body was covered in the escaping bubbles from the tank. We rushed over to each other, and buddy breathed to the surface, dazed, but unharmed."
- Fred A., May 6, 2008

Incident:  "Diving in low visibility, strong current conditions, I lost my buddy immediately after the descent.  At the same time, probably when struggling with current, I lost both integrated weights packs (the most probably I inserted them in the wrong way when preparing the dive). My buddy found the weights, stopped the dive and return to the boat to warn of possible emergency accent.  I continued the dive (as we usually do in case of buddy loss) and paid no attention on missing weights (the depth was 30m). I paid attention that the weights are missing only when starting accent to the surface from the depth of 30m. To prevent the uncontrolled accent I turned against the current working with fins and keeping the horizontal body position. This allowed me control the accent and perform safety stop."
- Evgeni L., August 8,  2007

Incident:  "Deckhand on a Southern California dive boat took my red tag off my tank and forgot to refill it. I assumed it was full and forgot myself on the routine check before jumping back in for the 2nd dive of the day. My dive progressed fine for 20 mins before I noticed my regulator seemed to be very hard to pull a breath of air. It got worse on each succeeding breath. I signal my dive buddy who was 15 ft. way spearing fish and he just laugh at me when I show him my pressure gauge was at 0-100lbs. We were both at 40th feet of depth and I clung on to his BC shoulder as we started to buddy breath on the way up. But my dive buddy wanted to play games so he would start to give me the reg when it was my turn and pull it out of my grasp to tease me. Fortunately another diver saw this teasing going on and came to my rescue offering me his primary reg as he switched to his BC Alternate air source. My dive buddy got reamed out by the divemasters and instructors that were on the trip for playing around on the ascent. I now rely on my own spare-air source of air in case of need. A year later the 2nd incident occurred with my own faulty primary reg that should have gotten maintenance but didn't. I just switched to the spare-air and aborted the dive to get another reg from the dive boat."
- Charles E., July 10, 2007

Incident:  "45' down. Performing buoyancy adjustment. Regulator got stuck while filling air. Forced into emergency ascent procedures. Surfaced, disconnected air supply to reg. Continued diving."
- David B, June 12, 2007

Incident:  "Diving in New Zealand in group of 4 divers. Partially opened air valve. Worked fine until we reached 20 meters. Then no air as regulator not functioning. Diver signaled out of air and nearest diver came to aid. Buddy breathing until air valve opened fully. Then resumed dive. Could have been serious if divers not close together."
- Paul G., March 26, 2007

Incident:  "I was a new diver with all new gear. Went to Nassau for a business trip and at the insistence of my dive instructor my wife and I brought our own bc's & regulators.  My Sherwood high pressure gauge and depth gauge were in a large console at the end of the high pressure hose. During the dive, as you would check depth and pressure, you grab the console and rotate it to view the gauges.  At 85 ft the pressure gauge unthreaded from the hose, and very rapidly lost all pressure.  My wife was looking the other way and never saw the bubbles. She was above and behind me and I could not see her as I looked around. I looked up through the crystal clear water and the 85 ft looked like a mile away. I just started to kick for the surface and my wife appeared. I grabbed her bc and signaled out of air. She gave me a look like quit screwing around down here! I took her safe second, and then showed her my gauge.  We made an uneventful, and slow assent."
- Jerry N., November 6, 2006

Incident:  "I have been diving for about 5 years and the last time, something went wrong and my partner lost 2000 lb of air in seconds and we had to ascend very fast. I took it slower but he just shot up. He died on the way to the hospital. If he only had Spare Air he would still be alive. I can't afford it right now but in the near future I will make an effort to get one."
- Shawn H., May 16, 2006

Incident:  "I was on a dive trip with about 11 or 12 of my buddies from my ship when I was in the US Navy. We were diving at the Los Ahorcados Islands off the coast of Ecuador. It was a beautiful dive site with a lot of beautiful aquatic life. I was the first person to reach 500psi, so I let the divemaster know (as he had instructed us about that earlier). The divemaster asked if everybody was ok, and when he got back to me I looked at my pressure gauge again and I was at about 350psi, so I said no and I needed to go up right away. About 5 or 10 feet below the surface I ran completely out of air. I did not have any spare air source, so I was stuck. None of my buddies saw me either, they just kept ascending. I couldn't reach them. I fought for probably 30-45 seconds to reach the surface and I finally made it. Luckily, I was not injured at all from holding my breath. Watch your air continuously!"
- Bryan U., March 22, 2006

Incident:  "My brother and I were diving in the Florida Keys in about 95 feet of water using a Brownie Third Lung. My father purchased us each a spare air for Christmas and this was the first time we took them out. The Brownie was turned over when it one of the supply hoses hooked a wreck marker. Our air supply was cut off instantly. Without panicking (too much) we grabbed the spare airs and made our way to the surface. Without spare air I am not sure we could have made that swim. And we were able to slow our accent enough that we are both ok and suffering only slight headaches. Thank you for making a product that help save me and my brothers life."
- Todd, March 15, 2006

Incident:  "Until now I considered it a low probability to have an "out of air" situation. But a few days ago my high pressure gauge ruptured. Luckily I was as the surface but it made me realize that in a deep dive situation I could get in real trouble for not having a reliable and easy alternate air source."
- Rui Prieto Silva., December 5, 2005

Incident:  "I am a PADI certified Advanced Open Water and Enriched Air Diver. In October 2005 I was diving in Dahab, Egypt inside a tunnel shaped cave. Most of the other divers had exited the cave right before my buddy's o-ring blew emptying his tank in less than a minute. I gave him my octopus and we started swimming towards the exit. The cave is narrow towards the end and we started bumping on the walls. It was clear we couldn't get out by swimming side by side. I didn't want to swim back to the entrance of the cave, loose contact with the rest of the group and perhaps get carried away by the current in an unfamiliar area. So I gave my buddy my spare air. He got out of the cave first and he subsequently got air from our guide's octopus for making a deco stop and surfacing. Unfortunately on his way up as he was probably nervous, he accidentally ditched my spare air bottle without anyone noticing."
- Petros., November 10, 2005

Incident:  "I had a buddy catch his tank hose on a rock in a cave dive and had to share my air... we barely made it to the surface. I don't want to face that scary drama again. Thanks to Spare Air!!"
- Sharon W., October 24, 2005

Incident:  "I bought my Spare Air in 1997 when my oldest son was certified. The only use it has had is playing around in the pool until this summer. I had even considered taking it off my BC since it seemed there was never a need for it. We were divine a wreck in Cozumel. I was buddying with my daughter (novice), my oldest son (Rescue diver) was buddying with my youngest son (novice). We had entered the wreck and gone thru two compartments and were going thru a opening in the floor to the lower deck. This was at approx.75'. The dive master went first, then my daughter, and as I was just entering the opening a Swivel connector on my second stage blew apart. I quickly got my octopus and looked at my pressure gauge which was going down rapidly. As I turned my first thought was to get my oldest son to go with me and buddy breath to the surface, however when I saw my youngest sons eyes and thought of my daughter being down here alone I knew that wasn't a good option. I signaled my oldest to stay with his brother and sister and started for the exit while reaching for my Spare Air. I made a safe, although quick accent using my SPARE Air. I will never consider taking the Spare Air off my BC again."
- Kevin D., August 8, 2005

Incident:  "We were in Bimini doing a drift dive @ 65 ft. During my exhale I had a hose pressure burst at my first stage. My octopus didn't work either, at this point I was swimming really fast with no air towards my buddy. I grabbed his reg out of his mouth. The problem was I couldn't see a thing until i turned off my tank because the bubbles were going everywhere. Very very scary! I will not go down deep again without a spare air unit." - Steven P., July 25,2005

Incident:  "On my last open Water Dive in September of 2004, my buddy and I were diving in a Quarry. We went down to see a few things then would come up and surface swim to the next point of interest to conserve air. While at the last thing (quite a swim out in the quarry) we noticed that our air was vastly different. My buddy's air was about 1200 and mine was 600. Plenty for her to go down to 40 feet and see what she wanted but certainly not me. While this was an error on my judgment to go down we of course agreed to stay within 2 feet of each other so I could simply grab for her octopus at any time. Well we only made this a VERY quick dive (about 3 to 5 min) As my computer (digital) said I had 300 we started up (and yes I was watching those numbers like a hawk). 10 feet up (at 30 feet) my computers air went from 200 to 0 and I was out of air. Of course I reached for my buddies octopus and was fine, but to run out of air for real is much different than in training. I was hyperventilating at the surface and certainly panic stricken. This will NOT happen again. Our first dive trip for this year is in 2 weeks, I have ordered the Spare Air standard today. Small price to pay for peace of mind (even with bad judgment), and even less of a price to save your life." - Bob M, June 13, 2005

Incident:  Patricia reports of a diver: "Trapped in debris under wreck found by another diver later - air tank was empty."
 - Patricia H., July 14, 2004

Incident:  "I had a 1st stage blow-out at 60 ft. and no Spare Air or buddy close enough to help. I made an emergency ascent. 30 years of diving, I thought I didn't need an alternate air source." - Philip S, May 10, 2005

Incident:  "I was on a dive trip with about 11 or 12 of my buddies from my ship when I was in the US Navy. We were diving at the Los Ahorcados Islands off the coast of Ecuador. It was a beautiful dive site with a lot of beautiful aquatic life. I was the first person to reach 500psi, so I let the divemaster know (as he had instructed us about that earlier). The divemaster asked if everybody was ok, and when he got back to me I looked at my pressure gauge again and I was at about 350psi, so I said no and I needed to go up right away. About 5 or 10 feet below the surface I ran completely out of air. I did not have any spare air source, so I was stuck. None of my buddies saw me either, they just kept ascending. I couldn't reach them. I fought for probably 30-45 seconds to reach the surface and I finally made it. Luckily, I was not injured at all from holding my breath. Watch your air continuously!" - March 22, 2006

"I didn't think I would ever need it because I would always be diving with a buddy. But an accident while diving in Ecuador (ran out of air) in June of 2002 changed my mind. I have been too afraid to dive since the accident, but I think Spare Air will change that very quickly." - April 6, 2006
- Bryan U.,

Incident:  "My reg. mysteriously stopped working, therefore I had no air to breathe. Luckily my buddy was close, so we used the buddy breathing method to the surface. Furthermore, our depth was only 30 feet, so a deco stop wasn't necessary. Phew!"
- ScubaSteve, July 22, 2003