Jon said:
Bill,
I bet you weren't doing that on a wreck in 200' of water with substantial deco to complete? :head
Well no, I wasn't. Nitrox was just appearing about the time I quit scuba diving, so I was never at 200 feet on compressed air. I was also careful to avoid deco in almost all cases.
Running out of air has never been an issue since I've always used less than my dive buddies and I actually look at it when I dive.
I guess I'm really into true confessions here, but while I always used less than my dive buddies too, it didn't really matter since I would just wave goodbye to them as they left and continue until I ran out.
And that was just when I had a buddy. Much of my diving was alone, and I have found that to be pretty typical of spearfishermen. No one wants to be the guy following dutifully in trail while the other guy gets the fish, so even though we all went out in the same boat, we would all go our separate ways. After my son got certified at age 12, I took his instructor out to San Clemente Island, and I noticed that he went his own way too.
But I really can't use spearfishing as an excuse. During a 13-month Marine Corps tour on Okinawa, I didn't even carry a gun and was just taking photographs and collecting shells, but many dives were alone. I just like the feeling of doing my own thing at my own pace rather than swimming around watching other people.
Maybe my best excuse for all this non-standard behaviour is that there were no certification courses that I was aware of in 1954. I had already been freediving for a couple of years, shooting big fish, so I was comfortable in the environment, and the tank and regulator came with a short instruction manual that warned you not to hold your breath on ascent. My first scuba dive was when I jumped over the side of my father's charter boat in 20 feet of water with a speargun in my hand. I hit bottom, noted how neat it felt not to have to go up for air, and then took off after the large redfish I saw. I never had any formal training until I went through a month-long night and day US Navy scuba course, and by then I was set in my ways.