Do you avoid people with bad sac rates?

[diver 85]

Just curious. I guess it also depends on what you consider to be a bad sac rate, and of course, what a bad sac rate implies about the diver them self.

Just curious too, how do you know what a person's SAC is till you dive with them???.What if she/he lies to you, what's your next step???........

Short answer to your question, No.....Do you ???....

 

[bubba105]

I don't get this whole thing about SAC rate. I know you use it to plan dives but the last dive has nothing to do with what's going to happen on this dive. I check my SPG often to see what I've got left & computer to see how much time has elapsed or is left. I always come up with a decent amount of air so why bother?

Just came back from Cozumel & there were a few new divers in the group. One girl, 20 something, who had been a sychronized swimmer & almost made the Olympic team, never breathed an Al 80 under 2000 lbs on any dive. She was so comfortable in the water and had such great breath control she brought one tank back with over 2500, on dive number 8, an hour dive. Even the gurus were in awe. Joke was "she's only using one lung". The bride may not like it but I think I've found my new buddy.

 

[diver 85]

So are recreational divers now required to wear their most recent SAC rate labeled on their suits.... that's of course assuming they even have a clue as to what it is, or even what a SAC rate represents.

They are now given out by The Underwater Response Department(TURD) and starting July 1 of this year('08), EVERY certified diver must be one( a TURD that is)........

 

[under water]

I am very pleased to see that there are twice as many replies to this post as there are votes! That means that the "it doesn't matter to me" category is an overwhelming winner!
I would like to know who those folks are who wouldn't dive with me, because I will most definitely avoid diving with them. I don't care about your SAC, however I can care about mine and hopefully will improve it over time by becoming a better diver.
If someone was to ask my SAC, I would tell them that I'll tell you at the end of the day. It's gonna depend on the dive conditions. Oh sure, I know I'll be about .8 to 1 in a current in green cold water in my dry suit and maybe a .5 in warm tropical bath conditions in Bonaire, but those are rough guesses and all depend on whether I see a shark or not :11:
There are some people who are fantastic buddies and who are just built to consume a lot of air. They may never get to .5 or less, but you know what. I would gladly dive with them than with someone who asks around on a boat for SAC #s. Of course, I have never actually seen this.. so maybe the bottom line is that hardly anyone would use SAC as a high criteria for selecting a dive partner.
Which makes me feel good.

 

[Derek S]

If I avoided divers based on less than optimal SAC rates, I'd never be able to get into the water with myself.

 

[The Kraken]

No.

the K

 

[Teamcasa]

Just how does this conversation take place? Diver A: “Hey, do you want to be my buddy?” Diver B: “Only if your SAC rate is .5 or lower.” Diver A: “I’m sorry, I’ve changed my mind.” Diver A finds a new buddy and has a great dive, discovers a lost gold pile, splits it with his new buddy and both live happily ever after. Diver B never found a buddy that day, finally ends up hiring a crew member to dive with him the next day, got into a swarm of box jellies.

For me, I dive with my lovely bride. On the rare occasion I dive with someone else we decide topside a dive plan and to have fun, SAC rates never come into the conversation.

 

[Meng_Tze]

I don't let sac sac rates be a decisive factor when diving. I look at safety awareness and stability. We all started off with high sac rates and during that time many divers dove with me regardless. I would not propose myself to be arrogant enough not to dive with others because their sac rate is higher than mine.

 

[ClayJar]

Just how does this conversation take place?

You know, the only conversations I can recall having that used SAC for buddy pairing fall into two groups. The DMs and instructors will have a private conversation on checkout trips if we have a large discrepancy in breathing rates, as we can use bottom time most efficiently if we loosely sort the students by air consumption. (Of course, ear issues skip to the front of the descent queue.) The other occasion would be when our extended buddy family is planning a dive; we all know where we rank, SAC-wise, so we'll often buddy up that way so each pair can have their longest dive available. (We're not at all rigid, of course, so this is only sometimes the case.)

I cannot recall any times when an instabuddy and I had a conversation to determine fitness to be buddies based on SAC. The topic of air consumption has come up occasionally, but usually only in the context of "You're okay with exchanging pressures, eh?" (Incidentally, I've had people tell me they refuse to communicate pressures, but I've never been able to keep up with any of their ascent rates, anyway, so it doesn't really matter. )

 

[SparticleBrane]

Did I really just read that "SAC rates increase with depth" ???!!?!?!

The amount of gas you breathe increases with depth, but all else being equal, your SAC doesn't!