Ending Dive with 500psi

[redacted]

First, I hope you expressed your displeasure with your tip.

You might consider using the air differential to practice sharing air with your son. I would be good training and a way you can both safely continue the dive. You should do that while you both have plenty of air - like 1000 psi minimum. But, be forewarned, some DMs may not be happy with that either. There goes another tip.

 

[waterpirate]

I would not look down on you for that behaviour. However you have demonstrated being a "thinking diver", so carry it through to a solution. Inform crew of your intention pre-dive. Get yourself a redundant air source. That will cover any shallow water rescue that may arise with your son. A 30 or 40 cubic foot pony bottle would do nicely.
YAMMV
Eric

 

[Golfer38]

awap,

Thanks for the response. I do use a 1000 now. The DS in the Caymans started letting me use them since the saw the wide range of time between my son and I. A plug for Nick at Deep Blue in the Caymans.

At the end of the week, I did talk to the owner about it and he said the DM was new there, etc..and was glad I mentioned it to him..

I didn't tip that DM but the one that cert'd my 11 for OW got a $200 tip..

Jim

---------- Post added February 16th, 2014 at 05:30 PM ----------

Waterpirate,

Thanks for the response.. A couple of good suggestions.. Although, just getting buoyancy down, a pony my tilt me to the right..

A quick funny story.. We live in Maryland, so my 15 yo (12 at the time), took our class in the very cold November and got cert'd in a quarry the same month. So of course, we needed all the gear (wetsuit, etc...). Being 6'3" and 250#'s, I needed 35+ pounds of weight to keep me down. Of course, in the water, I looked like Woody Woodpecker at a Macy's parade. We get cert'd and we both don't like it due to the wetsuit, etc... We were heading to the Caymans in 2-3 weeks and start thinking maybe diving is not for us. But we decide to try it in the Caribbean and see what happens... So, we are on the boat with 80+ degree weather, 80 degree water wearing shorts and a rash guard. Life is great.. So the DM comes around to each of us (8 total) and ask us "how much weight".. being a newer newb than I am now, I say 36 pounds.. Well the entire boat started laughing.. I start looking around to see what they were laughing at.. I looked at my back to see if my son put a "do not disturb" sign on me.. When the DM says, "How long you planning on staying down the for".. "forever"? It was pretty funny since she handed me 12 pounds, which worked, (down to 8 now)... and says "I am sure your wife wants you back so you can pay for dinner tonight".

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Bigd2722]

Whenever you do something that is kinda out of the ordinary or different from the briefing, tell the DM what you plan. If he/she has a problem they'll let you know

 

[Golfer38]

Whenever you do something that is kinda out of the ordinary or different from the briefing, tell the DM what you plan. If he/she has a problem they'll let you know

Thanks,, That was my thought on posting this message,,, Was it out if the ordinary.. I did learn from it, and ask each time now while heading out to the dive site..

 

[DogDiver]

I think I would leave the "tip" jar empty and find a different boat to use the next time. Your a paying costumer and deserve the respect and understanding of the crew.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tomfcrist]

The whole end the dive with 500psi thing is ok if you are diving an AL80 (13 cuft reserve), but to apply that logic to someone diving a LP121 is ridiculously conservative( 23 cuft reserve).

I believe in the don't run out of gas and you are good to go mentality....but for novice divers, 500 psi is easier to remember.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

Is this 500 PSI thing standard in the warmer destinations and do they actually check you gauge when you get on the boat? Up here in the north they could care less what your gauge reads when you enter or exit the water. They just care if you get back safely. Our boats are more like water taxis than baby sitting services. There is no excuse for a "dive professional" to treat someone in such a non professional way. If they had no rules about what you did stated before hand he had no reason to treat you the way he did.

 

[Golfer38]

Andy,

Since I started (and even in class), it was always stated to me to get back in the boat with no less than 500psi.

Yes, after I got up the stairs on the boat and he took the tank/bcd, he checked the psi.

This was over a year ago.. I didnt want to post earlier and which island it was or identify the dive shop as they post here frequently I did talk with the owner about the situation.

I am getting ready to go back to the Caymans (not the same island) in about a month and never had an issue with the DS I use there.. I was just looking for what maybe the protocol was as I am still a new diver and (as someone mentioned) don't want to get into bad habits or poor discretion.

Now that both my boys are cert'd, I always ensure they are polite and follow directions. Especially while diving as any mishap could cause an injury, or worse.

At 15 and 12, they still are boys and like to play around all the time.. At their age its a lot of horseplay at times... Even without any horseplay things could happen.

Thanks,

Jim

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

I was captain for a few dive charter companies and the strict rules are in place to protect the company. The industry does not tolerate mistakes. I dove off my own boats my entire life and the only dive rules we "had" to follow were created by us, the divers. Reading from all the safety minded divers who wrote I can see we exceeded the rules from time to time. We lived where the water was warm and clear all year and most of us could easily free dive past 30 ft. and all of us grew up scuba diving. We deviated from the buddy system often.

On the charter boats we had divers of many levels onboard. Those with only a few dives were easy because they would be conservative by nature. It was those divers with enough dives under their belts that they considered themselves experienced that we had to be most careful with. Since they often wanted to go off on their own we'd get a dive plan and insist all rules be followed strictly. If we saw one buddy come up without the other we would send a crew down to get the single diver and those folks would not be welcome in the future. It takes only one mistake to lose a diver and a company all at once.
Adventure-Ocean