watersprite
Guest
OK, I have a question here... This is about a dive of almost 1,5 year ago. It still kind of bothers me what happened then and I would like to hear your thoughts on this.
I was diving the wreck 'Rainbow Warrior' in New Zealand which is about 26 metres deep. I had just been certified for "Beginner Open Water Diver" and had only 7 logged dives (my open water beginner course included). Because I was still a beginner and hadn't done any "deep dives" before, we (we = I with one guy as my buddy and another buddy pair) went to dive the wreck with an instructor. We had talked quite a bit before we jumped into the water (discussed the PADI theory we needed to know for the deep dive etc.) and had said to each other we would wait until EVERYONE of us was in the water before we were going down. Another thing we discussed was that we would ascend when anyone of us had 50 bar left.
I was the first one to jump off the boat so I waited at the line of the boat to wait for the other 4 guys. I saw my buddy jumping in too and had contact with him. We still waited for the rest. I couldn't believe how long I had to wait... these guys were so slow!
After 5 minutes or so, the instructor came up to me asking me why the heck I wasn't going down yet!!! Well, I never got any signal of anybody they were going!!! There were so many divers in the water, I hadn't seen the other buddy pair and our instructor in the water so I thought they were still on the boat!! The instructor told me they had been going down with only the 4 of them to 17 metres (!!!) already before they finally found out I wasn't even there!!
To cut a long story short, I went down with this instructor, feeling sorry about those other 3 guys using their precious air while waiting for me at 17 metres but also being pissed off they had gone without me. We finally checked out the wreck (which was awesome btw!). After a while my buddy and the two other guys didn't have much air left. My bottle was still quite full so I stayed down with the instructor while my buddy went back to the boat again.
When I had only 50 bar left, I signaled my instructor to tell him about that. I was bloody sure he knew exactly what I meant. He gave me the sign "OK". I pointed to the line where we had to ascend and signaled him I wanted to go there because my air was running out. He just nodded his head, looked at my gauges and signaled me to go inside the wreck to have another look around.
I gave him some BIG eyes (LOL... I even have a picture of that!), pointed at my gauges again, signaled I had only 50 bar left and pointed to the line again. I was still a very inexperienced diver, so perhaps I was "exaggerating" that I REALLY wanted to start going up with 50 bar in my bottle? I thought this is what we had promised each other though?
Anyhow... this guy signaled me again like he was saying "chill out and look at all those fishes!".... he explained to me we could have another look around at the wreck and that we could SHARE AIR while ascending!!! I had never shared air before (besides in the pool at my beginner's diving course, but not in the ocean at such a depth!!) and I was so inexperienced. I was saying to myself all the time: "OK, relax and don't ever start to panic!!!" I think he knew I was nervous, because he finally took my hand trying to calm me down I guess.
While we were still at the wreck he gave me his spare regulator and from there we started swimming to the line together. We ascended all these 26 metres on his air. My bottle was totally empty.
My question is here:
Is this normal? I don't think this is something you should do with a beginner.... and I personally see "sharing air" as something you would do in emergencies only. What do you think?
Thanks in advance for any replies!
Watersprite
Ps. If my English sounds funny, its because Im not a native speaker
I was diving the wreck 'Rainbow Warrior' in New Zealand which is about 26 metres deep. I had just been certified for "Beginner Open Water Diver" and had only 7 logged dives (my open water beginner course included). Because I was still a beginner and hadn't done any "deep dives" before, we (we = I with one guy as my buddy and another buddy pair) went to dive the wreck with an instructor. We had talked quite a bit before we jumped into the water (discussed the PADI theory we needed to know for the deep dive etc.) and had said to each other we would wait until EVERYONE of us was in the water before we were going down. Another thing we discussed was that we would ascend when anyone of us had 50 bar left.
I was the first one to jump off the boat so I waited at the line of the boat to wait for the other 4 guys. I saw my buddy jumping in too and had contact with him. We still waited for the rest. I couldn't believe how long I had to wait... these guys were so slow!
After 5 minutes or so, the instructor came up to me asking me why the heck I wasn't going down yet!!! Well, I never got any signal of anybody they were going!!! There were so many divers in the water, I hadn't seen the other buddy pair and our instructor in the water so I thought they were still on the boat!! The instructor told me they had been going down with only the 4 of them to 17 metres (!!!) already before they finally found out I wasn't even there!!
To cut a long story short, I went down with this instructor, feeling sorry about those other 3 guys using their precious air while waiting for me at 17 metres but also being pissed off they had gone without me. We finally checked out the wreck (which was awesome btw!). After a while my buddy and the two other guys didn't have much air left. My bottle was still quite full so I stayed down with the instructor while my buddy went back to the boat again.
When I had only 50 bar left, I signaled my instructor to tell him about that. I was bloody sure he knew exactly what I meant. He gave me the sign "OK". I pointed to the line where we had to ascend and signaled him I wanted to go there because my air was running out. He just nodded his head, looked at my gauges and signaled me to go inside the wreck to have another look around.
I gave him some BIG eyes (LOL... I even have a picture of that!), pointed at my gauges again, signaled I had only 50 bar left and pointed to the line again. I was still a very inexperienced diver, so perhaps I was "exaggerating" that I REALLY wanted to start going up with 50 bar in my bottle? I thought this is what we had promised each other though?
Anyhow... this guy signaled me again like he was saying "chill out and look at all those fishes!".... he explained to me we could have another look around at the wreck and that we could SHARE AIR while ascending!!! I had never shared air before (besides in the pool at my beginner's diving course, but not in the ocean at such a depth!!) and I was so inexperienced. I was saying to myself all the time: "OK, relax and don't ever start to panic!!!" I think he knew I was nervous, because he finally took my hand trying to calm me down I guess.
While we were still at the wreck he gave me his spare regulator and from there we started swimming to the line together. We ascended all these 26 metres on his air. My bottle was totally empty.
My question is here:
Is this normal? I don't think this is something you should do with a beginner.... and I personally see "sharing air" as something you would do in emergencies only. What do you think?
Thanks in advance for any replies!
Watersprite
Ps. If my English sounds funny, its because Im not a native speaker