Tampering with other divers' gear

[IceBergSlim]

Just a thought: What would you have done if she was heavily overweighted and sank like a rock in 400 feet of water?

 

[letterboy]

Just a thought: What would you have done if she was heavily overweighted and sank like a rock in 400 feet of water?

what would have happened if he had done nothing and her lungs exploded on the surface?

 

[gypsyjim]

I have no problem with my normal dive buddy touching any of my gear at any time (except for my crotch strap! :shocked2. I trust him to correctly fix/adjust anything he saw that was wrong and not to jack with something just for the sake of doing so.

Of course the fact that we've been diving and taking classes together since 2000 plays a major part in that.

Anyone else, not so much.

Buddies double checking is one thing, the following is a good example of tampering and is just cause for violent reaction:

Considering that the diver you assisted was attempting to do the same thing (purge air), but was in the wrong position to do it effectively, I think your immediate action was entirely called for. Nice job.

However, there is a big difference in what you did and "tampering".

I once was on a boat where a diver hit the water and immediately had trouble getting a full breath. Turns out another 'diver' on the boat "checked" his valve just before the dive, but had been trained to back off the valve a quarter turn. Well, this fellow backed it up about a turn and a half (or more), and the result was restricted air flow.

That's "tampering".

Could not agree more.

 

[Teamcasa]

To me tampering ... or something that could be deemed "detrimental" by the owner.

Touching is not tampering. Tampering implies a sinister intention.

I have no problem with my normal dive buddy touching any of my gear at any time

Agreed. I expect my dive buddy to double check my gear and advise or help me get it squared away.

In the original post and the thread that he refers too, this is a rescue situation and not a tampering or even a "let me help you out" situation.

 

[DailyLunatic]

Anyways, my question is, would any of you have frowned upon such action? I mean me purging air from her BC? She was trying to purge from her shoulder purge valve but seeing as she was head down that obviously had no effect. Should I rather have indicated to her to rather purge from the kidney valve? That certainly would have taken longer so I decided to simply purge some air myself.

Your thoughts?

We dive with Buddies for a reason. You were just part of the Extended Buddy System.

 

[Hoomi]

"Tampering", to me, indicates doing something to the gear without the knowledge or consent of the owner. It doesn't necessarily have to have malicious intent; if I looked at a BC and thought, "You know, it would make more sense if this was that way, instead of the way he has it," and then changed it without talking to the owner, that's tampering, even though I might think I'm doing them a favor.

I wouldn't appreciate someone doing it to me, even though I'm still a scuba-noob, and I don't presume someone else would appreciate my doing it to their stuff. As a noob, if someone thinks something about my set-up needs adjusting or refining, I'm open to suggestions and appreciate friendly advice. However, I might already have heard that advice, and found that particular idea didn't work for me.

In the scenario you described, I would hope I'd have the clear thinking to reach for my own kidney purge, but if not, I wouldn't be offended or bothered by another diver reaching it for me.

 

[Joe-Diver]

You did the right thing helping someone out. Kudos!

This is completely different than the other thread, if it's the one I'm thinking of that was SEVERELY culled and comments deleted, where a poster with status and influence suggested sabotage underwater to force a person to the surface.

There's a huge difference in helping someone and attempting to control/modify behavior by sabotage. Legal and criminal.

 

[gypsyjim]

Making any adjustments in my life support system without my permission is tampering!!!

"Sinister intent" is not required to kill me.
Even a well meaning adjustment by someone not familiar with your gear set up, that you are not aware of, could lead to disaster.

Fellow divers are welcome to question, observe or suggest, but no one is welcome alter gear on which my life depends, in any way, outside of a training situation, and then you have my full attention.

 

[Cave Bum]

What you did wasn't tampering, it was helping a diver in distress. Just what we're suppose to do.

On another forum there was a discussion about a diver who said she was going around ckecking other peoples stage bottles in a cave to see if they were sticking to the rule of thirds (which would have required her to turn them on to see the pressure then turn them off again). That's tampering and that should be a capitol offense.

 

[IceBergSlim]

what would have happened if he had done nothing and her lungs exploded on the surface?

Neither of us will ever know.