Thoughts on whole dive group surfacing when one of the group reaches 1000psi

[redacted]

Then you may find yourself impeding getting a fellow diver to medical care. Or there may be a danger of which you are not aware.

If you're diving with an operation that has an in-water DM, a/he's part of your "team" and that signal is a command.

If you call a lamb's tail a leg, how many legs does a lamb have?





No, it is still 4. Just because you say it is so, does not make it true.



If the guide has not established such a protocol in the pre-dive briefing, then what you apparently expect just might not happen. Or it will take a bit more than a simple thumbs up from someone who is not my buddy to cause it to happen.

 

[DiveWestOahu]

Every time I've dove the back wall as a recreational dive it was at 90fsw, which if dove on tables gives you 25 minutes surface to surface, if your on computer and nitrox of course you'll have a better ndl, there are really just so many variables in this dive that no one can really judge one way or the other unless they was there.
anyway the best way to do molokini backside is at about 210 fsw anyway, its a gold mine out there!!

 

[supergaijin]

Unless the Captain has determined that conditions require a group pick up, buddy team pickups are frequently done on the live boat drift dives we offer. They were an option on Wednesday’s Backwall dives. The dive team leader in this instance was concerned that the low on air diver would not be able to do their safety stop unassisted, given what she had seen during the dive. Erring on the side of safety, she brought the entire group up.

My partner and I went on a molokini back wall dive today with Lahaina divers. I had read reports of their dm's making the whole group surface when the first diver hits 1000psi.
So before I booked the dive I asked Tim the middle aged gentleman working the front counter about this and was reassured it was not the case so after a great dive the day before with these guys we were looking forward to this charter immensely!!!
So during the dive brief the dm says that once one diver reaches 1000psi we all must do a safety stop and exit the water.

There seems to be a conflict here.

Although we screen divers for a minimum number of dives and recent diving on the drift dive charters, it doesn’t always translate into the skill set and air consumption rate we would expect.

Aint that the truth. First dives can be a problem. Self-proclaimed experienced divers can be completely incompentent underwater. Some were certified before I was born.... the oft-touted 'old school diver'. Diving before the invention of the BCD.... and still diving as if they don't exist.

We tend not allow unguided diving for the first dive here unless the divers can summarise at least 4 stories from 'Diver Down'.

A dive op can and should make all the rule it needs to operate. But make them up front, at the time of booking, not on the boat ride to the dive site. A dive op is not free to change the contract (rules) after it has accepted payment. If a dive op chooses to cater to entry level divers and apply those rules to all customers, that is fine. Just make it up front so experienced divers who are not looking for that kind of op can see what is going on and look elsewhere.

Totally agree. Unless something random pops up requiring a change to the 'normal procedure' the dive should be followed as it was promoted.

This DM was basically diving with the 'rule of thirds' which is not the norm with tropical reef multi-level dives. Recently in another thread a certain poster from the same area was also advocating 'thirds' as a way to prevent divers running OOA. The OP had heard of this happening, questioned the operator, received assurances that it was not the case, and then it happened any way. Rightly IMO the OP is peeved.