Panama City FL. Insta buddy OOA

So I am just back from a little side trip I took at the end of a business trip. I had a great time and was able to get in 7 dives over 3 days.

I had a bit of a scare Friday though. I was on a 3 tank trip on the Narcosis. It turned out that the majority of the divers were hunting, I agreed to buddy up with a guy shortly before we jumped.

He had issues getting down but he finally made it down. I was interested in watching a hunt but I could see right away that he would most likely blow through his air. I kept an eye on him and was verifying that he would indeed be checking his gauge, and he was.

So when I had 1/2 a tank left, I swam over to him and asked for his pressure. He looks at me and tells me he has 400 and gives a thumbs up. We are at 70'. I grab my alternate and offer it to him but he shakes it off and starts to ascend. Much faster than I wanted to! So I keep an eye on him and see he makes it to the surface. He is looking down at me and I give an OK signal and he responds with the same.

So I deploy my SMB since this was a "hot drop" and we would have to be picked up. I make a leisurely ascent to 15' and do my safety stop. While I am there, the boat comes over and he signals down to me that he is going to get on board and I signal OK. Once the safety stop is complete, I slowly ascent to the ladder and get on board.

Once on, I told him I thought he had ascended too fast and also that he should have done a safety stop. He tells me he ran out of air!!!

I wish I would have completely deployed my alternate and insisted that he take it. When I got on board, I still had 1250 left.  More than enough for another person to ascend slowly and do their safety stop.

I kept an eye on him all during the SI and toward the end of it, queried him on how he felt. Luckily, all was fine.

You did everything well, making all the right moves.

You really mighta' liked to know what he had left on his SPG as it was racked on the boat. I'll bet there was plenty of gas left, enough to have done some kind of slower ascent and maybe even a few minutes at 15fsw.

I certainly don't encourage the beginning of ascents from 70' with 400psi, but it can be done, just as he managed to perform.

I have overstayed my gas at depth more than once, but I have always managed to do my 15' stop, even if it was with my SPG showing 50psi. Air is air, let's not get excited and stupid.

Many times when divers are faced with similar situations, they will do just as he did... quick ascent, blow the safety stop, float on the surface with 150psi or more in the tank. We get so focused on "the rules", we often can not think outside of that box... even when we've managed to stumble outside of it.

You can't fix stupid. Heaven knows I keep trying. But stupid just. Can't be fixed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the input Doc and DogDiver.

I do think I did things right, but when he told me he was out of air I felt bad that I had not insisted that he take my alternate.

I also suspect that he may have had something left as I was able to ascend slowly, do a full safety stop and used 250 psi while he went straight to the surface. Regardless, I think if that scenario was ever to present itself to me again, I would be more demanding when I offered up the alternate.

Keith.M:

I do think I did things right, but when he told me he was out of air I felt bad that I had not insisted that he take my alternate.

Click to expand...

How would you have insisted? Would you have written a particularly persuasive paragraph on a slate?

If the guy does not want to take your air and wants to make a direct ascent to the surface, aggressive attempts to stop him could possibly lead to a panicked reaction that would not be to the best advantage of either of you.

boulderjohn:

How would you have insisted? Would you have written a particularly persuasive paragraph on a slate?

If the guy does not want to take your air and wants to make a direct ascent to the surface, aggressive attempts to stop him could possibly lead to a panicked reaction that would not be to the best advantage of either of you.

Click to expand...

Really good point John.

I would never do it with force, that would be an accident waiting to happen.

I am diving a BPW with standard hose configuration. My alternate is on a retainer clipped to my right chest D-ring. I grabbed my alternate and pointed at it and then back to him. He declined. All I would do the next time would be to pull it out of the retainer and extend it out in my offer. If enough calm was still present, I would probably show him my SPG as well so he would know I had plenty of air.

Other than that, I don't know what else you could do.

Agree with the above. I've had the same thing happen to me twice on gulf charters. Neither one would except the alternate. But it was no big deal to me. I felt they had enough air to surface just fine and they weren't down long enough for me to worry about a blown safety stop.
Now I use charter boats for a ride to the site. Make it well known that you will watch after any divers that aren't seasoned but you won't be surfacing with someone whose sac rate is double your own. I've never had a problem with a dive op (in the gulf) not respecting that.

boulderjohn:

How would you have insisted? Would you have written a particularly persuasive paragraph on a slate?

Click to expand...

I think PADI should add a course in "Persuasive Underwater Writing."

Some years ago I had about the same "numbers" (70', buddy with 400 when he drew his hand across his throat). He and guy 3 were friends from Michigan, we were off Palm Beach at the Governor's Riverwalk ships, they stuck together mostly and didn't signal air-remaining to me at all, I was the third wheel. Until 3 toodled off and I got the signal from 2. I went over to him quick, octo in hand, he took it, turns out he still had 400, I guess he didn't know the pound-your-chest low-air signal, so I got a scare but other than that he did fine, we ascended together share-air and were all good.

So let's just chalk it up to experience, you did fine with your guy and I guess I did okay with mine, who did the right thing even if not perfectly. I learn more from the abnormal things than the normal ones.

You handled everything very well.

Whenever I get an instabuddy, I always discuss how long I expect my air to last based on our planned depth, what our ascent pressure will be, that I will make every attempt possible to do a safety stop, regardless of depth, bottom time, ascent rate, and whether or not he's there, and what I'm going to do if he takes off on me.

If you know your gauges and what they say when they get to the bottom of the tank, leaving the bottom with 400 psi isn't totally insane, although if it was a free ascent like you described, I'd want more, just to be safe. With rental equipment, you have no idea how accurate that gauge is and what 400 psi really means. Skipping the safety stop without telling you in advance suggests to me he didn't have a plan, although many divers will tell you that doing a proper ascent at the proper rate means you don't need a safety stop. I'm 57, I want the safety stop.

On a typical NJ boat dive to 85 feet, I plan to be at the ascent line, ready to ascend, with 500 psi in the tank. Including my safety stop, I usually have 350 psi on surfacing (plus a 13 CF Pony as backup).