Rookie Mistakes

[farsidefan1]

Positioning depends on the environment. If you are inside a wreck you take your buddies octo and position yourself above them, holding on to their bc/plate so they are towing you (yes, you should fin too). Once you are in the clear you link up and head for the surface facing each other holding your buddies bc or with arms linked. Cave divers are nuts so I'll step waaay back and let one of them tell you how they do it.

[cgvmer]

thanks for the post, It sounds like you have a handle on the most important skill, which isn't taught enough: Stop, THINK then Act.

[cascas]

I was trained to link arms when buddy breathing, is this still taught?

It is a method... But when holding eachothers shoulder strap it is easier to use that hand if needed. Linking arms makes that a little more complicated.
Buddy breathing is optional now (in PADI OW). Air sharing using alternate air source ( octopus) while holding shoulderstraps is what I teach in OW class...

[diver 86]

We were taught to link arms Roman style. Holding BC would be easier.

[PatW]

Sounds as if you got a little fixated on time. The problem with diving is one needs to be aware of a number of things at once: where your buddy is, how deep you are, where you are in your profile, how much air you have left, where you are, current, where the group is (if relevant) and so on. It is very easy to get task loaded especially for rookie divers.

Your case at 60' was not so bad. I have found that a safety stop at 15' takes very little air. So your 400 lbs was not much especially since you were probably concerned which would increase your rate of air consumption. But you did the right thing, you signaled your partner and made an immediate ascent. You did find out one of the problems with rental gear is that you have to adjust to it which adds to the task loading.