Stuck with beginner diver who runs out of air in 20 mins?

[boulderjohn]

Mind you, whichever way the guided tour goes, I'm going the opposite if possible...

You (or someone like you) may have been my assigned dive buddy for a group dive in Cozumel a number of years ago. In Cozumel, having a DM is a legal requirement, and their main job is keeping the group together so that they ascend together at the end of the drift to be picked up by the boat. We were a group of experienced divers, and the DM assigned buddy teams within the group. I drew a man who claimed 600+ lifetime dives, and I believe he was accurate. He had very good skills. On the first dive, he drove me crazy as I tried to stay with the group and also keep track of him as he darted about, making it clear that whichever way the guided tour was going to go, he was going to go the opposite if possible. On the second dive, when asked which of the shallower sites we wanted to dive, we chose Paso Del Cedral because of its really nice complex coral swim through. It also often has a big current, and this day was no exception. As the guide led us to the coral swim through, I tried to maintain a midpoint between the group and my buddy, who was off on his own again, drifting in the current. When the DM reached the swim through, he looked back, and I pointed to my buddy, who was now so far along in the current that it would be impossible to get to us. So the DM led the group to him, and we finished the dive drifting along the edge of the reef. Back on the boat, my buddy asked what happened to that supposed great swim through, and the whole group glared at him in anger as one of them said we couldn't do it because we had to go after him instead. He didn't seem to care.

Or maybe you are like the photographer in the group with which I dived off a liveaboard in Thailand. We had two groups, and they splashed 5 minutes apart. Each group was supposed to follow the DM through a certain path, ending up inside a large grotto full of great speleothems. (Open water--not a cavern.) it was one of the signature dives of that liveaboard experience. We were the second group. About halfway through the first part of the dive, this photographer saw something interesting in a coral formation, and he started taking pictures of it. He took pictures and he took pictures and he took pictures of it while we all hung around and waited for him to be done. The DM was new and non-assertive. Eventually he was done. By that time, everyone was low on air, so we surfaced and got picked up there. Back on the boat, he was raving about how many pictures he had taken on that dive. I said I was looking forward to the grotto and was sorry we had not gotten there. "Not me!" he said. He would much rather take pictures of living fish than look at dead rocks. As far as he was concerned, the rest of us had to prefer watching him take pictures of living fish to getting into that famed grotto.

 

[Stoo]

You (or someone like you) may have been my assigned dive buddy for a group dive in Cozumel

Nope not me... what you describe is the main reason I haven't returned to Cozumel in 20 years. The requirements of conducting a safe drift dive aren't especially compatible with the kind of diving I prefer to do.

You outline another related issue that's been beaten to death on SB over there years... the joys of being assigned an Insta-buddy. Mercifully, I've generally been spared such a thing and when I found myself alone on a charter, I was always able to locate a like-minded "lets dive solo, see ya under the boat in an hour" kinda person.

The tone of your comments (or at least my interpretation of it) is one of being annoyed when you find yourself in such a situation where you are forced into a crappy situation. I get that completely and refer you back to my earlier comment of researching your dive operation before you go. I could give you a list of places I opted not to visit simply because they operate a nanny-service dive operation. That's not a criticism, but it means that I wouldn't be able to dive independently. There are lots of places to dive where the only "rule" is "it would be nice if you were back on board in about an hour".

 

[dytis-sm]

I have been that diver when I was starting out and it really sucked. Who wants to be the one that commands the time of a dive. But we all start from somewhere and hopefully there is someone to point out what you do wrong and reflects on your air consumption. But to return to the guided dive subject, the few guided dives I go usually have a policy of pairing up "heavy breathers" so that they can surface together while the group continues on. Another technique I noticed when there are multiple groups, is having the experienced divers go on the first group and the least experienced divers on a later group. When someone would be low on air (usually on the later groups), then that person would join a group which is at the later part of their dive. In other words, the issue can be managed by experienced operators. Cutting a dive short just because of one person, would not only be unfair to the group but also to the responsible diver who will end up with as much disappointment for spoiling everyone else's experience.

If you want to avoid this on guided dives, I suppose you can talk to the operator in advance of booking the trip and see if you are comfortable with their dive management. On other dives, either choose a compatible buddy or be patient and give that diver the slack he/she needs to improve. Unfortunately very few people will be honest and even fewer capable of offering useful tips in improving air consumption through better trim and buoyancy. GW...thank you for being my mentor when I was that diver ;-)

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I was in cozumel early when I only had a set of dives and was paired up with the DM. I sucked up my tank in 20 or so min and told my DM. He looked around, thinking either ending the dive or send me up by myself, which is what he did. It was no big deal since the boat was always following our bubbles, but I thought he might have searched for another air hog and end us up together.

More experienced air hogs would know to dive 10-20 ft higher than the others, thus consuming less gas per breath and extending, not our dives, but their own. I would have thought the DM would have told the newbie air hog to do that. Or at least in almost all my liveaboard experiences, have the group back in 20 min, but the ones that are out of air goes up to the boat while everybody else just kind of wander around below the boat searching for critters.

As for large tanks, the few times I inquired about it, they frequently had a first come first serve policy, and the first comers usually had took it. The last few times, I was there early and they still had it, but I decined, not wanting to seem to be the 'air hog', letting the true air hogs (or just the large tank hogs) take it.

Most liveaboards seem to be pretty lax on your air consumption, I sometimes come up with practically no air (T&C explorer, we sometimes hang 30 ft down for 5min in order for the boat to swing by). Was never in a dangerous situation, if I was truly out of air, all I have to do is surface. Maybe once or twice, was I sharing air (while still swimming), once was when the DM took us in a squarish pattern and due to the limited visibility, I don't think anyone knew quite where the boat was. Another might have been darwin or wolf island, where the current & water temp just beats you down.

 

[Neilwood]

I was in cozumel early when I only had a set of dives and was paired up with the DM. I sucked up my tank in 20 or so min and told my DM. He looked around, thinking either ending the dive or send me up by myself, which is what he did. It was no big deal since the boat was always following our bubbles, but I thought he might have searched for another air hog and end us up together.

More experienced air hogs would know to dive 10-20 ft higher than the others, thus consuming less gas per breath and extending, not our dives, but their own. I would have thought the DM would have told the newbie air hog to do that. Or at least in almost all my liveaboard experiences, have the group back in 20 min, but the ones that are out of air goes up to the boat while everybody else just kind of wander around below the boat searching for critters.

As for large tanks, the few times I inquired about it, they frequently had a first come first serve policy, and the first comers usually had took it. The last few times, I was there early and they still had it, but I decined, not wanting to seem to be the 'air hog', letting the true air hogs (or just the large tank hogs) take it.

Most liveaboards seem to be pretty lax on your air consumption, I sometimes come up with practically no air (T&C explorer, we sometimes hang 30 ft down for 5min in order for the boat to swing by). Was never in a dangerous situation, if I was truly out of air, all I have to do is surface. Maybe once or twice, was I sharing air (while still swimming), once was when the DM took us in a squarish pattern and due to the limited visibility, I don't think anyone knew quite where the boat was. Another might have been darwin or wolf island, where the current & water temp just beats you down.

In my experience the DM is often simply a guide. They might give you advice if you ask for it (the ones I have spoken to have been quite happy to) but won't be on top of you providing it. If you are up front with the DM, they may allow you the "hose of shame" as they will generally sip the tank down and come back with a huge reserve.

The tip regarding the following the group at a higher level is a good one - even a few feet can save a good amount of gas.

With regards to the large tanks, I would make a point of asking beforehand or reserving one. There should be no shame attached to it. I am an air hog (I will never ever manage to sip the same amount of air as some of the others I dive with due to my size) so I do tend to go for a tank size up from the norm. The last LOB we had a number of dives where people were coming on board with 20-30 bar due to queues at the ladders and shark being spotted below - there was no panic to ascend just because they were below 50 bar (the agreed return pressure).

 

[boulderjohn]

Quite a few years ago, I was diving in Cozumel with a company that had a lot of boats and supposedly divided them by ability. They constantly screwed that up--I don't knoww aht was so hard about that concept, but they messed up nearly every time. One day I (then a DM) and 2 other DMs (a husband and wife) shared the boat with one other diver--a brand new OW diver on his first trip post certification. I was the only choice for his buddy. I did indeed go through his air in 20 minutes on both dives, and on both dives the DM sent him up with me. On the first dive, I got on the boat with him while I still had well over half my gas. On the second dive, I kept my eyes on the rest of the group down below, and when he hit the surface, I went back down and joined them for the rest of the dive.

The dive operator gave me my money back for that day of diving, which was nice, but I don't do dives on dive vacations with the goal of getting my money back. I want to have nice dives. It was nice that they recognized and atoned for their screw up, but it is far better to dive with an operator that does not allow this to happen.

 

[kent bunes]

Really, it would be best if a new diver who knew they consumed air like this didn't put themselves in a situation like this. Dive where they can pay for a private DM who can work with them. Unfortunately I'd guess some divers in this situation might not know what they don't know yet, and won't think of it. So it's left to a dive op to deal with it.

Thats why I after a 13 year brake from diving is avoiding any kind of dives where I can end up with a buddy other than my long time friend (who is new to scuba-diving). We get about 20min at 20m and I will not put in a situasjon where I am responsible for ruining anyone dive.
But on the upside we are starting to se the consumption slowly go down...

 

[npole]

If you use a small boat with a limited number of divers you usually end with more experienced ones and ideally the issue is reduced if not eliminated. I just returned from Cozumel and I can't imagine the nightmare of a drift dive with 20 other people.. luckily I went with small boats with only 6-7 divers.

The the dive op we used, the DM's have multiple signalling tubes and if the air consumption was different between divers, they sent them up in couples using a tube (the boat will pick you up soon after the safety stop)... and so on, while staying with the last diver (unless he run out of air before!).