dive scenario - need feedback

[Air On]

There is one cardinal rule thats being missed...
YOU as a diver have the right to call a dive over at any point.

Sure your dive buddy might not be happy but thats how its supposed to work.

I didn't catch the responce to the question of if you used your snorkle or your tank air on the swim out to the site?

After swimming out to the dive site even if you had used a snorkle you'd have been a little tired already, right?

Your dive buddy on Nitrox would get a better level of oxygen per breath then you so his recovery would have been quicker too. Less breathing too, hence the longer bottom time on nitrox as its advertised. Without his being a much more experienced diver.

Put it down as leasons learned and avoid a repeat of them if at all possible.

Whats that old saying again?
There are old divers and bold divers, but there are no old bold divers...

Similar experience?
I had a dive buddy I met onsite, assiged to me by the divemaster on my last dive trip.
It was a three person group the dive master assigned me the head of. The guy only had only ten dives in. He had borrowed equipment and couldn't even read the dive computer for current air level! We DID talk before the dive and tried to get a dive plan agreed upon, or at least though we agreed.

It didn't matter, he still wanted to head for 90 feet once we were in the water. I had to grab his fins on each of the 2 dives as he was heading below 60 feet to stop him. I had told him to start with as NAUI I had a self imposed depth limit of 50 feet with an Open Water cert.

When I stopped him the first time, He indicated I could hold at 50 while he headed to 90 solo. Through creative sign language I indicated Level and hold above 50 or dive over and return to surface.

The third man dive buddy who was with us too was not in a wet skin and the thermocline was pretty bad at 45 feet. He was already turtled up cold again... not very polite of this guy to push things both times.

I related this to the Divemaster/Shop owner when we returned to the boat the second time (who he had borrowed the equipment from it turns out). She thanked me for keeping an eye on him. Evidently he was pretty agressive all the time and had pulled a few other dive buddies into questionable dives before. She assigned him to me knowing I'd keep him out of trouble... Thanks for the heads up... Keep in mind, you can call a dive over at any time. Reguardless of who your with, or how much more experience they have.

At least I have a good reputation with the dive shop.

From what I understand if you go for instructor level training later these limit pushing dives that you log can count against you, showing a habit of unsafe diving practices?

I'm not planning to be an instructor, but I would like to have the option if I change my mind some day.

Safe diving...

 

[RJP]

That way you don't have one person depending on another in a 'strong and weak' scenario.

Is a 'weak and weak' scenario any better?

 

[bluering]

suddha, it sounds like you were pretty shook up, if not you should have been! that whole thing sounds real bad. I'm glad that you are ok. please talk to some of the instructors on the board.

 

[Colliam7]

I'd had six dives under my belt since getting certified in May, including some cold water diving to a max of 85 feet. Yesterday I did a shore dive in cold water (41 degrees) on a shallow wreck. I had a 6.5mm farmer john/jacket combo and was not cold at all. Used an AL80 air tank, started at 2900 psi. My buddy was someone I met at the site. He was vastly more experienced than me, had dived this wreck before and was wearing a drysuit and had a tank of Nitrox and a pony bottle.

Maybe an odd question, but was his pony mounted on his tank, or slung on his harness? If the latter, I guess I am surprised that he did not offer his pony. Just curious, and not a big deal.

it was a shore dive into some surf and a half-mile surface swim to the marker buoy. We descended to the wreck, swam around a bit and all went fine. Reached a max dept of 69 ft. I reached 600 psi relatively early (13 minutes) and informed my buddy, who seemed surprised. He had about 1100psi left at that point.

I do not really understand why he was 'surprised'. His 1100 psi and your 600 psi aren't all that different - you started with 2900, I wonder what he started with. He was diving dry, and you were diving wet. Whether you were 'not cold' or not, he should have realized that a wet diver in 41 degree water and thick neoprene would probably breath a little more. It does NOT sound like you are an air hog just from this description, BTW.

We swam a bit more, getting shallower, but still on the wreck, til we popped up to the surface briefly. He said we should descend to do a proper safety stop and that once we get down, he'd give me his primary reg and he'd breathe off of his secondary.

Not altogether unreasonable, but probably not necessary, either.

He started down and I noticed I was very low on air. At this point, I wasn't sure what the best decision was. But I followed my buddy since he was already u/w. I got to him just as I was completely out of air.

Probably the best action at that point would have been to stay on the surface. But, that is an armchair observation in hindsight.

He handed me his reg and I swam behind him for a while, breathing fine.

This is actually the part that bothers me a bit. In an OOA buddy situation like this, the OOA diver should be in front, not in back.

We swam at about 15 feet for 3-4 minutes. Then we popped to the surface. He told me to surface swim into shore while he swam below me. I guess he wanted more u/w time. Got to shore alright after an exhausting surface swim.

Sure, it may have been exhausting, but probably not dangerous. Nonetheless, your buddy should have stayed on the surface.

Why I am such an air hog is a separate matter....

As noted, this scenario does not demonstrate you are an 'air hog'.