Experienced and technical divers -- Checking buddy's pressure

[SparticleBrane]

Depends.
If I'm escorting two new divers for their OW checkout dives, I'll periodically ask them their air pressure to keep them thinking, get them in the habit of checking their air, and just to make sure they know it.

If I'm diving with familiar buddy I don't usually ask. Most of the people I normally dive with are wearing double steel cylinders in a quarry practicing for the next cave trip and I'm wearing my single Al80. Thus it's an exercise in futility to ask them what their pressure is. We all let each other know what our pressure is before submerging but after that there's just no point in asking them. The quarry we normally dive in isn't much deeper than 30ft and unless they have a catastrophic gas loss or are hyperventilating the entire dive, I'm definitely going to be the guy who ends with the least amount of gas left.
With that being said we don't normally do dives longer than an hour, so gas isn't the determining factor of when we decide to surface.

One of these days I'm going to get some doubles...:shakehead

 

[do it easy]

With experienced, regular buddies, I'll assume that they are checking their pressure regularly and are on schedule. If I get a chance to glance at their SPG, I do look at it.

With less experienced, but regular buddies, I will actually look at their SPGs. Sometimes I ask them, sometimes I just sneak a peak, either by sneaking up on them or just a glance in passing. I can usually judge their gas relative to mine, so I usually check only once or twice during the dive, and usually at or near the furthest/deepest point in case I need to adjust the exit strategy.

With instabuddies, I check more often so that I can judge their gas consumption and fine tune the dive plan.

 

[TheRedHead]

With less experienced, but regular buddies, I will actually look at their SPGs. Sometimes I ask them, sometimes I just sneak a peak, either by sneaking up on them or just a glance in passing. I can usually judge their gas relative to mine, so I usually check only once or twice during the dive, and usually at or near the furthest/deepest point in case I need to adjust the exit strategy.

That's kind of a sneaky DMish thing to do, sort of like being the deco captain on every dive. Ask, but don't touch my spg. :shakehead

 

[Jason B]

I'm with BabyDuck.

If I can't trust you not to break the gas plan then I'm not diving with you. Flat out end of discussion. No need for sneaking peeks or tapping on spg's.

When out doing cave dives, I'm counting on my buddy for so many things. I better be able to count on him not breaking thirds.

 

[do it easy]

That's kind of a sneaky DMish thing to do, sort of like being the deco captain on every dive. Ask, but don't touch my spg. :shakehead

Don't worry about that! :mooner:

I like to know gas pressures so that I can avoid surface swims since I usually end up leading the dive anyway. My friends always make fun of me for getting lost all the time, yet no one wants to lead? (I don't really get lost very often- my friends just won't let me forget it)

 

[TSandM]

Well, we had the signal confusion on this dive, where the other diver signalled 1500 psi and we thought it was 500 and started hightailing it for shore

I'm not trying to imply that there is anything wrong with checking; I just wondered what other people did. Mostly, I dive with people now who are either novice divers, who I check, or people I'm pretty used to diving with and whose gas consumption I more or less know. They're on parole until proven untrustworthy

 

[TheRedHead]

I wasn't introduced to the concept of deco captaining until I started making deco dives. Rock bottom and time become paramount as you are using a LOT more gas and racking up deco time. Gas management becomes more critical when deco diving and having one person responsible for the team lets the other team members relax more and enjoy the dive, until it's time to blow the bag, which is not the responsibility of the deco captain on my team.

You really need to get the signals straight on the pre-dive brief.

 

[lamont]

Generally if someone is low on gas to begin the dive they should let everyone else know and then we'll all come to an agreement about a gas plan. Then when it comes to doing the dive I prefer to sneek a peek at someone's gauge or I'll just ask "pressure? okay?" and simply expect an "okay" in response. Everyone's SPG is a team resource so anyone can check anyone else's, usually we just trust that we're all diving with a safe gas plan though...

When diving with newer divers I'm all over checking their gauge for them and doing on-the-fly SAC rate calculations to figure out where we are in the dive... And checking their gauge eliminates all kinds of communication errors caused by different ways people have learned numbers in addition to simple brainfarts...

 

[rjack321]

Well, we had the signal confusion on this dive, where the other diver signalled 1500 psi and we thought it was 500 and started hightailing it for shore

I'm not trying to imply that there is anything wrong with checking; I just wondered what other people did. Mostly, I dive with people now who are either novice divers, who I check, or people I'm pretty used to diving with and whose gas consumption I more or less know. They're on parole until proven untrustworthy

Well at least we both missed the 1000s place! Hey, at least I caught the mistake after a couple of minutes of thinking about it too.

Trusting someone to turn at 3rds is different IMO than trying to be certain places (or not) at certain pressures on an open water loop.

For instance, on our Cove2 night dive the plan was down the boundary line to the logs (~105'), over to the I-beams (~95') and then leave the I-beams with 1500 psi in the HP119s they were using. Up to 40ish and hang in that depth zone for awhile gradually ascending to 10' over 20 mins. (I started with 2000 in lp85s.)

We/I just went until the turn around pressure/time at the I-beams (1500 psi or 25 mins). 'Twas a simpler plan and it was easier to be in the right places with everyone's respective RB. Also wasn't our 1st dive together.

I do get less anal with repetition

 

[StraitsdiverGeo]

My dive buds and I seem to track each others air supply most of the time. When diving and I'm looking at my SPG and notice my dive Bud is looking at me I'll tap it our on my for arm and they do about the same.
We dive wrecks most of the time and agree on what pressure to head the line at, but we seem to keep track of each other. I like knowing how my Buds are doing, that's what I'm there for isn't it??? I don't care if some day if I have every cert in the world or 10,000 dive under my belt. I have a diving style that seem to work for me and my Buds. And I'm there for them.