theduckguru
Contributor
I am usually a fairly good buddy for my instant buddies. However, I was matched with an older overweight man, with a camera. I asked how many dives he has had. He said hundreds. And he has been diving since before certification was required. I said "great". I spelled out my style of diving, and that I am going to be swimming close to the dive master. I was upfront on if he is not keeping up and chose to take pictures; I will simply be buddying up to the divemaster. I was not going to be a spare-air tank for a photographer.
The first dive went OK. But the second dive did not. Of course, I feel funny about asking my buddy with hundreds of dive what his gauge is reading. Fortunately, the DM checked, and my buddy was low on air. We had to do a mandatory safety stop, and my buddy ran out of air. He had to share the octo with the DM. Based on what I learned later, he had lied about how recently he dove so they will let him on the boat. It took him forever to get his gears on, and get into the water, and his buoyancy control was very much like a beginner. He had problem on the surface, and also below. He broke his camera before the second dive as he struggled to get his gears together - it dropped and flooded during the dive. My guess is that he probably has had less than 30 dives, and probably lied about that to be allowed to dive.
I guess I felt a little guilty about ignoring my buddy. But I felt that I should be more concern for my safety than his. By being near the DM, I would have a much better buddy in case of emergency, and we will not be lost if there was excessive current or poor visibility. I guess, I assumed that he claimed he was more experienced than myself; I should let him do as he pleases. We all had to surface earlier than needed because of my buddy's running out of air. I had over 1000 psi when we surfaced. Honestly, I cannot say if I would have dove any differently in the future. Unless my buddy said he was a novice. But then, if something bad happened to my buddy, I guess I would still feel very guilty.
My question is, how much responsibility should one have for their instabuddy, especially if he or she is a photographer?
Why? Is it scuba taboo to watch both your and your buddy's air supply?