Ruined my buddies dive, felt like an idiot.

[FafferUK]

I got certified to AOW in Thailand and Malaysia back in 2008 and despite best intentions didn't dive again until this year. Came back out to Asia with my gf after my work project finished.

Did a scuba review in Koh Tao and then a couple of dives at Sail Rock which all went great and I was loving getting back into diving. Prob have about 27 dives logged at this point.

We found an underwater housing for our camera fairly cheap so bought it.

So we get to Gili Air and I go diving, meet the DM and my buddy for the day. A nice lady who seemed pretty experienced. We go through the briefing, max depth 30m dive time 50 minutes to an hour.

The dive starts out fine and we descend to about 27m. I'm having a great time taking lots of pictures of the fish and the odd turtle. (I was still making sure to check her location regularly and stay close.)

After around 10 mins at depth we start getting some fairly strong current which we have to swim against. I'm getting a bit out of breath, but still doing ok, taking lots of pics. 10 mins later the DM turns asks us to signal for remaining air. I'm at 70 bar (from 200). I can see the surprise on his face and my buddies who signalled back 150.

We have to cut the dive short and start our ascent. The total dive time was 32 minutes. Back on dry land we go through the debrief and both seemed a bit irritated but generally OK and polite about it. I just felt like a complete **** for ruining her dive which she paid good money for.

I guess the lessons learned are leave the camera at home until I'm way more experienced and be more upfront about air consumption before the dive.

This time I am definitely keeping up diving with BSAC in the UK and hopefully next holiday will be a more experienced Diver.

 

[Skeptic14]

I'm sure there have been worse buddies so don't beat yourself up too much. It probably is a good idea to know about what your SAC is or let it be known before the dive that you have only x dives and haven't dove in x years.

That should give experienced divers an idea of what to expect regarding air consumption and dive time. Also, it might be a good idea to signal remaining air at first third to give a good idea of current usage.

Hopefully, you weren't at 70 bar first time you looked at your gauge?

 

[KevinNM]

It's OK to go through your tank faster than your buddy. It's not so OK to have this happen without you or your buddy realizing it.

 

[FafferUK]

Hopefully, you weren't at 70 bar first time you looked at your gauge?

No I had been checking beforehand and was aware of my air level it was more the difference in consumption that was shocking. Probably the addition of current and my preoccupation with taking photos was the issue.

 

[Neilwood]

@dpregan I would agree with what you took away from the experience.

Firstly, using a camera on a dive can take a lot of attention from doing the routine tasks such as buoyancy, trim, gas checks etc.
Secondly, you appreciate how much quicker you went through your gas than your buddy. Air consumption is part experience, part task loading, part fitness and part mental attitude. You were probably excited by seeing the undersea life, swimming against the current and probably haven't as much time in the water as your buddy or DM. That comes in time. My dive times have increased hugely since I started due to being more relaxed.

To me, every dive is a good one irrespective of length (I would be quite happy surfacing with more gas than my buddy).

Get more dives in, get your trim and buoyancy better and watch your dive times extend.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Don't worry too much about it, but do try to learn from the experience.

I'd agree that you should probably leave the camera on shore till you get more comfortable with your basic skills. Having a camera task-loads you, and that will cause your air consumption to go up. It also increases the potential for buddy separation, and a number of other potential problems that are due primarily to inattention.

Air consumption is a function of feeling relaxed in the water ... just like on land, the more you exert the harder you'll breathe. So instead of focusing on pictures, focus instead on developing your skills so as to have to exert less when you encounter current or other unanticipated circumstances. As we all do, you will get better with practice.

I dive with new divers regularly, and one of the things I always emphasize as part of the dive briefing is to watch your gauge, and tell me when you reach "x" amount (x depending on the dive profile). It's less important how long we stay down than it is that we enjoy the time we spend underwater ... and we'll both enjoy it a lot more if there are no surprises.

Yes, I've had new divers tell me "sorry I ruined your dive". My standard rejoinder is "the only way you can possibly ruin my dive is to put me in a situation where I have to rescue you". So don't worry too much about your air consumption ... we've all been there. Heck, when I was new my dive buddies used to say they could see the sides of my tank move when I took a breath. I celebrated the first time I got 30 minutes on a dive. Today I can get more than twice that on the same tank and dive profile. All it takes is practice.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Edward3c]

When using a camera it's very easy to get so focuses everything else gets forgotten. I paid for a personal guide (B150) who's job then was to just dive with me at my pace as I slowly moved round with me camera. I used Master Divers and the guides always asked a number of times for my remaining gas.

A guide who gets annoyed at a guest's air consumption should be reported to the operator. I've told operators, I'll not dive again with a particular guide as they didn't pay proper attention to my wants and attempted to do the dive they wanted.

You've learned a valuable lesson about checking you gas on a regular basis.

 

[2airishuman]

@dpregan Air consumption is part experience, part task loading, part fitness and part mental attitude. You were probably excited by seeing the undersea life, swimming against the current and probably haven't as much time in the water as your buddy or DM. That comes in time. My dive times have increased hugely since I started due to being more relaxed.

It is also part individual physiology. I go through more air than most people for the same reason that I have to eat 4000 calories a day. Then again I can dive with steel 120s quite comfortably. That cylinder would measure 14.5 liters and 240 bar in metric terms.

Also not yet mentioned is that, in a current, better fins will reduce your air consumption.

 

[Iralub]

It happens. There are worse things that buddies can do to ruin a dive
Your buddy might be one of those people who just has a very low air consumption naturally.

I commonly have dives where I am diving on a smaller tank than my buddy and coming up with 100 bar of air when my buddy and/or someone in the dive group is down to 50. Probably because I'm half their size, rather than any particular achievement of mine.

Unless my buddy has created a danger under water or was repeatedly swimming away from me and forcing me to chase them, or doing stupid things, I don't see it as someone ruining my dive. Your buddy shouldn't either.

 

[abscuba]

Hey live and learn. Your SAC rate will improve with experience and you will learn how quickly you use gas. It is important that it is part of your pre-dive brief. On top of that its about fun you were not working as a diver, your not getting paid you, your dive buddy, and DM are participating in a sport and at the end of the day is supposed to be fun. Be honest with a DM with your experience so they can plan the dive to be at your skill level so it will be a fun dive and not a choir. Every one will always have a bad day or two long as we learn from them and make our selves better divers we will have more good days then bad days.