So I'm on a dive boat in WPB. I was not officially with anyone and the operators are generally content, as am I, to not be paired off with anyone. In this particular case, the divemaster asked if I could buddy up with one individual who had some new equipment and wanted to be paired off with someone. He was kind of overgeared IMO and I soon got the impression that he was the kind of guy who wanted to present himself, and maybe saw himself, as a better diver than he really was because he had lots of equipment (e.g., pony bottle and so on). In any case, that's sort of an aside. So we get in the water and as soon as we get to the bottom he gets on his knees and starts futzing with his equipment. I didn't know what was going on...if he was having a major problem or a minor problem that needed to be attended to, but I stuck with him. During this time, the rest of the group was swimming/drifting off. The water was uncharacteristically murky (maybe 35 ft) and I soon lost sight of our group as I was waiting for this guy to do whatever he felt he needed to do. A few sharks appeared as it was a shark dive, so that was kind of neat, but I wasn't to thrilled to have lost contact with the group while this guy who I didn't ask to dive with in the first place just sat in the sand and tinkered with his equipment. After a few minutes, he waved me on....like, "go ahead, I'm fine and want to sit here for a while and connect snapbolts or whatever". Well, as I wasn't sure what his situation was, I wasn't inclined to leave him, nor for that matter did I have anywhere to go other than the general direction that the group had gone off in. He kind of did some swimming and then stopped and...I don't know what he was doing. He again indicated that I should head off and that he was OK, however. But I just sat there looking at him waiting for something to happen and to render any assistance if he needed it. After a while, several elements of the larger group of divers again appeared. I was surprised and rather relieved and thought that the two of us would join them. Instead, he made some half-hearted attempts to swim in their direction but they again began to swim out of view and he apparently had little interest in joining them. At this point, I felt that since he was not in any obvious danger (e.g., it wasn't as if he was having an air problem or anything like that), and I did not feel comfortable for my own well-being in losing the group that I had fortuitiously found, that I would rejoin them. I thought that he too would be happy at this turn of events. I signalled him that I was swimming to join the group and waved him on but he just didn't seem that interested in joining them, so I just let him be and joined the main group. After surfacing, he was the last person to pop back up and had me quite worried. I even said something to the captain while we were waiting that I was quite worried. After he got back on board, I said something to the effect that he had scared the crap out of me while I was waiting to see if he'd show up on the surface or not. He didn't really have anything much to say and didn't seem to think it was any big deal or that I should have been worried.
Anyway, on the one hand, I felt like once we were buddied, I should have stuck with him no matter what barring some sort of direct and clearcut danger to my personal safety. On the other hand, he signalled me to take off and I wasn't too excited about spending the whole dive sitting in the sand missing out on the sights and being disconnected from the main group which included the dive leader, so when they re-appeared I figured I personally would be better served by re-joining our group and if he refused to join up, then so be it. I'm basically comfortable with my decision, but was extremely apprehensive while waiting an extra 5 or so minutes on the surface after every one but he was back onboard and was thinking that maybe I had made a bad decision. What do you think?
Thanks,
Dave
Anyway, on the one hand, I felt like once we were buddied, I should have stuck with him no matter what barring some sort of direct and clearcut danger to my personal safety. On the other hand, he signalled me to take off and I wasn't too excited about spending the whole dive sitting in the sand missing out on the sights and being disconnected from the main group which included the dive leader, so when they re-appeared I figured I personally would be better served by re-joining our group and if he refused to join up, then so be it. I'm basically comfortable with my decision, but was extremely apprehensive while waiting an extra 5 or so minutes on the surface after every one but he was back onboard and was thinking that maybe I had made a bad decision. What do you think?
Thanks,
Dave