Why do you Lie?

[SolarStorm]

I just returned from 12 wonderful days in Cozumel where I completed 18 dives. (very sad to be home now) My normal partner, my daughter spent most of the time sick and only managed 4 dives. The rest of my dives were with insta buddies.

Most were absolutely great! except for 2. In each case they lied to me about their remaining air. MY reserve air! Both talked a strong game. At the Palancar Bricks we were targeting a 45 min dive at 80'. I signaled 1/2 tank to my partner, like we agreed, and he told me he still had 2200 left. The dive is going as planned, or so I thought with me obviously being the governing factor.

So here I am enjoying what looks to be a great dive and all of a sudden my buddy is panicked because hes at 500psi while we are at 80'. Im still at 1100 psi. How in the world did he get from 2200 to 500 in the time it took me to use 400 psi? His answer to me was that he went a little deeper (he did by maybe 10-15' for a couple of min) but I cant see this using 1700 psi!

We surfaced and ended the dive at 36 min. He would not show me what was left in his tank.

The other case was similar at the Santa Rosa Wall.

In both cases neither could understand my concern as the dive was "reasonable" in length and no one was left below. I did not buddie with either of these two guys again.

What do you do in these situations, and am I coming across as too much of a jerk being concerned? Personally, I have no problem running low on time first. When we agree on the reserve pressure and dive time, those are the limits.

 

[herman]

That is why I insist that I get an air pressure back, an OK is not acceptable and I will not stop until either A: give me your pressure or B: I come, grab your gauge and look for myself. Mine is OK is NOT an acceptable responce.

 

[Scott]

I very seldom have insta buddies since I dive with family members or good friends. On the rare occassion that I do have an insta buddy, I seldom take their word for it. I will either ask to see it or I will move to a possition I that can sneak a peek. Especially if they claim to have more than I do.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Communicate how you feel about gas management in the pre-dive planning.

With insta-buddies, I will always state very explicitly that I am carrying his emergency reserve gas. I then ask how often he would like me to show him my SPG. I'll mention that he's more than welcome to glance at my SPG more frequently during the dive. To this end, I show him where I clip it off and have the SPG facing outward. Then, I explicitly state that he is carrying my emergency reserve gas and I'd like to see his SPG about every 5 minutes. We also discuss turnaround pressure or what's a reasonable amount of remaining gas so that we can ascend comfortably from depth (including contingencies for one diver experiencing complete loss of his air). We're basically reviewing rock bottom for various depths without using the term "rock bottom."

I will then explicitly state that it doesn't matter who's gas supply determines turnaround/ascent. We're a team. We look out for each other. That relationship doesn't end until we're back on-board the boat.

I would try to give your buddy the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps he was a bit narced. Perhaps the needle on his SPG was temporarily stuck. Maybe he really did blow through a significant portion of his air in a few minutes at greater depth. I don't know because I wasn't there. This is one of the reasons that I prefer showing gauges rather than using hand signals to flash remaining pressure. There's no ambiguity when you actually see the gauge.

I can only guess that the insta-buddy didn't want to let you see his SPG after the dive because the remaining gas was extremely low and/or he was ashamed to admit that his gas consumption rate was higher than yours. If I thought this was something we could address, I'd share a story that would try to convey the message that different people have different gas consumption rates. No big deal. If I thought this wasn't something that we could talk about, then I wouldn't feel comfortable diving with the guy anymore.

 

[divad]

That is why I insist that I get an air pressure back, an OK is not acceptable and I will not stop until either A: give me your pressure or B: I come, grab your gauge and look.

B:Not.

 

[soltari675]

I can't imagine lying about something like that. I just did my first boat ocean dive last week. Every time I was asked for my pressure, I gave the exact number. As soon as I hit the number we agreed to surface with (1000 psi) I was telling him. Not a single psi over. I guess some people get embarrassed to be using up more air maybe? I knew I would use a little more since I am still a fairly new diver, and the environment and everything was brand new to me, so I was a little nervous. Still, I made sure my buddy knew exactly what I had in air. As it should have been.

One thing like mentioned above, is before we touched fin in the water, we were clear that ok signals were not enough. We wanted to know specifically how much air each other had. It worked great for both of us. I did end up surfacing on my own and he joined another group nearby when I ran low on air and that was ok. But we both knew exactly what was going on. No panic. Nothing. Maybe I got lucky in my buddy assignment, but having that comfort of knowing you can trust the other made the dive a lot of fun.

 

[lowtech]

Did you do a bubble check before you descended?

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Did you do a bubble check before you descended?

@lowtech: The OP's buddy was the one who experienced the low on air situation. It wouldn't take a formal bubble check to see a stream of bubbles emanating from your buddy's gear (besides reg exhaust bubbles).

 

[lowtech]

@lowtech: The OP's buddy was the one who experienced the low on air situation. It wouldn't take a formal bubble check to see a stream of bubbles emanating from your buddy's gear (besides reg exhaust bubbles).

Most likely....
For me those little champagne bubble are bit hard to see if you aren't looking.
I'm just curious if there was a formal check that can rule out a leaky connection.

I can see someone, not that I agree with it, rounding a couple hundred psi.
Lying about your gas, the way the OP describes it, seems criminal.

I'm wonder if there is more at work here, misread gauge, misinterpreted communication, leaking gear..

At any rate, following the advice given in the previous posts probably would have mitigated this issue.

 

[carolrose]

I have no problem with gas management or planning, but it would annoy me to no end to check in with someone on pressure every five minutes. I know my consumption well enough that I could tell you my pressure within 100 psi at any given time without looking, but I would not be willing to stop, unclip, and do the whole you show me yours, I'll show you mine that frequently. That said, I've definitely had a buddy lie about gas reserves, and more importantly I suspect that he hit thirds and didn't turn the dive, so I understand your concern. There has to be some happy balance between blatant carelessness and OTT nannying too though.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk