Skin diving around divers on a safety stop

[String]

String. First of all, I wouldn't hesitate to give up my octo if another diver signaled me.

All nice cute theory but when a diver really needs air not part of training the signalling and waiting is the first thing ignored. They need air and they need it *now*, they WILL go for your octopus or they will go for your reg. They need to breathe. To them nothing else matters.
That clicking noise and no air on totally empty lungs is pretty much guaranteed to make most people forget cosmetics like signals and waiting. Once they have air most will calm down. Refusing them air you create a potentially life threatening situation and even manage to make it worse.

Pushing someone away who is trying to get an octo off you to me is refusing to give a potentially dying diver life saving gas and at very least in my eyes an assault.

If someone wants my air or my reg that can have it immediately, no questions asked. THEN we sort out whats happened and how to get out of it. (....although if its a rich nitrox mix i may charge you for it afterwards at that stuff isnt cheap )

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

This is like the wild west thread here with knives and my air is mine. Made for some interesting reading though. If you know the person or not I think it is the only responsible thing to do is try and help. Your safety first, but what kind of person would actually watch another person drown when they could have done something, not a descent one for sure.

 

[psychocabbage]

not a descent one for sure.

Nope.. One that can keep thier bouyancy in check since they know how to keep from running out of air.

Sorry.. Grammer police moment.. hahha

Again, when its down to you vs them, you must always win out.. otherwise you will be a statistic..

Now, technically all of this is avoided by those of us who only dive with our buddies.. my wife and I only split for about 40 seconds while we descend. She clears her ears much faster than I.. But once we hit our target depth we are nearby and its all good.. Isnt the concept of the buddy to have someone that will look out for you? I do check on my wife and she on I... and if needed we are there for eachother.. but any strangers need my air? they better be calm cool and collected or they will be floaters..

If you dont like it, dont dive stupid, dive smart, take care of your gear, and focus on your planned dive and dive your plan. Dont deviate. Dont penetrate if you cant handle it and dont dive outside your comfort zone..


When I was in Cozumel, I was at 102ft and looking down at what had to be 130 and so wanted to quickly touchdown at my max..but no. was not part of the plan and I had 0 idea of how the water was around there. Self control.. good feature.

 

[nannymouse]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that if someone is taking air (asked for or not) that means that we are heading topside now. With a safety stop, if the situation is under control, or straight up, taking air means that we are finished being underwater, and we need to go UP!

I would need to feel VERY comfortable with someone to share air in a non-urgent situation.

Was that a photo of Papa Bear sharing air? I thought he said that his air is his, and if you want to breathe, get your own. Something about your gas management not being his problem??

 

[D_B]

yep, dont put yourself into harm to save someone (I bet all that goes out the window if it's a loved one)
but it sure seems that what your saying here is a corruption of what I was taught , almost cavalier

 

[gypsyjim]

This is like the wild west thread here with knives and my air is mine. Made for some interesting reading though. If you know the person or not I think it is the only responsible thing to do is try and help. Your safety first, but what kind of person would actually watch another person drown when they could have done something, not a descent one for sure.

All kidding and bravado aside, I don't think I've ever dived with anyone who wouldn't try to help another diver in trouble, whether or not they were a "loved one", even at some level of risk to themselves. I certainly would never dive again with someone who I came to believe had such an attitude!

 

[Blackwood]

Isnt the concept of the buddy to have someone that will look out for you?

And is willing and capable of helping you when they observe a problem. Many of us consider our buddies to be a source of redundancy, among other things.

Sorry.. Grammer police moment.. hahha

If you're going to call out someone's spelling, you could at least spell grammar correctly.

 

[Papa_Bear]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the impression that if someone is taking air (asked for or not) that means that we are heading topside now. With a safety stop, if the situation is under control, or straight up, taking air means that we are finished being underwater, and we need to go UP!

I would need to feel VERY comfortable with someone to share air in a non-urgent situation.

Was that a photo of Papa Bear sharing air? I thought he said that his air is his, and if you want to breathe, get your own. Something about your gas management not being his problem??

No that is two instructors having fun and I took the picture! It was during the Spooky Channel Project and after hundreds of dives we were out to have a little FUN!

You are really good at miss-quoting, miss-understanding, and miss-representing what I have said! I hope you paid better attention to your instructor! But you just keep on thinking whatever you think you know, because you don't know me at all!

Your gas management is your problem, don't make it mine!

 

[Gombessa]

Nope.. One that can keep thier bouyancy in check since they know how to keep from running out of air.

Sorry.. Grammer police moment.. hahha

Again, when its down to you vs them, you must always win out.. otherwise you will be a statistic..

If you're going to call out someone's spelling, you could at least spell grammar correctly.

Also, "buoyancy" and "it's" are mistyped. Hmm, that's three strikes in three consecutive sentences (well, fragments really). Further, ellipses consist of three periods (or four, depending on whether you quote past a sentence), not two. Talk about your glass houses! Anyways, I thought we were supposed to be talking about diving?

 

[bschulz]

Well, without getting into the heated discussion here, I think that there is an increased risk of generating some microbubbles from that activity, but I am not so sure. On the other hand, stealing some air from the divers on deco may not be such a great problem as this was presumably a certified diver that is supposed to know about breathing out when going up. It is also not clear from the story whether he "took" the regulator or asked nicely and was "given" air. In any case, I generally share the reservations of the group about potential risks coming with free diving immediately after scuba diving.