Ha ha, that's a good Q for me today!
Yesterday I abandoned my buddy for some pictures of a school of jacks; wish I could post some pics of them but I have not been recognized by the ScubaBoard Photo Gallery since the May ScubaBoard "upgrade."
We were already visually separated by cement "wreckage" at Mala Wharf, but could easily rise 5 feet and see each other 10 feet apart, and we were "aware" of each other's bubbles.
I chased the school away from the "wreck" for ~100 yards, but the angles are such that I could still identify where the "wreck" was at all times. I looked back a couple times during the initial pursuit, hoping to see that my buddy noticed the change in MO, but I did not see her.
After burning my air down to a "return to shore now" level (<3 minutes of chasing), I turned towards the wreck and shore to see my faithful buddy approaching me while giving the hand signal for the Hawaiian word "lolo" (point at temple and make circles). :kiss2:
If this had been pretty much any other buddy, I would not have acted so "lolo" but she has been diving since the 60's, has worked as a glass bottom boat diver, foraging solo for interesting "stuff" to bring to the windows, has a nicer, newer Apex reg set than my top of the line Oceanic reg set, and still had 1200 psi in her 72 cft after an 81 minute dive to max depth 40 feet, the last 10 of which were only on my 5 minute photo "bolt" and return to wreck.
The only other buddy I am likely to dive with would be "paying" me &/or a possible "get busy" buddy after the dive, and I am not a bad buddy then.