Funny situation - or not?

[stgcph]

The reason I tell this little story is, that with the input from this community, it may help other divers, who, like me, are not very experienced, in making the right decisions in situations like this.

In February when diving off Dauin on the southern tip of Negros in the Philippines, i was buddied up with a Chinese guy who we can call Mr. Ho. We went off in the morning on the boat together with the local DM and we were only the three of us. I had been diving the previous days with the same DM and had got to know him as a serious and safety minded person. Mr. Ho spoke very little English but he was a nice guy and we all got along well using single words, gestures and body language. After the first two dives it turned out, that Mr. Ho was an air hog as well, and we had to end the dives after around 25 minutes as he ran low on air. It was a bit annoying of course, but to me not really anything to make a fuss about Mr. Ho being such a nice guy and all. Some bottom-time more or less, who care, there were other days and more dives ahead. After a good, long SI we went for the third dive and although we stayed close together, I admit that I didn’t keep my eyes on Mr. Ho all the time. So when I looked to check for him I was somewhat surprised to see that he was now on top of the DM holding on to the DM’s tank valve and breathing from the DM’s Octopus. I thought it was quite a funny configuration (photo below) and as I figured the DM was doing it “for my sake” I went along and continued the dive. The DM was one of these professionals that apparently stop breathing when under water, so we had another 15 minutes dive time and time to do the safety stop.

Only afterwards did I consider that it was probably bad judgement on my part that I did not make the decision to end the dive immediately. In the unlikely event that I had an OOA situation, my options were to do a CESA (we were at about 15 meters at the time) or to snatch the Octopus out of the mouth of Mr. Ho. I would have had only little chance of success though, as Mr. Ho was quite a big guy and would probably not have accepted this without putting up some “argument” that I was unlikely to win (and also, this would have been extremely impolite). Last option was to buddy-breathe with the DM, which would mean three persons now sucking from the same tank and which would also be a rather crowded situation with Mr. Ho dangling from the Octopus.

I guess this is a variation on the “trust me-dive”, which has been discussed a lot on this forum. I had confidence that the DM would not do anything to compromise safety and so I switched off my own thinking. This could be said of Mr. Ho as well.

What would you have done?

Mr. Ho on DM's octopus

 

[DiverAmy]

I agree with you that you should have ended the dive immediately assuming that your only ooa sources were your buddy or the dive master.

 

[iamrushman]

thanks for sharing your story....

 

[bmorescuba]

While it would undoubtedly have been prudent to call the dive, a slightly less conservative approach would have been to check Mr. Ho's air. Just because he was on the DM's octo, it doesn't mean his tank was empty. He might have had 500-700 psi left, and just been sharing to prolong the dive. Assuming the DM wouldn't let himself and his "rider" get into trouble, Mr. Ho may have had plenty of gas to ascend safely from 15m on his own tank. I've seen this behavior before, where a DM has 2,000 left, the group has ~1,200, and one person has 700. So the DM will share with the 700 to prolong things a little. Maybe not the best idea, but lower risk than if someone has actually breathed their tank dry.

 

[stgcph]

You are right; I didn’t know mr. Ho’s actual air-status on that dive. He was not exactly out of air on the two previous dives but had signaled “Low on Air” which (in my metric system) usually means around 50-60 BAR.

So I guess this situation would not have had these afterthoughts if the DM had told in advance, that he would use this approach.

 

[RainPilot]

If he was OOG, bad idea. If he was getting an extension from the DM then all well.

I regularly share gas with my students. I treat it like a drill but it's mainly to even out the experience for the air hogs. I dive two 80's even in shallow waters so I have a lot to hand out. I never let them get below rock bottom in their own tanks though.

 

[Diver0001]

Interesting formation there. I don't know how comfortable I would be having a OOG diver sharing air and "following" me like that where I couldn't see him.

R..

 

[AdivingBel]

If the DM had previously shown himself to be safety minded as you said, my assumption would have been he was extending the dive (not uncommon). Had Mr. Ho actually been OOG, a safety minded DM would have thumbed the dive immediately knowing there was no longer any redundancy for the group. If you were really concerned at the time, you could have checked Mr. Ho's gas as was stated earlier. Without at least checking, immediately thumbing the dive unilaterally on your part would have been a modest overreaction, IMHO. I think you handled the situation O.K. given your previous experience with the DM & Mr. Ho not actually being OOG on the earlier dives. Again, IMHO, YMMV.

 

[NYCNaiad]

Thanks for sharing your story & the pic. It's shocking to me when I see someone (DM-assisted or not) prolonging a dive by sharing air. I don't think it's safe. I would end the dive & I'm not sure I would continue diving with the dive shop either.

I'm curious what the official agency stance (e.g., PADI, NAUI, etc.). Does anybody know?

 

[RainPilot]

It's safe as long as the receiver and donor maintain enough gas to surface both of them safely should either system fail. (Rock bottom)

I often extend my wife's dives as I dive two tanks and with her back she can only dive one. So we each get one and a half tanks out of it.

Official agency policy stops after training dives. They are all VERY clear that they have no input on dives conducted outside of their courses.