50% of the time. Why Me?

[Phish-phood]

I have to say that if I discuss the dive plan with my buddy beforehand and we agree on a pressure to end the dive on then I trust my buddy to let me know when they reach that pressure.

Yes I will periodically ask my buddies for air pressures but if they flash me the okay signal then I trust that they are following the dive plan and will let me know when they reach the pre-arranged pressure. Maybe I am just too trusting, I don't know!

My regular buddies and I have a procedure where anything above 100bar we just flash the ok and when we go below we let our buddy know what pressure we are on.If I dive with some-one new I let them know this and unless they have some objection that's how I do things. Obviously if for some reason it makes someone feel more comfortable with the dive to know my actual pressure then I will give it to them - I am all for making keeping people within their comfort zone, but I draw the line at allowing people pull at my kit to check my guages themselves.

There are obviously exceptions to this, particularly now that I am doing more dives around the 30 metre mark. My buddy if far more experienced at depth than I am and I always say to him that I give him full permission to haul my ass out of there if he thinks I am not behaving myself. Again though, this is all discussed prior to starting the dive.

 

[mk57nato]

I have never lost track of my gas. That would be akin to loosing track of altitiude awareness while skydiving, which i have also never lost track of. Keeping track of these things is your life. I have been fortunate not to have a buddy that has lost track, But if one ever did... it would be the last time EVER. I would not EVER dive with that person again PERIOD. If they dont have enough sense of self preservation to learn the number one rule in any sport they do, then they are not worth going with. Especially if it may cost you your life along with them....
I am sorry you got some bad buddies, and it may happen to me someday. But i do try to ferret them out before diving with them.. this is not to say that i havent had a bad buddy. While dm'ing a boat i got stuck with a hunter that didnt have a buddie, didnt know what he was hunting and shot everything that moved... Including a Gerabaldi... which i ended the dive at that point.... and he got lots of yelling and bad looks back on the boat... and no i did not dive with him again buddie or not...
So i guess it comes down to the point that you have to try to get a feel for who your going diving with before you actually dive, and if you dont feel comfortable with them dont dive with them. Or if your are unsure of them keep track of their gas as well as yours... I do. Also if we have a set turn around time, depth gas time whatever.. and i try to get them to turn and they wont.... i will drag them back, end the dive and it will be the last time i will ever dive with them. If they dont like it... dont dive with me

Im not trying to be harsh or bad a** joe diver.... its just that this is a recreational sport that i love. Its supposed to be fun and safe. I deal with enough morons in my daily life that i will be dammed if i am going to deal with them during my fun...
And this will get me flamed but so be it..... UnFortunately skydiving has a bunch of im joe skydiver... i dont need any training or fancy devices(i.e. AAD automatic actuation device) i can do it all.... well those numbers are thinning.(Fortunately)...can we say bounce.... Well i look at scuba morons the same way.... yea your bad.....yep.....and your dead so 1 less moron in the gene pool......yay....

 

[Web Monkey]

Hey Pim!

TSA rules prohit Pony Bottles on planes, but they haven't enforced the rule on me yet, and I carry mine on every dive. Sometimes I have to move to it so my buddy won't exhaust my tank too fast after depleting his.

I called the TSA, and the rules aren't quite what they sound like.

If you let the air out, remove the the valve and pop in a a dust cap, you can put the pony in your checked luggage.

Once the valve is removed they no longer consider it a compressed gas cylinder, and have no problem with it. The still won't let you carry it on because they consider it a potential weapon.

Terry

 

[Pugsly55]

Wow - I make a habit of asking and knowing my buddy's air pressure during the dive. If you find it intrusive, don't dive with me.

Why do I care? Because that's MY air!!! If I'm at 100 feet and you're at 300 psi, you're not just putting yourself at risk, you're putting ME at risk. I don't just want a vague definition of what you may think is "OK." We all know where that leads.

It's not about self-preservation skills. It's about team preservation.

If you discuss a dive plan before the actual dive, than there should be no reason to monitor two peoples air supply (yours and your buddies) unless they are very inexperienced or you are somehow responsible for them. If they can't turn at the correct turn pressure, than in your own interest of self-preservation, you should't be diving with them anyway. I mean, running out of air, or extremely low, without having met some adverse curcumstance that has caused air loss/increased consumption is just plain stupid on your buddies part. I take it you have had some bad experiences to this effect?

 

[hvulin]

no one mentioned that deep night dives are also a no-go, especially with buddies you don't know/trust.

btw. when I dive with a new buddy (the one I don't know) I make sure to mention to him before the dive that I expect to get/give the numbers on pressure check and not just a simple OK...
There are too many people who respond ok automatically without even thinking about it, not to mention checking it...

Otherwise this is a good thread to learn about some exaples of things you should not ignore before the dive...

thanks for info

 

[kalvyn]

If you discuss a dive plan before the actual dive, than there should be no reason to monitor two peoples air supply (yours and your buddies) unless they are very inexperienced or you are somehow responsible for them. If they can't turn at the correct turn pressure, than in your own interest of self-preservation, you should't be diving with them anyway. I mean, running out of air, or extremely low, without having met some adverse curcumstance that has caused air loss/increased consumption is just plain stupid on your buddies part. I take it you have had some bad experiences to this effect?

Well... I once went out on a charter here in Tacoma as a single diver and got paired up with a "buddy of circumstance". We talked about the plan, turn pressure, etc (though not in enough detail, using hindsight). During the dive, every time I signaled for pressure, I got OK back. I didn't get too annoyed about it until he signals to me in about 70 fsw that he's at 600 PSI!. I don't like to come up fast from depth but we were gonna be doing just that.

I was still a pretty new diver at that point and didn't feel like I had the experience to be telling anyone how they should be diving, but I can assure you that I looked at his pressure gauge at every opportunity on the second dive that day.

I was talking to someone recently about this sort of thing, and his suggestions to me really made me rethink my "buddy attitude". In my story above, I was put in harm's way as a result of that guy's poor gas management. In the future if this occurs, I'll talk about it with the person afterwards (not in a mean way, but in a mentoring way as Snowbear mentioned earlier in this thread). If the person seems willing to adjust, cool. If not, I'm sitting the next dive out. Talking about all this sort of stuff isn't me telling others how to do things, it's really about taking MY safety and well-being into account. I know I've got things to learn and work on in my diving; I'm certainly not a know-it-all nor do I like telling others what to do. I do want to be safe, and by being a better buddy I can do a lot towards being safer in my diving.

Jimmie

 

[DandyDon]

I called the TSA, and the rules aren't quite what they sound like.

If you let the air out, remove the the valve and pop in a a dust cap, you can put the pony in your checked luggage.

Once the valve is removed they no longer consider it a compressed gas cylinder, and have no problem with it.

Super! 'Course, there's what liklihood that some agent won't remember the rules the same way.

Funny thing is - I never remove the valve. They have yet to say anything, even completely put together, and that's after Roatan, LAX, North Carolina, 2 trips to Cozumel, and Florida.

During the dive, every time I signaled for pressure, I got OK back. I didn't get too annoyed about it until he signals to me in about 70 fsw that he's at 600 PSI!.

Yep, that's about what was happening to me with my boat-pick jerk-buddies. That's why I carry a Pony. If I have an air problem, I have a spare system; if he has a problem, I can give him my Octo, and I'll go to my Pony.

"Get better buddies!" Not possible in many cases. For me, I can take what I get or not dive. So, I become more self supportive thru redundancy...

 

[wreckchick]

Let me throw this scenario at you... you're on a wreck somewhat near the anchor line and ascent pressure is agreed to be 1200 psi. You look at your new buddy and ask about tank pressure, you have 1500 psi. If you get an ok back, that doesn't tell you if you have time to take a quick swing around the wheelhouse or not. If you get an actual tank pressure of 1300, it's time to go up; 1600 there is time. If I ask I want to know, if I'm not asking I'm assuming you're fine unless you give me a reason to think that isn't the case in which case I'm asking!

Two people in this thread have talked about have a low on air or OOA buddy while carrying a pony and putting the buddy on their backgas and the donor switching to the pony. Can you give me the logic of not handing off the pony to the OOA diver?

Rachel

 

[DandyDon]

Two people in this thread have talked about have a low on air or OOA buddy while carrying a pony and putting the buddy on their backgas and the donor switching to the pony. Can you give me the logic of not handing off the pony to the OOA diver?

Rachel

My reasons?

• My Octo hose is longer from my body, in part because my Pony hose comes from my left side, between my main tank first stage and me, then around to my chest;
• My Octo is yellow and hanging where I was taught to hang one, so I would think it'd be easier for the buddy to recozgnize;
• I would rather have the OOA buddy jerking on my main tank than on my Pony.

 

[wreckchick]

I see, tank mounted pony...

Seems like it would make more sense to sling it so you could hand it off.

Thanks for the response

R