An interesting dive

[DeepDiver36]

Never go beyond your ability! If you want to fill lift bags or blow bubbles with your usable air its yours! DMs if comfortable sharing usable air then I see no problem, you can't dive with all contingencies in mind otherwise every dive would be a tech dive and no one would dive! It is accessible risk! What is a "pack"? And why would you put someone down for diving where it's required? Don't go to Cozumel then! But guess what hundreds of thousands do and will continue to do so, ignoring them doesn't change a thing! If you and your buddy want to practice buddy breathing then do it! We are headed for SCUBA police if we don't get a grip! In most places where there are guided dives the DMs are instructors as well and if the instructor wants to demonstrate buddy breathing then I say great. It has to be judged on the circumstances at hand and not a inflexible rule! There is no Common Sense anymore so I wont appeal to it!

What we have to teach is water comfort and skills! We need divers to dive more often and many problems will solve themselves!

Aluminum 80's are easier to ship, cheap, and most operators feel it is harder for their divers to get into trouble with 70 some cubic feet of air!

I walked away from this thread several time but just can not let this one go. Papa_Bear, did you read through the entire thread? Your comments just seem to not flow into what was being discussed and frankly, hard to follow. It seems like there were many thoughts rolled into one long paragraph. We are talking about buddy sharing air and if the practice is generally accepted.

Lift bags and blow bubbles...huh? Tech diving? Accessible risk? Do you mean acceptable? No one put anyone down for diving anywhere? Coz? Diving police? Shipping tanks? 70's are better then 80's? Is anyone else lost?

Not sure if you posted to the right thread my friends as it seems you are all over. Maybe you ment to post on the rants and raves forum.

 

[Papa_Bear]

Yes I did, Multi tasking is a bitch sometimes! Acceptable! LOL and you have to keep up! I read the whole thing and mean what I said! You didn't read it all otherwise you would ask about the 80s! Buts thats okay, it means something to the one who asked! Its like holding a conversation with a couple people at one time, you should try it, it works for the most part! And if you didn't get you will ask if you care and if you don't move on nothing to see here! Also if it's too hard don't work that brain too much, you never know when you will have a blow out, leave a little in reserve!

 

[DeepDiver36]

LOL....LOL...LOL...LOL You are killing me Papa_Bear!

 

[scubarchtraveler]

Hello all,
This thread has raised an issue for which I haven't fully considered. On one dive in, guess where!, Cozumel, last December, I was with a buddy who is easier on air than me. We agreed that once I get to about half a tank, I would take his long hose octopus and breath on his tank until we were about equal. This was done to extend our bottom time. We were never in an OOA situation and we had sufficient reserve air to do our stops and have some left over to surface with about 4-500 left. We descended no more than 45 feet.
I am still not sure whether this might be dangerous, other than reducing my buddy's air supply. But neither of us ever ran low and that was the plan. Am I missing something?
Thanks for any reply.

 

[Nylorac]

Rare happening for me, but why did you thumb the dive???..If nothing else, why not ask before thumbing it to see his air supply left??...You probably wasted some bottom time,....

Wow - maybe it wasn't just about bottom time - just real concern for someone else.... RARE indeed? Don't think so - we all know what really matters.

 

[james croft]

I have dove in packs. It sucks. You tend to be at the mercy of the lowest skilled diver or hoovers on the boat. I dive solo a lot. I do not show my Divemaster or IA cards, etc. as I do not want to get buddied up with an inexperienced diver. I try to find a diver who looks like his gear is well thought out and who looks like he has his act together and will try to buddy up with them. Having larger tanks is a plus.
I use my air how I want and have shared air to keep our dive extended without putting anyone in danger. I agree with other posters that many divers do what is drilled into them without realizing the rational for it. It cracks me up to watch divers in shallow water of about 30 feet or less make a safety stop when half of their dive was probably at around 15 feet. This is a pretty good example of not understanding the nuts and bolts of diving.

 

[wedivebc]

It cracks me up to watch divers in shallow water of about 30 feet or less make a safety stop when half of their dive was probably at around 15 feet. This is a pretty good example of not understanding the nuts and bolts of diving.

Actually it is an example of a diver excersising and adhering to good diving practices. It demostrates a good understanding of the nuts and bolts of diving.

 

[phyrekat]

Wow - maybe it wasn't just about bottom time - just real concern for someone else.... RARE indeed? Don't think so - we all know what really matters.

Thanks. That sums it up pretty well. Having never seen it done before, having never heard of it's being done that way before, and having not heard anything mentioned in the dive briefing about it (The DM said "when one diver gets to 700, we'll ascend as a group"), I wasn't sure what was going on.

A little additional info, we were at approx 50-60 feet when this occurred and it was about 30-35 minutes into the dive.

I appreciate all the input on this thread. Many of you make excellent points, and I do understand the logic of two divers, particularly two familiar divers, sharing the air of one of the divers early on in the dive to extend the range of the dive. This forum is all about learning, and I have definitely learned in this thread.

 

[cliffpca]

It's a fairly common practise for DM in a few places to give a diver low on air their octo so that they can continue the dive for the rest of the group (i hate follow the DM dives). This increases the risk of the dive. I think this is a bad idea.

All divers (not just the ones with low air consumption) should plan to leave enough air in their tank for them and their buddy to both breath from at the same time to safetly end the dive(surface or get back to the exit point).

So next time anyone decides to share some of their buddies air cause they use less and "have extra", I just hope that you have left sufficient air in your own tanks for both of you to use in case of emergency(knock on wood).

 

[all4scuba05]

Actually it is an example of a diver excersising and adhering to good diving practices. It demostrates a good understanding of the nuts and bolts of diving.

Nuts and bolts is basic knowledge. How it all flows is a different story. Some folks never get the whole picture, just the nuts and bolts. Yeah, they're playing it safe and that's all they know how to do. I wouldn't want them doing any tech dives with me.