dytis-sm
Contributor
I was on a dive with someone that I had not dived before. We did do the traditional dive planning and discussed our rigs, buddy checked and went in. We had agreed to communicate when the first of us will be half way through air since we were close to the boat and in a fairly calm and easy environment. We proceeded with the dive and everything was going great until we were getting close to our safety stop. That is whey my buddy signaled out of air. So I handed over the octopus and turned my head to check my air gauge. As I turn my head back to hold on to his BC (all happening within seconds), he is gone and bolting to the surface. I cut my safety stop and followed to make sure he was ok. Apparently he claims that he could not purge the octopus second stage. I tested it and it was fine other that then hard suck you had to use (by design). We concluded the dive normally swimming back to the boat. I kept the second dive short, shallow, and with a good safety stop and the day proceeded uneventfully. But I have to admit that this was a scenario I had not experienced before and wanted to share it.
SO I am wondering if anyone ever encountered a scenario like that. I am backtracking my octopus handoff and the only thing I did not do was grab on his BC right away. Then again if he could not suck air and obviously panicked to bolt for the surface, would I have endangered myself doing that? How would you guys handle a situation like this. I am thinking if part of dive planning should be a test of each others octopus or breathing apparatus. His was a tech setup with the 7ft long hose. Mine a standard octopus. I am suspecting he thought that the hard regulator was not working when compared to his Scubapro MK25... Possible?
Oh and forgot to add that I am still shocked that I did not get a warning signal when my buddy was breathing fumes...That I am not happy about.
SO I am wondering if anyone ever encountered a scenario like that. I am backtracking my octopus handoff and the only thing I did not do was grab on his BC right away. Then again if he could not suck air and obviously panicked to bolt for the surface, would I have endangered myself doing that? How would you guys handle a situation like this. I am thinking if part of dive planning should be a test of each others octopus or breathing apparatus. His was a tech setup with the 7ft long hose. Mine a standard octopus. I am suspecting he thought that the hard regulator was not working when compared to his Scubapro MK25... Possible?
Oh and forgot to add that I am still shocked that I did not get a warning signal when my buddy was breathing fumes...That I am not happy about.