Buddy missing on surface - What would you have done?

[pants!]

Some people need other hobbies.

You know, that's exactly what I was thinking.

Seriously, Don, you are taking very unnecessary risks. You come across as something of a cowboy with a cavalier attitude towards diving.

Obviously many of us think that it's going to get you killed. That would make us very sad.

Please learn from your experiences.

 

[DandyDon]

Don,I dont intend to be mean to you but I think you have an attitude problem. Do you really consider yourself ready for technical diving?

I have an instructor. I'll ask him. If he says no, at least he'll be more polite about than seen here.

From the Tos...

No post should exceed a "work-place friendly" rating. Profane, insulting or mean spirited language is simply not allowed here. Neither is any sort of harassment or bullying. Threats of any sort are grounds for immediate banishment. While the debates may wax passionate, there is no need to revert to personal attacks. If you feel that you have been attacked, please do not retaliate and instead use the "report this post to a moderator" link at the bottom of the post to notify us. No trolling or flaming of any sort is allowed in any section of the board! Posts advocating or condoning illegal activity are also not allowed on SB.

 

[JeffG]

I try to live up to your sig line every day, Jeff.

You think thats bad...I have two to live up to. Mine and Cornfed's

 

[stu_in_fl]

if you regularly dive with people who are less expirienced and you seem to feel responsible for them to some degree (like you sort of implied in he initial post) then perhaps you should re-consider the rescue course. it doesn't mean you can't go towards the deep thing you want, but do the course in addition to it - probably only costs around $300 (a snip compared with the $'s you'll need to drop if you're going to go for technical courses) - if things go wrong - the deeper you are the more important it is that you do the right thing.......

........rescue is an interesting course assuming you have a good instructor - less about actually diving (so it sunlikely to break many habits) but it should cover some ways to help avoid incidents, searching for people, rescuing or recovering them etc., and what to be aware of when doing so ..... it (should) make the person who takes it look at things in a slightly different way which can only be a +.

and for the initial question of what would I have done - depends on the people/person i was diving with....

 

[FOUNDATIONER]

from Mike Nelson:
Don,


Believe it or not, I think these very experienced divers really ARE trying to help you! The problem that I see (as a newly certified diver, but a long-time rock climber, paraglider pilot, backcountry skier, and tactical firearms instructor) is that you have survived multiple instances where cascading poor decisions have resulted in a near miss for you. Yet, in relating those tales, you seem to not really recognize the significance of each poor decision in that error chain. Asking "What would you do?" is a very simplistic question - folks have provided detailed analysis of your serial errors, but you just let your feelings get hurt and discard the advise. Whimpering, "Well, I admitted my mistake," is not a valid response if you KEEP making the same mistakes.

The pony bottle / tech diving thing is a prime example. Has your attitude changed since you made the tech diving statement a year ago? It would seem not. You're using a last ditch bailout bottle as if it was a piece of standard operational equipment. Let's put it into context: If you go to pull out of the driveway in your Ford F150 one morning and the brake pedal goes to the floor, would you continue your commute, thinking, "Oh well, I still have the air bags?" or would you thumb the commute, find an alternate way to work, and get the brakes fixed? That is the depth of your misunderstanding. Until you rewire that (and that's what a rescue course is for) you will continue to endanger yourself and those unfortunate enough to be diving in your proximity.



yeah, what this guy said

 

[ianr33]

I have an instructor. I'll ask him. If he says no, at least he'll be more polite about than seen here.

From the Tos...

In my experience technical instructors are not the most polite and sensitive individuals ,and with good reason. They are playing a potentially rather dangerous game.

Have you ever been to the www.thedecostop.com ?

 

[gangrel441]

I have an instructor. I'll ask him. If he says no, at least he'll be more polite about than seen here.

From the Tos...

No post should exceed a "work-place friendly" rating. Profane, insulting or mean spirited language is simply not allowed here. Neither is any sort of harassment or bullying. Threats of any sort are grounds for immediate banishment. While the debates may wax passionate, there is no need to revert to personal attacks. If you feel that you have been attacked, please do not retaliate and instead use the "report this post to a moderator" link at the bottom of the post to notify us. No trolling or flaming of any sort is allowed in any section of the board! Posts advocating or condoning illegal activity are also not allowed on SB.

Wow....you really are beyond saving, aren't you? I thought when you decided to open this thread, that you might, just might be able to take some of the tough love approach you had coming your way and actually take a lesson away from it.

I guess all I can really ask you now is not to take anyone else out with you when the big one finally hits.
:salute:

 

[Firefyter]

Darwin is sneaking around looking for an open door, and some people are leaving windows open everywhere.....

 

[Uncle Pug]

Don is an easy target for cheap shots. Show some restraint.

This isn't rec.scuba and none of you are all that anyway.

 

[markfm]

Only dove in a "nominal" triple once, my local stomping grounds at A Bay.
In that case I asked my buddy to buddy with the third person. The other person had been diving for years, but not recently, so this was intended as a shallow, short distance, see the sights activity, within 75' of shore and max depth 50' -- solid bottom, no chance of someone just dropping down.

For myself, it was considered a solo, that's all there was to it, neither of the others expected to watch my back. Had my pony, of course.

It worked well. They were a good buddy pair, I generally watched both to make sure nothing was going weird but otherwise was keeping an eye on myself and just enjoying a nice shallow dive. We were up at 750 psi.

If there was a whoops, multiple other groups were diving, though not too crowded, and I would hopefully have done as others suggested -- raise an alarm, let the folks with more training and gas, and less nitrogen, do what they know how to.

I know that at least in concept a triple can be done, but my belief is that to be a "good" mechanism the three need to be really solid, in sync, folks who regularly do dive together.

(Rescue Diver really is an excellent class. Also, I'm working towards DM in part because that gives many opporunities to learn, and relearn, fundamentals, chains of thought that I want to be automatic. My Instructor keeps drilling the "don't become another victim" concept. I'm a thick-headed Irishman -- need to keep hearing the same thing, practicing it, in order to expect to actually do it when the need arises.)

Looking forward to the Keys