CCR and OC Buddies

[Web Monkey]

No. If it's a breathable gas, it's good for bailing out.

Just wondering. I know a CCR diver that had some sort of failure and was absolutely thrilled to have an OC diver nearby.

One of the other posts sounded like there was some problem with doing this.

Terry

 

[Cave Diver]

CCR and OC dive buddies...this is generally an odd pairing.

I've done it as I have several friends with CCR's but in many ways we are solo diving together.

When the CCR diver has onboard bailout there is nothing to share with an OOA OC diver.

I don't dive this way. Each CCR diver carries off board bailout. Depending on the dive, it may be individual bailout, or it may be team bailout. Diving with an OC buddy and not carrying offboard/donatable bailout seems like a bad decision to me. Especially if it involves any type of O/E situation.

If the CCR diver has problems there isn't that much that the OC diver can do.

I have to disagree with this. There is no reason why an OC diver shouldn't be able to assist a CCR diver in certain situations. They can't be expected to know everything, but they can be briefed on potential problems/solutions.

The best that I've been able to come up with is just to carry a bailout bottle for myself and to learn how to flush the loop for the specific CCR being used by my buddy.

How do others handle this? Reply if you dive with CCR divers or if you yourself use a CCR.

Covered in the example I already posted.

 

[denisegg]

I invited an OC diver to share their dive experience with two CCR divers in [-]the[/-] this thread, but they haven't responded yet.

I'll leave details to them (if they participate), but our pre-dive briefing covered the basics of what they could do for me if I had a problem and specifics about what we would do for them if they had one.

Sorry I am so late to the discussion. My satellite Internet was down for a few days and I am playing catch up. I had the opportunity to dive with John(Cave Diver) and his regular CCR buddy about a month after I completed intro cave. They were at Jackson Blue in Marianna, FL to do a planned CCR dive together. I was there doing intro cave dives with other OC divers. John had already been mentoring me about equipment configuration and he suggested I do a dive with them to see their teamwork in action and how they helped each other in line placement, etc; therefore, the team consisted of two CCR and one OC. I was comfortable with this arrangement because of the pre dive briefing that John has already explained in a previous post. John and his friend took an entire day of their weekend of diving to plan and prepare and carry out this one dive with me. John and his buddy have been diving together for quite some time and work flawlessly together as a team. It was a great learning experience for me and I appreciate the effort they both made on my behalf.
Having said that, even with the extensive pre dive briefing I would not want to dive with only one CCR and myself. I would not feel confident enough in my ability to adequately help them in an emergency situation without going through the training myself. In the mixed dive we did, each of them had another experienced CCR diver with them for emergencies and John also carried a bail out bottle for me so we were all covered and this was a no deco intro dive for mentoring purposes.
IMHO, divers should try to match gear configuration as much as possible and plan a dive based on the least experienced diver present. John did an excellent job of planning, briefing and doing an intro cave dive with me because that was my training and experience level.