Check units of pressure of your insta-buddy

[Texasguy]

Recently at an LDS I was talking to a lad who was vacationing in US and was getting ready for a local boat dive by renting tanks. Evidently, it came to him as a surprise that we do measure our air supply in PSI here. He was so used to BAR units that it did not occur to him that US is special and will hold on to antiquated units of measure. Yes, we are bunched together with other world leading countries like Liberia and Myanmar, now go and find them on the map.

Thus, make sure your buddy talks to you in the same units, as it will come as a shock, when underwater after asking a buddy how much air he has, he will signal you "200". Imagine a look he will see on your face. Now, imagine a look on his face when you'll force feed him your regulator while giving him a few slaps to further his education. An international incident right there!

Thus, by accident finding out out this fella's misconception, perhaps, will allow him to warn his future buddy of his units of pressure.

 

[RJP]

I was on a liveaboard once for two weeks back-to-back. I jokingly told a German diver who boarded fir the second week to be careful because his tank "probably still had some PSI in it" from the American who was diving it the previous week.

He demanded that the crew drain and refill it... because his computer couldn't measure PSI and he wanted to be sure the tank was full of BAR so he would get an accurate reading.

:d

 

[dbulmer]

I was on a liveaboard once for two weeks back-to-back. I jokingly told a German diver who boarded fir the second week to be careful because his tank "probably still had some PSI in it" from the American who was diving it the previous week.

He demanded that the crew drain and refill it... because his computer couldn't measure PSI and he wanted to be sure the tank was full of BAR so he would get an accurate reading.

:d

He wasn't an AOW diver called Adolf by any chance ?

 

[Zeagle Eagle]

I bought a US Divers Monitor computer back in the early 90's on Guam and took it diving the next day. Our groups plan was a 90 foot wall dive. I always descend fairly quickly and got a little separated from the group. I started feeling a little uneasy. Something I just couldn't put my finger on. I could still see them; but, they were not coming down very fast. Things were not going well and it was a lot darker than I thought. I thumbed the dive and headed back to the shore. It wasn't until after everyone got back and we were logging our dives that I realized my computer was calibrated in meters not feet. Holy Tamales, if I had gone to my planned depth of 90 I would have ended up at 295 feet. I learned a lot that day. My SPG was calibrated in BAR too.

 

[tbone1004]

My backgas bottles are actually in Bar normally as I find it much easier to work with for mental math. That said, I can do the conversions on my head, it's not rocket science to get it "close enough", but I do usually switch to PSI when I'm diving with insta-buddies or on a charter where the DM will look at me funny. If I have buddies coming in from overseas under the same circumstances, I'll usually bring extra PSI gauges for them to avoid the same circumstances.