Checking your buddy's gas

[NAM001]

I trust people to be fallible is PC for you dont trust people. though you er entitles to that opinion, I am under no obligation to share the water with you.

I trust people to be fallible. Responsibility isn't the issue. People being people is.

 

[TSandM]

So today, ironically, we DID check one another's pressure -- but it was because both of us had small yoke o-ring leaks, and we wanted to get a sense for how fast each of us was losing gas

 

[beanojones]

So today, ironically, we DID check one another's pressure -- but it was because both of us had small yoke o-ring leaks, and we wanted to get a sense for how fast each of us was losing gas

Have you had a yoke O-ring blow on you underwater?

In the last year, I have had two blow on customers (one full on, one furiously leaking but divable), one blow on me (divable) , and two people working with have had two full on blown.

We were trying to figure out if there was a leak at the beginning that could have tipped us off.

 

[TSandM]

I've never had one blow. The max depth on today's dive was 20 feet, so I wasn't terribly worried -- the gas check was really to get an idea of how long we were likely to be able to dive.

 

[Ste Wart]

I trust people to be fallible is PC for you dont trust people.

It's not PC for anything. Last time I checked nobody's perfect. If that's not the case in Texas, then I'll stand corrected.

though you are entitled to that opinion, I am under no obligation to share the water with you.

Well I didn't ask actually.

But just to clarify, you wouldn't dive with me because I would ask you 'air' underwater?

 

[Diver0001]

A discussion in another subforum prompted this question: When you are diving in a buddy team, do you check your buddy's gas pressure during the dive? I have a poll to get answers and see if they vary between people who are technically trained or not, but please feel free to elaborate on your poll answer:

Do you check everybody, or just people unfamiliar to you, or people who are new divers or otherwise seem to merit closer monitoring?

Do you check multiple times, or just at the beginning, or middle, or toward the end?

Does it matter if you have made a gas plan ahead of time?

It depends. None of my regular dive buddies need me to babysit them and I don't. The guy I dive with most often uses the same gear that I do and has virtually the same gas consumption as I do. If I know my own pressure I know his.

That said, just yesterday we were diving and his tanks are off to hydro and he was using gear that was unfamiliar. I did ask him at about the 1/2 way point of the dive what his pressure was to get a feeling if our tempo was good, which it was. When we got out of the water 20 minutes later I told him what I thought his pressure was and I had it spot on. It wasn't hard to work out, because I know his gas consumption is equal to mine and I knew how much gas I had used. For every 10 bar I used, he was using 20, which makes sense since he was using a single tank and I had doubles of the same size. But that's for this one particular diver because I know him very well and I know exactly what his SAC is.

With strangers/insta-buddies, I usually check after 10 min and then make a mental calculation of how their consumption compares to mine. After that I can more or less keep track in my head of the status of my buddy. I may check again at about the 1/2 way point of the dive to see if we're still on track, which normally it is.

With OW students I do it differently. I check and make them check each other every few minutes, including in the pool. This is to ingrain the habit, not because I don't know how much air they have. By the time I have people in OW I already know how their air consumption compares to mine and I can usually guess within 10 bar how we're doing at any given moment.

R..

 

[R-balljunkie]

depends on the grouping. my seasoned crew, meh, you are on your own. if u got 100 dives or less, i check at assumed 1/2 way point, just to make sure you didnt blow thru ur tank, and are faking having more air so you dont mess up the dive for everyone else. rather have you back on land nice and safe, than 10 more minutes of bottom time.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

depends on the grouping. my seasoned crew, meh, you are on your own. if u got 100 dives or less, i check at assumed 1/2 way point, just to make sure you didnt blow thru ur tank, and are faking having more air so you dont mess up the dive for everyone else. rather have you back on land nice and safe, than 10 more minutes of bottom time.

That's a common mentality, and one that needs to be addressed before the dive begins ... perhaps during the dive briefing. You can't "fake" more air in your tank ... you either have it or you don't. The very best way to mess up the dive for everyone else is to run out trying to extend the dive.

One of the things I emphasize during OW class is that there's a tendency for new divers to worry about their newness ruining someone else's dive. Don't push it. You use what you use. Figure out what your turn pressure needs to be and when you reach it, turn the dive. If you're cold, tell your buddy you're cold and turn the dive. If you're having any problem that's taking your mind off what you're doing, let your dive buddy know and either fix the problem or turn the dive. The worst thing you can do is keep going. Problems don't resolve themselves, and tend to compound if they're not addressed promptly. And forcing things to the point that you need to be rescued only guarantees that you'll ruin your dive buddy's dive ... and probably a lot of other people's. Most experienced divers understand this cycle, having been through it themselves when they were new, and would way rather a shorter dive than one that ends with an emergency ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

---------- Post added May 20th, 2013 at 07:17 AM ----------

Have you had a yoke O-ring blow on you underwater?

In the last year, I have had two blow on customers (one full on, one furiously leaking but divable), one blow on me (divable) , and two people working with have had two full on blown.

We were trying to figure out if there was a leak at the beginning that could have tipped us off.

I've never had a yoke o-ring blow during a dive. I have, however, had and seen numerous leaking first stages due to the o-ring at the yoke/tank interface.

Bubble checks tend to catch this ... I'm a big believer in checking your buddy's first stage connections at the beginning of every dive. If conditions don't allow it on the surface, drop down to 15 feet or so and do it there. It will at least let you know if there's something you need to keep an eye on during the dive.

FWIW - the most common leaks seem to be the o-rings on the SPG/HP hose spool ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)