Checking your buddy's gas

[eelnoraa]

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?

Who am I diving with make a big difference. I am rec trained only. When I dive with my usual team, I hardly need to ask. We will talk about it predive, and we usually have good idea who will turn the dive. If by the time someone should turn the dive but still no signal, we will ask. When we turn, we check with each other to confirm. This has been working pretty well. I do put fair amount of trust on my usual team.

When I am diving with unfamiliar or less predictable buddies, I will ask a few time to see how his/her consumption related to mine. I will even ask more often depend on this buddy's underwater behavior.

 

[Tigerman]

...
For recreational reef diving around here, the gas plan is often, "when we get to 700 PSI or 50 minutes, we'll begin our ascent" When you're diving to 55 feet with nitrox, the NDL isn't really a big concern unless you're doing several repet dives.

Now thats the understatement of the year (if I havent messed up on the tables)
Assumiung EAN32, 60 feet, 60 minutes dives and 60 min SI between all dives, youll max out at pressure group X on the PADI tables on dive number 4 and as long as you keep doing 1 hr SIs you'll be able to do an infinite number of dives to 60ft for 60 minutes. And that on the RDP...
Havent looked at the o2 calcs though, guess those could start being an issue if you do back to back 1hr in, 1 hour out for too long

 

[lowviz]

I've fallen into a "waypoints" mindset. Checking gas (for me) usually happened when one or the other diver thought that things progressed a bit overlong. Poorly defined plan.

Now, I split the dive (up to the turn pressure) into thirds. It is just two time and pressure pairs that should be checked before the turn is reached. Easy and simple. This also allows me to alter the dive plan if I'm not on course. You posted in "Basic Scuba Discussions" so I will go no further...

 

[RJP]

With my main buddy - with whom I've done several hundred dives - I can probably tell HIM what HIS gas is at any point in a dive. No need to check it. We're both tech-trained. But that probably has nothing to do with it.

 

[MrChen]

I'm a new diver and my new diver buddy breathes heavier than I do, so until I feel comfortable that he's comfortable (and responsible), when I think he's getting close to our ascend pressure, I take a look to remind him to keep checking it.

 

[spectrum]

Non-Technical

Usually only with new buddies. I tell them prior to the dive that it's not my intention to ask or check and we talk about signalling that a turn point has been reached. If credibility is getting strained I will ask to see, sometimes with results to my horror despite the briefing.

Also, sometimes, especially with my wife I will ask of we are at a crossroads in a dive and I want to know how soon we will be turning.

Pete

 

[Wookie]

I'm with Howard too.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I'm not sure if my poll answer ("never") is very useful. My buddy is almost always my wife, and while I don't check her gas, I do check to see that she checks her gas. I suppose if I failed to observe her check her own gas over a period of time, I might check it myself, but that hasn't happened.

 

[NAM001]

I am mixed tech and rec. in rec environment or group i check say every 10 not just to see what thier gas is doing but to see if they have to look, hence telling me they are watching on thier own with out prompting. in a tech group i wait to be flagged on someones low gas. i also check at critical points of the dive like prior to penitration on a wreck dive and turn point. i would rather the gas hog and the mizer know who each other are. Idealy you should not ever have to ask except at agreed upon waypoint checks.

 

[chrpai]

First, I don't give a hoot what your level is. Tech diving *IS* recreational diving and your c-card doesn't impress me. And just because I'm diving with you, don't assume you are supervising me or that I'm supervising you. That goes for whether you are a pro or not.

I believe in self reliance and I expect a buddy to also. Everyone is capable of self reliance to different degrees. I consider this and the risk of the dive when agreeing to buddy up, planning the dive and diving the plan.

It's a rare buddy that I'm actually "checking". Hand signals for show me your pressure. Usually we'll agree to dive parameters including turn pressure / time and I'm simply bringing up the topic of checking pressure. I'll signal pressure good and I want to see you look at it and respond back pressure good. For some buddys and some dive plans I'll get pickier about stating my pressure and getting a pressure back to get an idea of his air consumption rate.

Which reminds me. Please don't ask me if I'm ok every 30 seconds. That's really annoying.

I think this thread was spun off from another thread where it was asserted that an OOA event is the failure of both buddies and that each buddy has a "duty of care" to the other to not allow him to do that. I have a real tough time with that reasoning. We are all grownups and should all have our big boy pants by now.