Diver in travel group kept running out of air and sharing on every dive?

[JCarr911]

Just returned from a Dive Shop Trip to Belize. The trip was great. The dive shop owners were awesome to travel with and everyone got along.

I am new to diving with 64 dives over the last 12 months but this was my first Trip with a group. I didn't notice until about the 3rd dive but one diver would start sharing air with her buddy towards the end of the dive. Then the diver started jumping from diver to diver to share their air until we surfaced. This happened nearly every dive.

I was perplexed. To me this is a major dive accident waiting to happen and they (the diver and her buddy/father) acted like it was no big deal.

Am I just being an uptight new diver?

 

[Eric_K]

Congrats for being aware of the other divers behavior. I'd say she needs more instruction for bouyancy control, and as a diver in that group, I would NOT want to be responsible for that. It's not typical at all in my opinion. I don't think you'd be out of line calling out the dive shop that facilitated this situation.

 

[hedonist222]

Just returned from a Dive Shop Trip to Belize. The trip was great. The dive shop owners were awesome to travel with and everyone got along.

I am new to diving with 64 dives over the last 12 months but this was my first Trip with a group. I didn't notice until about the 3rd dive but one diver would start sharing air with her buddy towards the end of the dive. Then the diver started jumping from diver to diver to share their air until we surfaced. This happened nearly every dive.

I was perplexed. To me this is a major dive accident waiting to happen and they (the diver and her buddy/father) acted like it was no big deal.

Am I just being an uptight new diver?

I was on a liveaboard once and there was this couple who did this on every dive - while hugging sometimes.

Weird and dangerous.

 

[KatieMac]

No, you aren't being uptight. I've shared air on a dive before for practice but always let the DM know in advance.

I'm not a DM, but if I were the DM for those dives, I would have told her to deploy SMB and surface with her buddy. Why would she ever bother to learn to get better if everybody around her allows her to continue this bad practice?

I know great big men who can get an hour dive on an 80LB tank. I also know petite women who dive with 100LB tanks so they aren't a bother to other people.

 

[gamon]

Definitely weird and potentially unsafe. Even worse is no one points it out and makes suggestions to rectify it. I'm guessing this is a large person who could use a larger tank.

 

[BRT]

So long as the big breather doesn't run their tank out before sharing and so long as the other divers are good with it, why does it matter? Why would it be unsafe?

 

[scubadada]

Hi @JCarr911

So, this was a dive shop group trip. It sounds like many of the other divers know the diver who needed to share air, and it was probably not a surprise to them. Perhaps the guide was also aware of the practice ahead of time.

I also find the practice strange, but not particularly dangerous. I have quite a few dives in a variety of places and have never seen divers share air.

I don't know who you were diving with, perhaps they had no cylinders larger than their standard, I assume, AL80s. Out of curiosity, what was the average depth and duration of your dives?

 

[JCarr911]

Hi @JCarr911

So, this was a dive shop group trip. It sounds like many of the other divers know the diver who needed to share air, and it was probably not a surprise to them. Perhaps the guide was also aware of the practice ahead of time.

I also find the practice strange, but not particularly dangerous. I have quite a few dives in a variety of places and have never seen divers share air.

I don't know who you were diving with, perhaps they had no cylinders larger than their standard, I assume, AL80s. Out of curiosity, what was the average depth and duration of your dives?

Yeah, no one seemed overly concerned and I just stayed in my lane but was curious about the general consensus. 'Its not a problem until it is.'

Average depth was 71 feet. Average dive time was 46 min.

 

[JCarr911]

Definitrly weird and potentially unsafe. Even worse is no one points it out and makes suggestions to rectify it. I'm guessing this is a large person who could use a larger tank.

No not at all. Nice young lady who just uses a lot of energy down underwater.

 

[rjack321]

So long as the big breather doesn't run their tank out before sharing and so long as the other divers are good with it, why does it matter? Why would it be unsafe?

As I recall, on some trips TS&M used to share gas with her husband cause she breathed like a mouse. If she shared some of her gas with him, they would eventually surface with relatively evenly matched tank pressures instead of her with 1500psi while he had 600psi.

Sharing gas isn't inherently dangerous. If it feels that sketchy then practice it some more. The "why" is of course an important factor.