timz
Contributor
Like the other posters, I think you handled the situation very well. If your dive count is correct, better than expected. Good call to thumb the dive, far from everyone thumbs the dive when they really should. And like the others, I think this was a very valuable lesson about whom to trust during a dive.
Now for a few questions/comments:
- It seems as if you were three buddies and one DM. Correct?
- Did you have a pre-dive discussion with the DM about separation procedures?
- Was the DM there to oversee you, or was s/he expected to be more of a guide?
If you were three buddies, you should be aware that this puts an extra strain on your task loading. I often dive threesomes if needed, but particularly if I carry a camera I prefer to dive in normal buddy pairs. Keeping track of two buddies while operating my camera while maintaining buoyancy, keeping track of tank pressure and N2 loading stretches my mental bandwidth.
My best dives with buddies I didn't know from before - including the few guides I've dived with - have been after a leisurely chat about preferred style, buddy distance, primary objective of the dive, speed, swimming formation etc. It doesn't need to be formal and you don't need to make big deal out of it, but if you have a pre-dive chat, you can avoid some confusion underwater because you've tuned in a bit, so to speak. This may be something to consider in the future.
You seem to have a good attitude, so continue to stay safe!
-On the first dive, we did a 3 buddy 1 DM. We made a decision on 3 buddy and let our DM/Guide do his work and we thought we would be able to follow.
-No separation procedure was discussed. We made a mistake here because we thought we could just follow wherever the DM/guide goes.
-He is our dive guide.
I did not expect to take profesional videos on this dive. I was just hoping to capture some seahorse if we encounter one, which this place is famous for. So, there is no stress on handling the gopro. And I wad trained by my instructor to keep checking and estimate my air pressure without looking on my SPG since the open water. So, there's no stress there either.
But I am a little stressed out with another buddy which just took his refreshment 3 days before dive. And his last dive was 2 years ago during his advance open water. He wasn't able to respond when i asked him for his air pressure and he seems to forget most of his hand signals. He has problem with his buoyancy and kept swimming around. Me and my usual buddy was a little worried about him.
---------- Post added October 20th, 2015 at 05:52 PM ----------
I'm sure the Moon has some effect on visibility. It seems to affect everything else! I'm not sure how far you are from the other diver you photographed, so it's hard to say what distance you could readily see. I would call it 10 or 15 feet, but that's more of a guess than a statistic. It could easily be half that. I've enjoyed better vis in fresh water lakes, so it's pretty bad, for ocean diving.
I've read about the tide effect cause by the moon. And tide can mean current. And current means watet movement and it cause affect visibility. That's my scientific logic. [emoji4]
The DM/Guide fins was 2 feet from me. It looks far because i shot in wide using gopro. Which is very wide.
Yeah... this is not a popular dive site for divers in Malaysia due to the cleanliness of the entire area.
Imagine i can smell ashes when i clear my mask. Haha.