The question is: what would you have done?
Went diving today with my regular buddy. We're both good divers, practice skills occasionally, conservative plans, etc.
Gearing up today, I realized I had forgotten my air-integrated computer. I did not have my backup SPG on a hose. I did have my pony bottle and pony reg that has a tiny pressure gauge attached to the first stage.
After some discussion, we came up with the following plan:
1. We would still dive, but instead of our planned dive a bit deeper, we'd stick to the "wall" at LJ Shores. I'm very familiar with this dive. San Diego divers will know all about it. I can estimate depth within 5 ft on this dive, and look at my buddy's gauge for confirmation.
2. I checked my pony pressure, and then moved the tiny pressure gauge to my main regulator's 1st stage. I would not be able to see my own pressure, but my buddy could check it for me periodically by looking at my first stage.
3. I'd wear a watch so I'd have an idea of how much time had passed. I do this dive so often, I will have a good estimate of my pressure from time elapsed.
4. Buddy would watch my pressure by looking at my first stage, tell me from time to time, and the moment I hit 1500psi on my LP95, we'd head in. This is conservative: I only need 300-400 psi for a nice leisurely swim up the slope to the beach.
5. If, by some misfortune, I was able to run out of air, I had a pony tank with 19CF right there. I'd switch regs, thumb the dive, and he'd be ready to donate if necessary. I'd have to orally inflate at the surface, of course.
6. If he ran into trouble of any kind, he also has a pony, and I still had an octo and pony, and we'd react accordingly and thumb the dive. We've practiced air sharing on this dive plan recently, coincidentally.
7. I was not going to worry about my NDL or repetitive diving tables: I had a nitrox mix, max depth was ~65ft, and no plans to do a second dive within 24 hours.
So after all that planning, I switch my pressure gauge around, tools and everything, continue to gear up and guess what falls out of my bootie when I start to suit up? My *&%!ing computer!
So I switch everything back and I dive normally. I'm such a dork.
But . . . this got me thinking. I'm completely comfortable with my plan to dive without having my depth and pressure gauge right there. I would not have done the dive if my regular trusted buddy was not there, and there's no way I'd have done this with my less experienced buddies or someone I did not know as well.
So I realize this plan is not for everyone, and I expect some responses telling me I'm gonna die, and others saying "no big deal". Still, what would you have done?
Post script to this story: so after switching everything back and gearing up, I realized just before entering the water, when doing our final buddy check, that I had not turned on my air. This is the first time I can remember ever failing a buddy check, and it was due to the whole fiasco of switching my gear around twice. Moral of the story: always do a buddy check. It saved me from either embarrassment, injury, or worse today.
Went diving today with my regular buddy. We're both good divers, practice skills occasionally, conservative plans, etc.
Gearing up today, I realized I had forgotten my air-integrated computer. I did not have my backup SPG on a hose. I did have my pony bottle and pony reg that has a tiny pressure gauge attached to the first stage.
After some discussion, we came up with the following plan:
1. We would still dive, but instead of our planned dive a bit deeper, we'd stick to the "wall" at LJ Shores. I'm very familiar with this dive. San Diego divers will know all about it. I can estimate depth within 5 ft on this dive, and look at my buddy's gauge for confirmation.
2. I checked my pony pressure, and then moved the tiny pressure gauge to my main regulator's 1st stage. I would not be able to see my own pressure, but my buddy could check it for me periodically by looking at my first stage.
3. I'd wear a watch so I'd have an idea of how much time had passed. I do this dive so often, I will have a good estimate of my pressure from time elapsed.
4. Buddy would watch my pressure by looking at my first stage, tell me from time to time, and the moment I hit 1500psi on my LP95, we'd head in. This is conservative: I only need 300-400 psi for a nice leisurely swim up the slope to the beach.
5. If, by some misfortune, I was able to run out of air, I had a pony tank with 19CF right there. I'd switch regs, thumb the dive, and he'd be ready to donate if necessary. I'd have to orally inflate at the surface, of course.
6. If he ran into trouble of any kind, he also has a pony, and I still had an octo and pony, and we'd react accordingly and thumb the dive. We've practiced air sharing on this dive plan recently, coincidentally.
7. I was not going to worry about my NDL or repetitive diving tables: I had a nitrox mix, max depth was ~65ft, and no plans to do a second dive within 24 hours.
So after all that planning, I switch my pressure gauge around, tools and everything, continue to gear up and guess what falls out of my bootie when I start to suit up? My *&%!ing computer!
So I switch everything back and I dive normally. I'm such a dork.
But . . . this got me thinking. I'm completely comfortable with my plan to dive without having my depth and pressure gauge right there. I would not have done the dive if my regular trusted buddy was not there, and there's no way I'd have done this with my less experienced buddies or someone I did not know as well.
So I realize this plan is not for everyone, and I expect some responses telling me I'm gonna die, and others saying "no big deal". Still, what would you have done?
Post script to this story: so after switching everything back and gearing up, I realized just before entering the water, when doing our final buddy check, that I had not turned on my air. This is the first time I can remember ever failing a buddy check, and it was due to the whole fiasco of switching my gear around twice. Moral of the story: always do a buddy check. It saved me from either embarrassment, injury, or worse today.
