Wow this got quite a few more replies than I expected.
I am a certified diver, as was my buddy. He had not been diving, like I said, since his open water cert. The details may be a little fuzzy to me, but if I had a camera to show you, I would. As for the descrepancies in my story relating to physics... I don't know what to say. Perhaps I remember things backwards, or maybe at the end of the dive he was too tired to keep himself afloat, but his tank was pointing at the surface, bottom closest to the surface for a good 30 seconds before I noticed.
Also, I asked him if he wanted to return and he declined, and said he could handle it. I'm not one to make up peoples minds for them, and as it were, I wasn't going to argue with him since I had spent a good $50 on gear previously that morning.
I'm also certainly not one to call off a dive due to jellyfish, sure, it's a little painful, especially in the eyes, but definatly not worth casting my money away for.
I agree, we probably shouldn't have done that dive, however, I am glad that we did, because we, well I, learned more in that dive than I have in any of my previous dives.
I'm happy some of you enjoyed the read, and I appreciate the concern of those who expressed it. Perhaps I need to venture out of my circle of diving friends, although I assure you none of my dives in the Keys went this bad.
Edit in my own defense: Just wanted to reiterate the fact that I have never purchased my own equipment, and it has been 5 years since my last formal training. I would not have posted in another forum if I thought it would point fingers at non-existant dive training. I was asking in that forum because I am actually finally thinking about buying my own equipment and couldn't for the life of me remeber what a second stage was. Sorry for the confusion, please don't mistake me though I'll hopefully be posting more on these boards in the future and I don't want start off on the wrong foot.