How often do you check remaining gas supplies? You vs. regular buddy vs. insta-buddy

[Rick Inman]

i check mine. you check yours.

Yours is mine. Unless you're not really my buddy. I check mine, and that includes yours unless I'm solo.

 

[fnfalman]

i check mine. you check yours. i trust you to turn the dive when your gas warrants, and so will i. i'm not your gas babysitter.

That works for me. We're buddies and not nannies. We agree on turnaround pressures, so whichever got there first, signal the other and we'll start heading back.

 

[SkimFisher]

The rule of thumb I was taught was:

"If you didn't just check your air then it's time to check your air."

But it does depend on what kind of dive I'm doing.

In terms of checking a buddy's gauge - if I have to, I have no problem swimming over and looking at their gauge. It depends on what they look like in the water. If they're flailing about, then I know I obviously have someone inexperienced to keep an eye on. If they are calm, cool and collected (and more importantly - I've dived with them before) then I might ask once or twice once we've been down awhile just to make sure they are good.

On the other hand - I have had routine buddies that I THOUGHT I could trust to monitor their gas and communicate a LOA to me so we could ascend - only to find out that they are already at 400psi en route to our safety stop. That's when I look at them and give them the signal for "WTF?"

 

[FireInMyBones]

My regular buddy?

An "OK" signal to each other is a question "Everything OK - including gas?" A return "OK" means "Yup. Everything's OK, including gas."

An instabuddy on recreational dives?

Always discuss signals and air checks during pre-dive planning. I will ask if they have a "way of doing" that they like and are used to. If so - and it seems reasonable - I'll go with that. Would rather have it be something they remember/understand. If they don't have one - or it doesn't seem reasonable - I'll recommend one based on the feel I got for the person and the overall dive plan. Whatever the plan is, I'll suggest we each check our own at certain points during the dive: after initial descent, max depth, at key features, geographic turn points, etc. If there's anything worth notifying your buddy about at that time, then do so. For instance, I can think of three situations worth notifying your buddy about any time you check your air:

1. You have less air than you'd have thought?
2. You have more air than you'd have thought?
3. You have pretty much how much air you thought you'd have

Any of those three situations are worth notifying your buddy about. In case #1 you'd notify your buddy how much air you have. In case #2 and #3 a simple "point to computer, signal OK" is sufficient.

For sure, we will notify each other of 1/2tank, and any turn-pressure we have agreed to on plan. We would also have a plan for what that meant. Does turn mean "begin ascent now" or "come shallower and start heading back."

As with everything, "the plan" itself doesn't matter any where nears as much as "having a plan" does.

Mine: Pre-dive, right before turn time, on surface

My regular buddy: same as RJP

Insta: What are those?
I ask their way, if good: great. If not, I check his/hers every 5 or 10 min depending on profile.

 

[H2O 70]

How often do you check your own gas supply during a dive?
(Every minute, 5 min, 10 min, during safety stop, other intervals)
For simplicity's sake, let's restrict the discussion to back gas (no pony bottles/stages/deco bottles).

It all depends. I always check mine before I enter the water (I look at my SPG and huff and puff for a moment to 2x check my tanks are on). I check again before I submerge (to make sure something funky hasn't happened). On dives >30ft I may once every 20minutes or so. On dives <60<100ft I check every 15 minutes. On dives <100<130ft I check every five minutes. I know my SAC and I'm more or less double checking what I think I should have. I then check at the end of the dive so I can more or less stay on top of my SAC. That sounded wrong. Sorry.

How often do you check your buddy's remaining gas supply...
...if your buddy is an insta-buddy who told you on the boat that he's "experienced" and has "great" air consumption?
...if your buddy is an insta-buddy who says he "sucks air like there's no tomorrow"?
...if you know your buddy very well -- let's say you've done hundreds of dives with said buddy -- and you can estimate her remaining gas supply based on your own?

When I'm DMing, with students I have then check and respond back whenever their attention seems to wain.

When I've had the insta-buddies I ask them what their air is ever 5 minutes or so.

My regular dive buddies have a much better SAC rate than I so I don't care what their air is like because I'm the limiting factor anyway.

When I dive with my wife (he rig is AI with wrist mount) I simply turn her SPG to face me. She was real bad about communicating her air. That way I can simply see it my self.

 

[Jax]

Interesting . . . I begin to see how someone could jump in with a spent tank.

We were taught to check gas -
1 - at tank hookup.
2 - at prep-to-dive
3 - at the surface
4 - after descend

Those checks let you know that you don't have a problem

Then, check your own every five or so breaths. Check your buddy at 1/3, then a thousand. More often if warranted by usage.

 

[diver 85]

q 5 to 10 minutes??......I've never really timed it----my buddy, never, they are big boys.....

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Then, check your own every five or so breaths.

@Jax: Do you really check your SPG this often?

 

[Garrobo]

Jax: Spent tank? Been there, done that. Came up from a dive on the Duane, got in a conversation with insta-buddy while changing out, slammed the catches shut on the old tank and jumped in without looking at the gauge. Just took a couple breaths from the reg and jumped in. Got back down to the Duane and the dude read 1000 psi. Of course I went back up and changed tanks and got in about half a dive. DUMMMM.

 

[friscuba]

Back in the day when I first started diving, it was at the surface, at the bottom, then about every 3-5 minutes. I used to run low about 25 minutes in to the dive.

Nowadays, if it's just my wife and I, it's at the surface, at the bottom, about 30 minutes in (unless its a deep dive) to see where she is in relation to me... she's typically a hair better than I, then I'll check my own stuff about every 300-500psi from then on, double check with her's when I get to 1Kpsi. We're good for 60-90 minutes on most of the profiles we run.

If I'm leading dives, it's check everyone on the surface, get the OK after the descent then generally check about 15 minutes in to see how everyone's are in relation to everyone else. Any real hoovers in the group, I'll try to keep in position to peek at their gauges every few minutes. Once one diver hit's 1000, I check everyone in the group to figure out the remaining route to the boat and who's staying down once I drop off the heavy breathers. We typically ask for everyone to signal us when they reach 1500psi and again at 700psi, they don't always do so, I'll check even the good breathers a few extra times the last half of the dive.