I'm a cave diver; but is this gauge in bar or PSI?

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its the guides responsability to carry out a pre dive breifing and to be aware of his customers kit config.
in water unobtrusive awareness of what's going on comes with experience.
 
I took a guy diving a couple of weeks ago who told me he was getting pretty heavy into cave diving. He had some nice gear, a wing and extra long hoses etc etc, a nice girlfriend buddy too. We then done a normal dive to 24m on air. As the guide I asked for remaining air at every 15mins. When I turned at 45 minutes to check on air the guy had his buddy on his occy, she was out of air. I checked his air to realise that he had only 500 psi left too, at 18m. Despite the fact I had been monitoring their air it turns out they hadn't realised they were using gauges in psi, the guages were their personal equipment, they thought they were reading bar so signalled 100 bar remaining when they actually had only 1000 PSI (1000 bar, I know). Is there somewhere we can advise other dive centres to be vigilant when we recognise divers who don't really know what they are doing. Like name and sahme but in a friendly kind of way behind the scenes to keep the pros safe? Prior to entry I managed to notice his primary second stage was only screwed in a quarter of the way, the alarm bells were ringing then. I would not want to anywhere near a cave with this mhdiver and would like to advise others on the need for caution around this individual. However, I am not sure how it works with identifying someone by name on line.

Thoughts from other professionals would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Were they signalling remaining pressure in a way you understood? Regardless of absolute numbers, you should have recognized the depletion rate. Assuming they had used ~1/3 of the air at your first check - did it raise any flags when they signaled ~200 bar at that point?

While it is often easier to lead from in front, I prefer to guide from slightly above and behind. That way I can relatively unobtrusively peer over shoulders to check gauges myself. But then I almost only lead tour portions classes - students expect us to be hovering over them. Equally importantly, I try to impress on them that they'll be on their own even on DM-lead dives elsewhere.

BTW - I've made the same mistake of trusting student to monitor their own air. Had a DMC assisting with AOW dive - did not run out at depth, but did surface empty. Often people don't recognize that being nervous about being low on air raises air consumption rate.

-- Finn
 
Im doing my PADI OW training atm and it suggests divers take log books with them on diving trips.

Isn't it usual for guides to check log books to ascertain experience and training?
 
Im doing my PADI OW training atm and it suggests divers take log books with them on diving trips.

Isn't it usual for guides to check log books to ascertain experience and training?
Most In my experience do not check. They will enquire about your recent experience and the types of dive you have done. I would guess if you say you have done dives that don't match your experience level they may ask to take a peak at your log book. Like if you are a vacation diver they may want to check your last date stamp to see if you need a refresher.

Taking a log book is more for you to keep a record of your diving trips weights and location, conditions, Diving progression( if you want to move onto PRO levels equire a dive pre-requiste in most circumstances) etc and has nothing to do with this thread now that I think of it.


Back to the topic

I had an insta buddy try blagging his air once on our second dive, We had done one dive and at the surface we compared consumption and I was about 60Bar up on him after an Hour. During the second dive during the checks I could see that after about 30 minutes we were on the same air by his signaling. Towards the end of the dive I was behind him when the DM signalled us for air checks I was at 110 bar so guessed he would signal around 50 or 60( at which point we shoukd be heading home) He shows 100 Bar. I gave the Dm a make shift BS underwater signal. then he takes a look and we immediatley start our ascent. I never got to actually see what he had left but never saw him after that dive at the Dive center.

There's a lot of blaggers out there that can put you in a bad situation.
 
Taking a log book is more for you to keep a record of your diving trips weights and location, conditions, Diving progression( if you want to move onto PRO levels equire a dive pre-requiste in most circumstances) etc and has nothing to do with this thread now that I think of it.

Back to the topic
.........There's a lot of blaggers out there that can put you in a bad situation.

Perhaps you dont catch my drift O2.

"Your log book shows a divemaster or charter crew how frequently you dive, what type of dives youve made, the enviroments that you have experience with and so on. Its a proof-of-experience document often requested at resorts or on boats...... And you can check it once in a while to see how far the dive stories you tell depart from reality"
- PADI OW Diver Manual

Perhaps if the log books were checked, the OP would have had a more realistic idea of the divers experience and training. Maybe its a practice more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Yet, it might be the textbook alternative and perhaps more reasonable solution than the OPs original suggestion of naming and shaming.
 
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If the logs were checked then you are correct in what your saying. The guide or DM would have a better understanding of a divers experience.

Getting Psi mixed up with Bar would have been unforeseen.

I have only ever handed my log book over to get more stamps in it. Not one DM or instructor has ever asked to look at it. You say ur doing ur OW at the moment. I would advise to getting a decent size log book in a zipped case. I made the mistake of getting a resort paper one and no matter how hard I try its getting ruined.
 
It depends what kind of dives you're attempting to do and if the shop knows you. If you ask to do the Forest City or Arabia here in Tobermory or even the Crystal or Tradewinds or Boland in Lake Erie, the dive shop will likely need to see your certs, log book and watch your skills on less challenging wrecks before being allowed to do those. They are looking for a good amount of recent, similar experience in deep, extremely cold, low viz sites. If you're only doing o/w or typical AOW sites in less challenging environments, you probably won't be asked for your log book.

A zip lock bag works well in keeping log books dry too, and not bringing the log book out on deck. If the log book does get a little wet, well, at least you'll be into another book or set of pages soon...
 
Vital conversions that you should know & can do on-the-fly:
Easy imperial us/metric conversions for depth & pressure, that you can do in your head:

Depth in meters multiplied by 10/3 gives depth in feet;
Feet multiplied by 3/10 gives meters.
Example: 18m(10/3) = 60' ; 60'(3/10) = 18m

Pressure bar multiplied by 3/2, and multiplied again by 10 gives pressure psi;
Pressure psi multiplied by 2/3, and divided by 10 gives pressure bar.
Ex): 200bar(3/2)(10) = 3000psi ; 3000psi(2/3)/10 = 200bar.

___
Your common counting numbers, or reference cardinal numbers, for depth in scuba are:

Imperial us (feet) by 10's:
Ex): 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 etc

Metric system goes by 3's:
Ex): 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21, 24, 27, 30, 33 etc

Practice the depth conversion factors above between the two number sequences. . .​
 

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