In what situation would you leave your buddy?

[ucfdiver]

Tell that to the 2 guys at Jackson Blue that silted the passage out, got separated, and both ran out of gas 200-300' from the exit. The only thing that saved them was the pure, dumb luck of another diver on a scooter beginning his dive at the right moment.

I'm not convinced more gas was the issue here. I've made it out of JB from almost 4300ft using 1/2 a stage and maybe 400psi of backgas when the flow was way down even. These guys had at least 4x the gas it takes to exit and had half as far to go. I wonder if they looked around too much for each other before heading home.

 

[jtivat]

For me we do a lot of wreck penetration which is very different from cave. If I am 500 psi into a wreck it may only take 100 psi to get out or it may take the full 500 or more. So to me if I need to help a buddy out of a situation or look for him there will be a lot of in water judgments made. Yes this may not be the best time to make them but I am going to do everything I can to save them. If I feel I am 200 psi from the exit and it’s a 270’ dive then I will leave around 400 psi. If the **** hits the fan I do not need to make it to the line I will get out of the wreck and strait up to my first stop and shoot a bag (this is a big lake not the ocean). If I make an error is judgment then I am dead if there is another issue on the way out then I am dead but it would be hard to live with myself if I did not push it as far as I could.

I also feel the situation will change this greatly; the above scenario would be if I know the issue or at least know for sure he is still in the wreck. If this is just an I don’t know and he could be out then I am not pushing it as far. There are lots and lots of scenarios and I feel most of it will be judgments made in water but that is not to say that it should not be talked about ahead of time.

 

[Dive-aholic]

That's two things. Lost buddy + silt-out.

+ dead scooter + gas depletion in sidemount cylinders and stage cylinders.

I'm not convinced more gas was the issue here. I've made it out of JB from almost 4300ft using 1/2 a stage and maybe 400psi of backgas when the flow was way down even. These guys had at least 4x the gas it takes to exit and had half as far to go. I wonder if they looked around too much for each other before heading home.

There were more like 3000ft in and had a dead scooter. There were a lot of things that were wrong with that dive. My point here is not to analyze that particular dive. My point is to show that when sh!t hits the fan, it usually spreads wide.