Insta-buddy DECO Diver: What’s NDL?

[Soloist]

If your instabuddy got bent and suffered a permanent disability you'd likely find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.

It’s conceivable that someday you could possibly become a friend, but you will never be my (dive) buddy!

 

[Chidiver1]

To be honest, I don't really know the standard signals for pressure etc.

Wow.

 

[Charles2]

To be honest, I don't really know the standard signals for pressure etc.

As long as we are being honest, a signal for "what's your pressure?" was not covered in my training.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Very good points. Are you also alluding one should ask an insta-buddy to review a dive plan per their computer as a polite way of ascertaining their level of understanding? That approach would have been very effective and revealing in this situation.

On the upside, I am certain my buddy learned some valuable lessons from his deco experience. For me, I will be more inquisitive and proactive in the future. Lesson learned! Do I believe the dive op will conduct themselves any differently? No, not for a second.

It doubling as "a polite way of ascertaining their level of understanding" occurred to me only as as I was writing the comment, so I won't take credit for alluding to that. But yes! And to add to that, there are all too many divers who DO know what an NDL is, and yet do NOT know how to use their computers' planning mode. So this could be an opportunity to encourage such a diver to bone up on a feature of his computer he may not have been aware of.

 

[caruso]

The error, and any liability for the missed decompression does not sit with him , but the buddy. If there is any additional liability issue, it sits with the facility that allowed his buddy to dive with new 'clean' computers even though he had violated decompression requirements on previous dives. The facility should have made him sit out any further dives for 24hours.

From a legal perspective- doesn't matter what you or I think. In the event of a lawsuiit, all that matters is what a judge or jury thinks and even if the result of a hypothetical lawsuit was in the favor of the Op he's still gotta go through the time and expense and stress of a lawsuit.

When it comes to trials, nothing is certain. Think "OJ Simpson".

 

[divinh]

Since the insta-buddy was diving relatively close by(?), would he have incurred deco had he been similarly equipped with a Shearwater with the same conservatism? In the case of getting bent, then he would just as unlikely to get bent as the OP?

 

[Dan G]

You are right. Unfortunately I found it impossible to tell this story from my perspective without sounding self righteous or negative towards insta-buddies. Honestly my intent was to elevate the issue not myself. In retrospect everyone involved was complacent. The insta-buddy did not do a review or take a refresher prior to his five days of consecutive diving after an extremely long layoff, nor do I believe he informed the dive op of his history. The dive op did not do a full one hour surface interval from the last diver out of the water even though everyone was diving air. The first dive was very shallow while the second was considerably deeper. Moreover, the dive op all but ignored the fact that one of their divers went into deco. As fo me, I selfishly didn’t want my dives abbreviated, so if my buddy says he’s okay then he’s okay. The algorithms for budget dive computers vary greatly, but I should have assumed his rental computer was more conservative than the very liberal settings I have programmed into my Shearwater.

Soloist, your level of honesty here is admirable. I think this is really the only decision point you might consider choosing differently if there is a next time. Nothing forced you to buddy up with this guy again and you could have asked for a different buddy or dive solo. I know this is easier said than done in some situations, but it is a choice. Otherwise, it seems as if you handled this difficult situation well and thank you for sharing.

As long as we are being honest, a signal for "what's your pressure?" was not covered in my training.

Perhaps not, but during every dive briefing for a guided dive I have been on this signal is covered along with how the guide wants people to reply. So is the "What's your NDL?" signal. I also review both of these with my buddy at the beginning of every dive trip (even if it's a buddy I have done 100+ dives with), to make sure we are on the same page.

 

[Soloist]

Since the insta-buddy was diving relatively close by(?), would he have incurred deco had he been similarly equipped with a Shearwater with the same conservatism? In the case of getting bent, then he would just as unlikely to get bent as the OP?

No, considering 24 hours had passed since his last dive and my overall depth easily exceeded his due to me screwing around with a GoPro. Does this mean he was not at risk of DCS? Absolutely not. When hunting in Florida I aggressively push the limits of my liberal computers without issue. Obviously his physiology is different than mine, so who knows what the repercussions would be if he consistently dived my profile. I was more concerned by the fact he dived the day before, that night and the next morning. I would be surprised if he used the same computer from the day before and I know he used different computers that night and the following day.

 

[Storker]

As long as we are being honest, a signal for "what's your pressure?" was not covered in my training.

Index and long finger on one hand flat on the palm of the other hand. Without a follow-up it means "what's your pressure?", if followed by a number sign it means "my pressure is". The latter could well be preceded by pointing your thumb at yourself

 

[Charles2]

Index and long finger on one hand flat on the palm of the other hand. Without a follow-up it means "what's your pressure?", if followed by a number sign it means "my pressure is". The latter could well be preceded by pointing your thumb at yourself

Thanks, that is the signal that I see used most during any dive briefing. It's just that when I was trained, we did not have any SPGs and thus did not have a corresponding sign.

We also used American Sign Language for communication of numbers - that, too, seems to be different today, although my usual buddies and I still use it because it only requires one hand.

Other than that, things haven't changed much.