Kharon
Contributor
The scene: Grand Cayman, diving with two others from my scuba club. We agreed to dive as buddies and did the pre-dive discussion, etc. When I hit 1500 psi I let them know, got an OK and we switched directions. Since I wasn't leading, I followed along expecting that we were heading back.
I kept checking my air and depth and it didn't seem that we were getting any shallower nor heading for shore. Still I gave them the benifit of the doubt. My mistake. When I got to 800 psi and we were still at 45 feet I finally broke off and headed for shore. I was still at 25 feet when I hit 500 psi so I switched to my pony and did an open water column safety stop and then a surface swim to the exit.
My mistake? - not following my personal first rule of diving: [FONT="]You are always diving solo[/FONT][FONT="] no matter how many divers are in the water, or how many buddies you have, or how much experience they have or what you discussed during the dive plan.
They didn't let me down, I let me down. I should have broken off long before I did and headed for a slow steady exit - the same way I would have if I was solo diving (which is my normal MO). [/FONT]There wasn't any danger but I hate open water ascents, hate open water safety stops, and hate having to switch to my pony. Still my traning & experience & equipment made a potentially dangerous situation into one that was merely irritating.
I kept checking my air and depth and it didn't seem that we were getting any shallower nor heading for shore. Still I gave them the benifit of the doubt. My mistake. When I got to 800 psi and we were still at 45 feet I finally broke off and headed for shore. I was still at 25 feet when I hit 500 psi so I switched to my pony and did an open water column safety stop and then a surface swim to the exit.
My mistake? - not following my personal first rule of diving: [FONT="]You are always diving solo[/FONT][FONT="] no matter how many divers are in the water, or how many buddies you have, or how much experience they have or what you discussed during the dive plan.
They didn't let me down, I let me down. I should have broken off long before I did and headed for a slow steady exit - the same way I would have if I was solo diving (which is my normal MO). [/FONT]There wasn't any danger but I hate open water ascents, hate open water safety stops, and hate having to switch to my pony. Still my traning & experience & equipment made a potentially dangerous situation into one that was merely irritating.