It sounded a lot like panic to me. The thing that he embellished in my mind was his air. He admitted to huffing and then keeps claiming to have an hour or so left.
This is typical of people who are undertrained and have little experience when they try to act like the big boys. It seems to happen a lot in Mexico and I've heard a lot of these kinds of stories. Most people have never had a bad incident happen to them under water, have never experienced true or even near panic. It's easy to 'roast' a guy, but not for me. I don't know how I would handle panic, mostly because I've never been there. I've been in a silt out caused by someone else and that was frightening. Heck, I've caused a silt out in an OW situation and that was scary too. Live and learn. Just don't invite karma into your next dive.