Trip report 2-4 through 2-11-17

[ggunn]

One dive (I forget which reef it was) my wife neglected to check the pressure in her tank before rolling in and descending, and when she looked at her gauge for the first time she only had 1200 psi. She and I shared my air until mine was down to 1200 as well, and then she switched back to hers. It was no big deal and we didn't have to come up much before the rest of the group. It was much preferable to calling the dive, and she is not likely to make that mistake again.

 

[newgentry]

My point is, the idea of someone giving an air hog some 'extra' to enable everybody else to have a longer dive is not unheard of. It's politically incorrect, but if the alternative is calling the dive way early, I'd rather be politically incorrect. Individual stances will vary, of course...

Richard.

Agree, I've seen it happen a few times, and I was the "sharee" one time, my first time in Coz, I was a brand new diver and going through air at a high rate. We were diving Palancar Caves as I recall, and the dive op had a rule that nobody could go through the swim throughs unless they had at least 1000 remaining. The DM checked my gauge, realized I wasn't going to make it, and flipped me his backup. I had to swim right next to him like a little remora for, I don't know, 5-10 minutes maybe and then went back to my own when we got to the swim throughs. No big deal, but I was embarrassed and very pissed at myself, so starting on the very next dive I got a lot better on my air consumption.

 

[deepsea21]

Agree, I've seen it happen a few times, and I was the "sharee" one time, my first time in Coz, I was a brand new diver and going through air at a high rate. We were diving Palancar Caves as I recall, and the dive op had a rule that nobody could go through the swim throughs unless they had at least 1000 remaining. The DM checked my gauge, realized I wasn't going to make it, and flipped me his backup. I had to swim right next to him like a little remora for, I don't know, 5-10 minutes maybe and then went back to my own when we got to the swim throughs. No big deal, but I was embarrassed and very pissed at myself, so starting on the very next dive I got a lot better on my air consumption.

GOOD LORD this thread just gets better and better... Now we have another dive op with a DM who determined a diver didn't have enough air (per that dive op's established protocol) to penetrate and navigate a swim-through and the solution was for this diver to utilize the DM's octo and air supply and proceed on into it "remora style"?

So we have an admittedly inexperience diver at the time who consumes a bunch of air, is low on air and drawing from a DM's octo to swim through a closed overhead environment in a group is the answer? I can't even begin to count how many things are deadly wrong with such a solution and practice. And I thought just sharing air with a DM to extend group bottom time was outside the bounds of sensible diving!

I've heard enough. Everyone dive as you want and with whom you want but rest assured I'll be sticking with dive ops that don't utilize such practices and I'll be steering way clear of anyone who is practicing this nonsense underwater. The last place I want to be is in a swim through in a group behind an inexperienced diver breathing from the DM's secondary and see that hose get snagged on something, the reg pulled from his mouth, watch panic ensue immediately after a mouth full of water and then have him thrashing and grabbing at any source of bubbles he can see and functioning air supply he can reach. WTF are these DM's doing?!!!

 

[amoses]

He didnt say that he was sharing during the swim through's. he said "I had to swim right next to him like a little remora for, I don't know, 5-10 minutes maybe and then went back to my own when we got to the swim throughs"

So he was sharing before, so that he would have enough of his own to make it through the swim throughs on his own air.

 

[Dave Dillehay]

GOOD LORD this thread just gets better and better... Now we have another dive op with a DM who determined a diver didn't have enough air (per that dive op's established protocol) to penetrate and navigate a swim-through and the solution was for this diver to utilize the DM's octo and air supply and proceed on into it "remora style"?

So we have an admittedly inexperience diver at the time who consumes a bunch of air, is low on air and drawing from a DM's octo to swim through a closed overhead environment in a group is the answer? I can't even begin to count how many things are deadly wrong with such a solution and practice. And I thought just sharing air with a DM to extend group bottom time was outside the bounds of sensible diving!

That was NOT Aldora Divers or maybe even Cozumel. Dig for a better reason to argue this point.

Dave Dillehay

 

[fishi]

GOOD LORD this thread just gets better and better...

it was a nice trip report until it was hijacked and turned into the type of garbage that nobody really wants to listen to.

 

[deepsea21]

He didnt say that he was sharing during the swim through's. he said "I had to swim right next to him like a little remora for, I don't know, 5-10 minutes maybe and then went back to my own when we got to the swim throughs"

So he was sharing before, so that he would have enough of his own to make it through the swim throughs on his own air.

My fault... You are correct. I misread the post as he did state he went to his own air supply before entering the swim through. Still... I am not a fan at all of pulling air from a DM for the sake of extending a group's bottom time. Aldora may quote drift diving guidelines that the entire group descend and ascend as a group but if it means playing crazy games like sharing air to maximize group bottom time I say there is far greater risk in that practice than members of the group deploying an SMB and surfacing according to their own air consumption or DC. Screwing around with this air sharing business is asking for trouble.

 

[ggunn]

See

My fault... You are correct. I misread the post as he did state he went to his own air supply before entering the swim through. Still... I am not a fan at all of pulling air from a DM for the sake of extending a group's bottom time. Aldora may quote drift diving guidelines that the entire group descend and ascend as a group but if it means playing crazy games like sharing air to maximize group bottom time I say there is far greater risk in that practice than members of the group deploying an SMB and surfacing according to their own air consumption or DC. Screwing around with this air sharing business is asking for trouble.

See my post #11 above. I shared air with my wife that time to keep from having to call the dive. It was no big deal. We did the Peter Pan and Wendy thing until we were both at 1200 psi and then went on our own from there. We stayed well away from the reef and she had her own reg in her other hand (the one she wasn't hanging onto me with) the whole time. We've both been diving for many years and we knew what we were doing.

 

[lionfish-eater]

My fault... You are correct. I misread the post as he did state he went to his own air supply before entering the swim through. Still... I am not a fan at all of pulling air from a DM for the sake of extending a group's bottom time. Aldora may quote drift diving guidelines that the entire group descend and ascend as a group but if it means playing crazy games like sharing air to maximize group bottom time I say there is far greater risk in that practice than members of the group deploying an SMB and surfacing according to their own air consumption or DC. Screwing around with this air sharing business is asking for trouble.

This post started out sounding like you were trying to troll Aldora with over exaggerated outrage.
I may be wrong, but I think you might have made this point in the past as well.
This reads like classic stirring up the pot and sitting back with popcorn.
Dave responded with his shop's procedures.
All of Aldora's Dms are instructors or higher.
High pressure steel tanks, fully filled.
When the group is at 1000 - 1250, the dms are usually at 1700 - 1800.
I have personally been the first diver to put up my index finger more than once.
Some ops prefer to keep the group together, especially when far north or south.
If you like your dive op you can keep your dive op.
Don't be a troll.

 

[scubafanatic]

GOOD LORD this thread just gets better and better... Now we have another dive op with a DM who determined a diver didn't have enough air (per that dive op's established protocol) to penetrate and navigate a swim-through and the solution was for this diver to utilize the DM's octo and air supply and proceed on into it "remora style"?

So we have an admittedly inexperience diver at the time who consumes a bunch of air, is low on air and drawing from a DM's octo to swim through a closed overhead environment in a group is the answer? I can't even begin to count how many things are deadly wrong with such a solution and practice. And I thought just sharing air with a DM to extend group bottom time was outside the bounds of sensible diving!

I've heard enough. Everyone dive as you want and with whom you want but rest assured I'll be sticking with dive ops that don't utilize such practices and I'll be steering way clear of anyone who is practicing this nonsense underwater. The last place I want to be is in a swim through in a group behind an inexperienced diver breathing from the DM's secondary and see that hose get snagged on something, the reg pulled from his mouth, watch panic ensue immediately after a mouth full of water and then have him thrashing and grabbing at any source of bubbles he can see and functioning air supply he can reach. WTF are these DM's doing?!!!

Might I suggest a switch to decaf coffee ?