Unusual occurance In Cozumel

[ERIC.K]

I posted simply because I felt this situation after 200+ dives was not for me, sure divemasters are some of the most seasoned divers out their but not immune to accidents. this rather "LARGE DIVER" dawarfed the divemaster and if he wanted to prevent the divemaster from getting air, he could have. What if the divemaster had an emergency?, would he then sprint to another diver and now you have 3 divers on a single tank. I posted because it so confused me, i'm YMCA open water certified and PADI advanced certified and never has an instructor tell me to share air to extend bottom time. Lastly the diver I described actually sat out the second dive and looked visually disturbed.

 

[scubafanatic]

I 'participated' in such air-sharing myself on my first ocean scuba dives in Cozumel a few years ago.... the DM advised the divers to alert him upon any of us hitting 1000 psi, and on about half my dives thet weekend it was I that hit the 'limit' first, so he deployed his 7 ft. octo and we hooked up for a bit..... if memory serves we paired off for maybe 10 min this way on such dives...then he put me back on my own air supply to finish the dives, so I didn't consider it dangerous as I wasn't anywhere near OOA during the dives..... it allowed the group to stay together, and surface together, and if there had been any sort of situation requiring the DM's attention, we could have quickly separated so he could go off and deal with it...... so even now, with my much greater dive experience since then, I don't have any problem with such air-sharing/dive extending procedures to assist a diver 'in need'.
The only time the DM in Coz sent me up to the surface alone was during the night dive when I ran low, so I spent maybe 10 min snorkeling above the rest of the group until they finished...which was perfectly fine with me...... night dives obviously require more of the DM's attention so that was a reasonable policy.

Karl

 

[MMM]

Eric.K - you need to get out more! This is a very common practice in Cozumel (I've seen it elsewhere but most of my dive experience is in Coz). This is a basic practice taught in Beginners OW so the obese diver should have had the basic skills to manage. I'm guessing that the DM looked at the elapsed BT, knew everyone else's air and that they'd be unhappy surfacing then, knew that he himself had buckets of air, figured the risk of sending this obese diver to the surface alone wasn't a particularly good one, and that he didn't feel like doing a bounce dive was so good for him. All things considered, common sense. Had the obese diver had difficulty sharing air, he may have changed his plans. I have seen the DMs from Liquid Blue sling a spare tank/reg when they knew they were diving with an air hog, but it's not common practice in Coz.

No big deal.

 

[waynel]

Yep, air sharing by the DM is very common in Cozumel. We were there in February and the DM shared his air with my wife about half way through a dive. Those Cozumel DMs are outstanding when it comes to air consumption!