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I'd like to start an ongoing thread similar to El Orans' "Where did you dive today". This one will be for the newer divers among us, who may occasionally find themselves paired up with somebody who makes them feel uncomfortable for one reason or another.
The purpose of the thread is to present scenarios ... many of which will look familiar to somebody ... and investigate how the diver could handle these situations. After all, most dive problems stem from decisions we make at some point in the dive.
I hope you don't mind an additional "Thinking" question. . .
Follow me!
You and your buddy, who was certified a few years ago, but only dives once a year on vacation are <someplace warm>. He seems pretty confident, although you've never seen him practice any emergency skills.
On the boat the DM does a great pre-dive briefing and says "We're going to drop down to the sand at about 60', get neutral and make sure everybody is OK, then we're going to head over the edge of the wall, drop down to about 90' and do a nice easy drift dive. When the first person hits 1000PSI, signal me, I'll send up my lift bag and we'll all do a nice slow ascent together, including a 5 minute safety stop @15', and then get back on the boat, which will be following us.'"
You're at about 90', the DM is maybe 150' ahead of you looking for stuff to show you, and you're doing your job and staying close to your buddy. Everything is going beautifully. You see all sorts of cool things, but eventually you notice that your buddy has hit 1000 PSI (even though he didn't notice). Like a good diver, you show him and he nods, and you bang on your tank, get the DM's attention and point at your buddy and signal "1000PSI". The DM says "OK" and continues on. No lift bag, no ascent, just more drifting.
Now he has 900PSI, your buddy seems a little inattentive, so you signal the DM again, the DM looks at you and signals "OK", but still does nothing.
800PSI, you signal again, still nothing.
700PSI, you signal again, still nothing.
A little mental math tells you that his chances of a normal ascent and a safety stop from almost 100' are looking slimmer all the time, and while you still have plenty of air, he now has the "deer in the headlights" look and seems to have remembered about as much of his training as your cat. If he runs out, you're not sure if he could handle an air-share or would just bolt from almost 100'. And if he bolts, would he remember to not hold his breath?
What do you do?
Terry
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