What should I do?

[tomboyy]

I am diving with my buddy and we plan to hit about 100.. play abit and gradually cruise up to 60 then 30 with a stop at 15. Well at 100 it drops quick and get cold and dark. What am I supposed to do if he startes to flirt to 120....130 and just starts to ignore me and my signals.

I've also been in the position where my instabuddy decided it was time to head to the surface and my 3 min deco wan't finished,or even properly started.

 

[NudeDiver]

If he is doing this willingly (not in any kind of distress), I say you let him go. You developed a plan for safety, if he ignores that plan, you're not under any obligation to follow him. I'd treat it like a "lost buddy" situation. You stop, look around for a bit, and then head to the surface to locate your buddy. Alternatively, you can just stop and wait for him at whatever depth you feel comfortable at. Don't put your own safety at risk because someone else will not follow the plan and/or rules.

In the second situation - not much you can do but continue with your stop afterward, proceed to the surface in a safe fashion.

In either instance, I wouldn't dive with that person again.

 

[Stu S.]

Tell him don't do it. Right up front. If you can't trust him to dive the plan, find a new buddy. If something happeded to YOU, he would be useless.

 

[bamamedic]

I'd make doubly sure that your buddy understands that the max depth for this dive is 100 ft...
If he deviates from the dive plan, I'd give him the "thumbs up" signal, and end the dive. I wouldn't make a dive to 100 ft with a buddy whom I was unsure would obey the agreed upon dive plan. If this is a fairly new buddy, how about making a few dives with him at shallower depths, just to see what kind of a diver he is and whether or not he keeps to the dive plan?

As for dive buddies blowing off the 3 min safety stop, I've also had that happen to me on occasion. If they didn't appear to be in distress, and it was a deep dive, or pushing the NDL, then I continued with my safety stop. Otherwise, I just followed them up to make sure they were OK. On the occasions that it has happened to me, either they were having buoyancy problems and couldn't remain neutrally buoyant during the safety stop, or that I forgot to mention a safety stop in the dive plan (sometimes I just assume that everyone does a safety stop).

 

[ronbeau]

...
I've also been in the position where my instabuddy decided it was time to head to the surface and my 3 min deco wasn't finished,or even properly started.

I assume you mean a 3 minute safety stop as opposed to a 3 minute deco stop.

There is a big difference. The 3 minute safety stop is strongly recommended but optional whereas a 3 minute deco (decompression) stop is mandatory and only used for technical diving and when recreational divers exceed recreational limits during a dive.

If my assumption is correct and you really meant a 3 minute safety stop then you would be making that stop at approximately 15 feet. In that case if he blows you off and heads to the surface I would let him go and finish your safety stop as planned and then head slowly to the surface.

 

[WillB]

I believe that first and foremost, a diver must protect themselves from unnecessary risk. If your buddy is diving outside the plan, ignoring safety stops when called for, and any other actions that you've been trained to avoid, then I'd find another buddy. But no matter what, please do what you've been trained to do, not what your buddy feels like doing.

Please be careful.

 

[scubadiver888]

I am diving with my buddy and we plan to hit about 100.. play abit and gradually cruise up to 60 then 30 with a stop at 15. Well at 100 it drops quick and get cold and dark. What am I supposed to do if he startes to flirt to 120....130 and just starts to ignore me and my signals.

I've also been in the position where my instabuddy decided it was time to head to the surface and my 3 min deco wan't finished,or even properly started.

Tell your buddy right up front what you will do. I have no problem telling an insta-buddy, "I've had other buddies who agreed to one thing on the surface and did something else under water. My firm rule is, if you deviate from the plan without an OK from me I'm calling the dive and going back to the boat." If they choose to deviate without getting an OK from me they are making a conscious decision to become a solo diver.

By the way, I'd never go below 60' with an insta-buddy. If they deviate and I call the dive, I become a solo diver as well. I wouldn't want to become a solo diver at 100'. Not with my limited experience.

 

[Tigerman]

I am diving with my buddy and we plan to hit about 100.. play abit and gradually cruise up to 60 then 30 with a stop at 15. Well at 100 it drops quick and get cold and dark. What am I supposed to do if he startes to flirt to 120....130 and just starts to ignore me and my signals.

I've also been in the position where my instabuddy decided it was time to head to the surface and my 3 min deco wan't finished,or even properly started.

If this is a person you know is prone to deviate form the plan, I would do one out of two things;
1. Dont dive with him or
2. Prepare the dive as solo dive. This is highly against atleast PADI and probably several other organizations standards (and theres few agencies that have formal training for it) and you shouldnt consider this option unless youre 100% prepared both mentally and physically for it.

In either case I would let the person know why I took whichever choice and why. Deviating from my dive plan is something I just dont do. If I say my max depth is 95, its 95 feet, not 100.

 

[Teamcasa]

I am diving with my buddy and we plan to hit about 100.. play abit and gradually cruise up to 60 then 30 with a stop at 15. Well at 100 it drops quick and get cold and dark. What am I supposed to do if he startes to flirt to 120....130 and just starts to ignore me and my signals.

I've also been in the position where my instabuddy decided it was time to head to the surface and my 3 min deco wan't finished,or even properly started.

By this statement I’d assume he was getting narced. Make an effort to get him up to a depth where his head clears and communicate what happened. The best cure for miscommunication is honest, forthright conversation.
Don’t be afraid to talk about your concerns and the bottom line is learning how to dive safely with a trusted buddy. Sometimes we get lucky and marry one!

 

[Sas]

If this happened to me and I had enough gas, and wasn't exceeding any NDL (or if I was going to exceed NDL, that I had enough gas for deco stops) I would have followed them down and tried to get them to ascend a bit with me. Because my first assumption would be that they were a bit narced (due to ignoring hand signals) as I do detailed plans with people on the surface and the majority of people aren't jerks and will do what they have agreed to. I would *not* want to leave a buddy, alone at 130ft, probably narced. However, if it started to compromise my safety then I would ascend alone.

With the safety stop, if the conditions were calm then I would continue my stop until I was done regardless of what my buddy had done as I would be able to see them on the surface. If it was a bit rough and I didn't feel comfortable staying at 5m alone, then I would ascend - after all it is is a safety stop so not compulsory. I once went into deco by mistake and incurred an 11min deco stop with an instabuddy - however we'd discussed hand signals so I was able to ask him to stay with me, so it is a good idea to go over hand signs for things like deco stops, and safety stops.

Though, to be honest, I will not dive below 18m (again, that is ) with an instabuddy or someone I had not dived with before. So I would probably advise you stick to shallower depths with instabuddies.