Scott from LongIsland
Contributor
Hello all. I just joined this board and I am rather new to diving...so I have a question about a recent dive.
There were three of us on this dive, myself, a friend of mine and the divemaster. This was a shore dive on Bonaire, so it was warm, clear water. The dive is a drift dive where you basically just drift along the coral slope that drops down into the blue. So it was basically a straight line once you reach the dropoff.
We are swimming along at about 40-50ft when I notice that my buddy (this was his second dive after his OW certification and my 4th) turns upright and is having difficulty clearing his mask. It wasn't a "panic" difficulty it was more that he just needed to go upright I guess. Anyway, I slow down and look up to him and notice that he has ascended a good 15-20ft quite rapidly from turning upright. I give him the okay signal and he returns the signal and then starts descending. At this point I felt better so we kept going.
My question here is...if my buddy does not return the okay signal, do I shoot up and try to drag him back down? How long do you wait before trying to do something? When looking up, I got a little concerned at the depth change of my buddy. Am I being overly cautious? Luckily he gained control of the situation rather quickly. I was on the verge of acting though, but at the sametime...I cannot lie, I was concerned for my own safety.
Thoughts?
There were three of us on this dive, myself, a friend of mine and the divemaster. This was a shore dive on Bonaire, so it was warm, clear water. The dive is a drift dive where you basically just drift along the coral slope that drops down into the blue. So it was basically a straight line once you reach the dropoff.
We are swimming along at about 40-50ft when I notice that my buddy (this was his second dive after his OW certification and my 4th) turns upright and is having difficulty clearing his mask. It wasn't a "panic" difficulty it was more that he just needed to go upright I guess. Anyway, I slow down and look up to him and notice that he has ascended a good 15-20ft quite rapidly from turning upright. I give him the okay signal and he returns the signal and then starts descending. At this point I felt better so we kept going.
My question here is...if my buddy does not return the okay signal, do I shoot up and try to drag him back down? How long do you wait before trying to do something? When looking up, I got a little concerned at the depth change of my buddy. Am I being overly cautious? Luckily he gained control of the situation rather quickly. I was on the verge of acting though, but at the sametime...I cannot lie, I was concerned for my own safety.
Thoughts?