| For me personally, all my gas planning is done only on what i would need, and i try to come back with about half my gas. Rarely happens, but it's a plan!
Me and my mate both got caught out a few years ago when we got separated and my deco reg just wouldn't stop freeflowing. It was Ok before the dive but got filled with crap whilst digging down into a wreck.
We got split up in the bad vis so i was on my own for the ascent with stacks of deco and not enough gas. Made a decision to change one of my regs from my twins over onto the deco tin. That worked and i got out of the water ok. Now, for any deco dive i do, i always carry a spare tin of nitrox. That spare tin isn't included into any calculations. It's just "bonus" gas if i, or anyone else needs it.
When i first started deep diving, it was "everyone back to the shotline and trapeze". We had 3 bars on the trapeze, 9m, 6m, and 3m. On each bar was a spare cylinder of deco gas and a couple of regs on each and it was comforting to know that there was always plenty of gas. Now i just carry the lot.
My advice to you, would be do not rely on a buddy to have enough gas for you as well if it all goes pear shaped. Carry what you need and a bit spare, as they may not be with you at the end of a dive.
it's something you need to sit down and have a full and frank discussion with your buddy about. The rule we have is that if we are together at the end of a dive and he is low on deco gas, then he will go onto his backgas (assuming he doesn't have his spare tin with him) whilst i finish my deco. When i've finished, i'll go onto backgas and he'll use the remains of my tin and vice versa. if he does have his spare tin with him, then he'll go onto that one and so no real dramas. No point having two potential casualties if you can help it. |