Lying on holiday

[Turtle Dude]

Am out on holiday at the moment, fitting in some diving (warm blue water) and, as usual, as the lone diver on the boat am getting paired up with any odd joker that turns up each day.

To be fair, the other ad-hoc buddies have been good, however, yesterday I got paired with a Japanese guy; thankfully on a nice easy morning bimble over some shallow 16m reef.

We are bimbling along and I am watching him doing a bit of yo-yo'ing and chasing everything with his camera and I think better do an air check. I signal 150, he signals 150. A bit later I do the same at 100bar and get 100 back. I start think, based on his in-water movement that I have become one big air-guzzling fiend. Do a check at 80 and yep, get 80 back. Get to 50, with the intention to start coming up and see him struggling hard to get anything out of his reg.... oh' b*llocks... and shove him mi long-hose. And up we go, from around 10m, including me venting his BC as he is rather startled and bewildered.

Ah' the joys of being a holiday tourist.

He apologised (his English marginally better than my Japanese), saying he was not sure what happened; suddenly he had no air.

However, I do... simply his ego got the better of him and he did not want to seem to be using more air. Just an ego thing. I have been there.

C'est la vie - holiday/tourist diving.

I will check a bit closer next time (this afternoon) and not just take my unknown buddies word for it.

One learns... More mantas please....

[Bottle Maker]

Rather than signal why dont you show your buddy your SPG hopefully they will return the favour rather than signalling. I find this leads to far less confution.

Graham.

[Fiona]

I would agree with Graham, there was probably a misunderstanding of the signals, I wasn't taught the hand signals for cylinder pressures and was asked to show my buddy the spg - I don't know if you briefed the signals before the dive.

[Turtle Dude]

Yep, signals all checked before jumping in. And this is with a point to me and then the amount signal; and the same back from buddy - he points towards himself and then told me how much

Trust me, this was an ego thing, not a misunderstanding on signals. His embarrassment after told me all I needed to know.

And yes, better to show the SPG to each other - one learns for this afternoon.

[Frankie Price]

This thing is common when diving with new buddies on holiday.
Best thing to do is, as you did, take control and compare notes at the surface.
Best to have a grumpy buddy back on the boat than a dead one.

[welshand1]

Personally, I've always been too afraid of drowning to lie about how much more air I've got left , and once even signalled LESS air cos I didn't trust the guage. Better safe than sorry

[MDC]

if in doubt, look at the gauge - if he/she resists bail the dive...and argue about it on the boat (after-all you may need that gas, especially if using hire gear)

[Kev]

I have always thought the ridiculous 'you are a good diver if you have a low SAC' thing on holidays is really dangerous. Glad you got out OK mate.

[PeeBee]

Aside from the Numpties, I hope you are having a good trip, looking forward to seeing your photos.

[russthedude]

maybe he was a kamikaze and you ruined his plans to go screaming head first into the reef at the end of his dive