team diving skills

[JoelW]

Here is an example but it does not include a diver going psycho. I and another diver were out a little over a year ago just before everything iced up. The water temp was 34F. During the dive the other diver's reg started free flowing. He got the end of the 5' hose I had and I went to backup. We took a short pause and decided what to do next, which in this case was go up. It could have been done on a 36" octo hose. It was much easier to do with the longer hose. We weren't in each others face, in fact we may not even have been touching. That is about as good an example that I can give for a longer hose for rec diving. Being able to get air and then get space to sort things out is invaluable in my mind. As a qualifier, the other diver and I do a fair amount of diving and training together so we know, in the ideal sense anyway, how we are going to react. Anytime I go out with someone for the first time the equipment check involves the statement "if you need air grab the reg in my face. Once you have that we are going to stop and decide what to do next." Talking over the reponse to possible situations before a dive is in my mind critical to safely handling the situations. Even if it is a swim through the weeds at Square looking at fishies. The other statement I make is "Before you dump any of my weights let's talk about it. If I don't respond when you ask, feel free."

Joelw