desert your buddy pressure survey

[bullfrog]

You are in a cave near thirds and you get lost from your buddy. Some silt involved. At what pressure do you head out and save yourself. Does that pressure cchange if you have a deco bottle waiting for you? I intend to discuss this Friday on the long drive down from the snowy northeast. Has anyone had to do this?

[Kelly Jessop]

You are in a cave near thirds and you get lost from your buddy. Some silt involved. At what pressure do you head out and save yourself. Does that pressure cchange if you have a deco bottle waiting for you? I intend to discuss this Friday on the long drive down from the snowy northeast. Has anyone had to do this?

If you are near thirds,then you have to allow for the fact that you and your buddy may need that thirds to get out.

[FW]

You might want to look at these earlier threads on a similar subject.

http://cavediver.net/phpbb2/viewtopi...er=asc&start=0

http://cavediver.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5257

http://cavediver.net/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5260

Personally, I think you and your buddies should decide on an emergency plan, before getting in the water. If your buddies don't keep a close eye on you, then get new buddies.

[OFG-1]

I see that you subscribe to the old Navy Motto:

"Be a Buddy;
Tried and True;
F--K your friends;
'fore they F--K you!"

[Walter Pickel]

I see that you subscribe to the old Navy Motto:

"Be a Buddy;
Tried and True;
F--K your friends;
'fore they F--K you!"

Or my favorite from the Navy

Admit nothing,
Deny everything,
when accused make counter accusations.

Never Again Volunteer Yourself

[bullfrog]

Nobody got enough balls to give me any numbers, or are you afraid your buddies will drop you? I read the earlier posts that's what gave me the idea.

[outlaws]

I was taught that in a lost buddy scenario that you look, cover light and look then check pressure. If you have the gas then begin a search if not exit and call for help. Is this wrong?
Butch

Okay, I'll give you a number. Two-thirds of starting pressure.

Remember, I'm now a solo diver, so I need redundancy. But from a previous thread, at least I left you a cookie that tells you I left, so you don't waste your own gas looking for me.

[akcaver]

Okay, I'll give you a number. Two-thirds of starting pressure.

Remember, I'm now a solo diver...

So Russell, if youre diving solo then why even drop a cookie? Gonna let the cave ghosts know youre on your way out? :P

But to the question... yes, 2/3 of your starting pressure and then you need to turn around. What do you do until you hit 2/3? Try and find your buddy of course. We are all trained cave divers, and should know the rules for lost buddy, and should also be competent enough to be able to take care of ourselves...

[aainslie]

OK, I'll give my opinion. I'd appreciate corrections if anyone thinks I've got it wrong.

You have to take flow and distance to exits into account. I'd go way the hell lower in Ginnie than in a no flow. In Peacock IF I clearly knew the way to a nearby exit that would have me going way lower.

From there, work out how much gas YOU would be happy exiting with and double it. Add a couple hundred psi for luck. NOT reserving gas for your buddy can kill both of you.

Scooter classes help here as you spend time working out your swim/gas usage ratio. That should let you do a rough computation pretty quickly.

An example - those weird little lines off to the right just after the chute in Little River. If I lost someone down there I'd be willing to go down to about 600-800 psi. If I lost someone near the well he wouldn't get a whole lot of time out of me! I'd probably use regular turn pressures back there particularly since if I'm on a scooter I now don't have anyone to drag my sorry ass out if the scooter fails.

In turn I think this should affect one's strategy. I'm a lot more willing to do unscheduled exploration off side lines near the exit than deep inside the cave. Intuitively I think we all do this, but the time to exit vs. gas remaining ratio makes this a sensible strategy.