You are on a boat diving with some friends. With 2 up and 2 down. Seas are 2 ft chop, and the wind is blowing ~ 15mph. You're running the boat with your dive buddy, when one of the guys in the water surfaces and tells you that his buddy is in deco and has ~ 10 mins. You guys wait for 10 mins and your diver hasn't surfaced and either of you can't see his bubbles. A few more minutes pass and your diver should be up but still hasn't surfaced.

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Chris Grauer- "To protect, promote, and grow the sport of spearfishing" www.spearfishingplanet.com

Call out a Pan-Pan and request assistance, you can always cancel later. Assume diver is on the surface.
All hands to lookout stations.
Determine the set and drift of your diver and start a search with the last confirmed position of your diver as your datum point. I'd use an "expanding square" style search.

Never a single diver alone in the water on deco. You said that 1 surfaced so at that time EVERYONE was is contact with the boat. For that few minutes 1 persons stays in the water with there eyes on both the boat and the diver.
On our last trip I cleared out then got in the boat and took of gear and got back in the water with just a mask and fins to keep an i on both the boat and the 2 divers on deco.
Always try to prevent the situation.

Dago.

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Take me to your wreck.!

Second that Dago. We do the same. We always make sure we get the okay sign from the deco diver and someone is in the water with an eye on them.

Yet another good reason to shoot a lift bag on a reel when beginning your ascent unless you are coming up your jug or flag line. This will be particularly helpful in rough seas when bubbles are hard to see. Even in calm seas, I've yet to see a boat driver that doesn't appreciate a marker indicating where his diver is. I usually shoot my bag when doing my 1 minute safety stop at half my maximum depth. The line and reel also give me a means to measure the speed of my ascent and warns other boats of your underwater presence in case your boat isn't close.

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Don't tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don't tell them where they know the fish.
Mark Twain

Never invite the idiot again who puts himself into long deco without letting the boat captain know the dive plan, and without carrying a sausage/reel. Claim dibs on his fish so nobody else gets them if he's not found. 10 minutes of unexpected deco? What a f*cking joke. You should sooner leave your holed up fish and gun on the bottom and come back for it than to go into unplanned deco of 10 minutes. If this is no-current, calm conditions gulf diving, then maybe its acceptable but not in ripping current and shit weather where I'm from. Well, maybe they do that in south florida but it doesn't make it right. You either do a dive that you know you're going to do deco and are prepared for it with a reel and safety sausage, or you don't do it at all.

Again, this is assumed UNPLANNED AND UNANNOUNCED LONG DECO otherwise it would be OK. Seriously, this is why I do not dive with people other than who I know have some common sense. Total bullshit. You should be also able to throw his cell phone in the water while he's on deco to know you're pissed.

Keep in mind that I'm used to diving where there are always currents, so this would naturally set me off. If it were planned, then that is fine, do it safe and use a sausage and reel.

I would sharpie DO NOT PICK UP, time and lat long on a throwable and drop it over the side at the last know position. If it goes from bad to worse you have a drift reference and an up current boundry for a search.

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