Divegal and I returned from the Caribbean not long ago. Had a great dive
trip.Ever notice how there is a guy like this on every dive trip.

We were on the boat going out to the dive site. There were two groups.
One was a group of newbies and the other the more experienced divers.
The plan was to moor in about forty ft. of water and the newbie group
would stay with one dive master in shallow water and the rest of us
would drop off the wall into deeper water with the other dive master. On
the way out we noticed one of the "experienced" divers sitting with the
newbies and overheard him telling them not to worry because warm water
diving was a piece of cake compared to the cold water diving he did up
north. As we're Great Lakes divers and used to used to the different
challenges of cold water we at first didn't really think anything other
that he was just an experienced diver trying to be helpful by giving
some advice to the newbies.

However, when it came time to gear up it did seem a bit strange that he
had brought a 7mm wet suit and a techie BC with a 90lb wing, a bit of
overkill especially since it was 80F water temp and we were all diving
with single 80's. What should have been the giveaway was when we noted
that he had a spare air attached to his techie BC. I was paired with
with divegal, there was another couple and a single gal. The single gal
was a very competent diver as we had several dives with her. As she was
alone she normally paired with the dive master. This time the dive
master went solo and buddied her with our northern techie.

Once under the water we knew it was a stroke alert. The guy was all over
the place bouyency wise, crashing into coral, etc. The single gal moved
completely away from him and formed a trio with divegal and I. The
divemaster recognized what was going on and then buddied with the guy to
keep a close eye on him. Next thing we know he's pointing frantically to
his air pressure guage. The rest of us all still had half a tank left so
the divemaster signalled to us to swim around and enjoy the dive and
surface when ready and he would ascend with this fella now.

On the boat trip back he was again sitting with the newbies. We
snickered as we overheard him tell them that he came up early because
there was "nothing to see". All the way back he was telling the newbies
about how more challenging cold water techie diving is.

Any of you ever meet this guy before? He seems to be on every dive boat
in one form or other.