What if they didn't have the phone number readily available? Do you have DAN's number in/on your gear? I've got our DAN cards in our save-a-dive kit, attached by one of those luggage-tag thingies... which ALSO has the DAN numbers on it. I've also got them programmed into our cell phones.
I've thought that I might additionally put a small DAN decal on the back of my truck so that if I was at a dive site and underwater/away from the truck while someone else needed the number, they could get it off that sticker (provided they realized it's DAN information).
You might not call DAN if you don't know about them:
When Erica and I were last in Maui, a guy on our boat mentioned something about "what a great vacation he's had, diving everyday, and tonight he has to go back home to LA" as in, "I'm diving today and flying early this afternoon"
![pale :pale:](./images/smilies/icon_pale.gif)
... and these weren't shallow dives and were done on straight air. So Erica, in her quiet soft-spoken self (HA!), says "you mean you're flying out this afternoon... as in today?" "Uh, yeah" the man responded. Erica: "you realize you just did 2 healthy dives right?" The man: "uh, yeah (as though she was not making sense)"
About now the DM and Captian are both starting to chime in while getting worried about this fellow. Erica: "I think that's a dumb idea (again in her reserved soft demeanor), didn't you learn about this in basic OW?" as she looked at me puzzled. I told him he should REALLY call DAN. "Dan? Who's Dan?" - I will never forget his face when he uttered "who's Dan?" and looked around confused. Priceless. ](*,)
We then explained about Nitrogen loading and flying, encouraged him to drink a TON of water and advised him not to have any alcohol (to which he said that he was originally planning to "put back a few" between now and when he left this afternoon) and we told him he REALLY needed to call the "Divers Alert Network" because he could be creating a problem for himself. Between several divers, the DM, and the Captian, he was convinced.
I dialed DAN from my phone, explained to them what the situation was, and passed the phone over to the man. Whatever the DAN medic told him on the phone sure got his attention! The whole way back to the dock he was asking about DAN and said he was going to call back and buy DAN coverage when he got back to the hotel. When we got back to the dock, he went straight to his rental car and got the paperwork he needed and rescheduled his flight.
Best line for why you didn't call DAN: "Who's Dan?"
![d'oh! #-o](./images/smilies/eusa_doh.gif)