Buddy wants to thumb a dive: what have you experiences been?
We all know the technically correct procedure. Your buddy wants to end the dive: you accompany them to the surface and then most probably end the dive because of the padi tables.
In truth, we all know that there are loads of other situations. Do you guys think that the official procedure is too rigid? Might it be better to have a procedure which is like, "make certain your buddy is ok, then rejoin the group and use hand signals to form new buddies."??
Mine are:
Large group situation, famous wreck. Somebody else's buddy was dangerously low on air. The DM sent me to the surface with the fast-breather because I was the one with the most air to share. I was later offered an extra free dive with the company. Overall it was annoying but understandable.
Buddy lost control of her buoyancy and did a fairly uncontrolled ascent. The DM who was leading us chased her a little, and then shrugged to me and signalled that we were leaving her and that i was now with him. However, my buddy re-descended and followed our group, unseen, at about ten metres while we were at about twenty. She got dirty looks at the end but she was a paying customer so she was never told off. In my opinion (am i correct?) she should have been shouted at for re-descending.