Dive from Heaven became hell

Question
I want to know how close to screwed I was...really, not just the VERY CONSREVATIVE sport diving tables.

Mr. Scott, I was diving off Venice, Louisiana...some of the best spear fishing in the world (you may have heard of Hell's Divers). I went down with a buddy in heavy current that cleared at 75 feet in the gulf of mexico. Water depth was 260 feet.

we dove down to 180 feet on air, stayed 18 minutes and then decompressed at 100 feet (for 1 min.) before my buddy ran out of air (he's crazy). we buddy breathed up to 25 feet and then decompressed there for maybe 2-3 minutes.
We felt fine at the top (especially since I had shot a 25-30 pound red snapper).

We both knew what we had done was pretty dangerous...I would have decompressed much longer if he hadn't run out of air, used my air and forced us both to go up....

well, in your honest opinion are we lucky as hell or were we on the far margins of dive possibilities.

thanks,
-trevor

ps. I'm not looking for a slap on the wrist, I know it was a stupid dive, I'm just looking for an honest appraisal as to why I'm still alive.  

Answer
Well Trevor, I'm amazed you  and the buddy did not bend.  My guess is you are quite lucky.  You must not have done a second dive or any dives 24 hours before this.  According to the deco planning software I use, you missed almost an hour of required deco time and would have required about 120 cu ft of air to do so.  Obviously no fish is worth your life and I'm not a Scuba police, but I would strongly suggest the technical training and equipment required for dives to the depth you dove.  Dives of the sort you performed require quite a bit of planning to do safely.  You should check your insurance if you have it as some do not cover you if you go below recreational limits.  I'm glad you made it through this one alive!