Interesting thoughts on safe buddies

[Seadog_Malta]

Diving in the ocean especially drift diving also involves freeing your dive buddy from fishing monofilament line sometimes, freeing your buddy from floatball line entanglements and lift bag line entanglements. I could go on and on but you get the point...

I'm pro-buddy diving but do you really need a buddy to free yourself out of entanglement? ..I dont think a buddy would be a MUST in such situation. Been through situations with fishing lines, nets and wreckage and always managed.

JimLap is hoping that her buddy skills are the result of a good instructor, which is surly true. She was acting like a well trained diver and that's the way she knows how to dive. The problem is when she gets to a point at which she can be called an experienced diver, maybe she's a DM now and carrying her UW camera. Would she keep her good buddy skills her instructor had taught her or care about the next good shot?

 

[Rick Inman]

But a good pre-dive discussion should help, although it doesn't always, because people don't always DO underwater what they SAY they are going to do on the boat.

I enjoy a polite post-dive debrief as well.

Years ago when I was first getting back into diving, one of the senior members of this board, and an excellent diver, was kind enough to dive with me when I drove over to Puget Sound. He had no problem politely looking me right in the eyes after a dive and saying something like, "You need to learn to frog kick because you're silting up the site for all the other divers," or, one time, "Your position is too far back and above me. You need to swim side-by-side with me for better buddy position."

I never questioned that he was anything but caring for my diving skills and trying to help me, and I appreciated the help so very much! To this day after a dive I'll ask whoever my buddy is for feedback. And I try to politely do the same for my buddy.

Sometimes as new buddies we don't say anything in an attempt to be nice, but sometimes polite feedback is appreciated.

 

[Scott L]

I'm pro-buddy diving but do you really need a buddy to free yourself out of entanglement? ..I dont think a buddy would be a MUST in such situation. Been through situations with fishing lines, nets and wreckage and always managed.

JimLap is hoping that her buddy skills are the result of a good instructor, which is surly true. She was acting like a well trained diver and that's the way she knows how to dive. The problem is when she gets to a point at which she can be called an experienced diver, maybe she's a DM now and carrying her UW camera. Would she keep her good buddy skills her instructor had taught her or care about the next good shot?

You are right such senarios can be managed by one's self most all the time but when this occures and your buddy keeps swimming away from you without the situational awareness expected it simply highlights the bigger picture of a breakdown in relationship with that diver. I am a bit senitive to the issue having a new buddy violate every conceivable aspect of diving this past saturday...

 

[rstofer]

I'm pro-buddy diving but do you really need a buddy to free yourself out of entanglement? ..I dont think a buddy would be a MUST in such situation. Been through situations with fishing lines, nets and wreckage and always managed.

Didn't someone just die in Monterey after getting entangled in kelp? Seems like I read something about it within the last year.

I agree that if you are diving with a photographer, you are diving solo. The best possible solution is for 2 photographers to dive together and then both are diving solo - together. It worked for my buddy and I. We had identical training, identical cameras and a keen interest in bringing back interesting photos.

On our weekend boat, we had a marine biologist who always dove by himself. Even, or especially, on night dives. He was doing research/photography and everybody on board just decided his several thousand dives trumped our concern about a buddy system.

Richard

 

[lulubelle]

I made the mistake of buddying with 2 guys toting cameras on my very first night dive while in the Turks and Caicos islands. We did have a pre dive chat and they were aware that this was my first night dive. There was a lot of current and so so vis. I had to hustle to keep either of them in my sight and neither of them had any idea where I was. Good guys, but not my favorite dive.

At the end of it, we were all treated to waves slamming the ladder against the dive deck covering the deck by several feet. That part was OK, I dive here in NC and am used to that dance.

So, note to self, on my next night dive, I buddied with a couple, a female instructor and her husband. Much better.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Diving with photographers takes some special considerations, as they will tend to see the entire dive through their viewfinder.

You may find this article helpful, and by all means when you find yourself buddying up with someone carrying a camera, discuss communication and buddy positioning issues with them before you get in the water.

There's a bit more effort involved at first, but once you've done it a few times, diving with a photographer is no more effort than diving with anyone else ... you just have to understand how to dive with each other in a way that maintains the integrity of the buddy system.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[cyrilgrey]

I enjoy a polite post-dive debrief as well.

Years ago when I was first getting back into diving, one of the senior members of this board, and an excellent diver, was kind enough to dive with me when I drove over to Puget Sound. He had no problem politely looking me right in the eyes after a dive and saying something like, "You need to learn to frog kick because you're silting up the site for all the other divers," or, one time, "Your position is too far back and above me. You need to swim side-by-side with me for better buddy position."

I never questioned that he was anything but caring for my diving skills and trying to help me, and I appreciated the help so very much! To this day after a dive I'll ask whoever my buddy is for feedback. And I try to politely do the same for my buddy.

Sometimes as new buddies we don't say anything in an attempt to be nice, but sometimes polite feedback is appreciated.

For some reason people take criticism personally these days, reacting defensively and not listening to a word said. Doesn't do them much good to omit it in an attempt to be nice. Maybe they'll think about it later or hear it from enough sources to wonder. If not, that's their problem.

 

[cyrilgrey]

Diving with photographers takes some special considerations, as they will tend to see the entire dive through their viewfinder.



... Bob (Grateful Diver)

In photography the truly memorable photos, over the years, are usually a combination of time, place, luck of subject and the ability to pick it out of the whole. Land photographers tend to do the same thing, getting lost in the details of photography and missing the great shots that happen by.

I'd rather look around, and if something appears pull out a camera, take one shot as best I can, then watch or move on.

 

[Guba]

Most of my dives are with buddies I know well, and we've worked out the "lead-follow" protocols. However, when diving with a new buddy when I'm carrying a camera involves making sure we both know the plan and we make sure our styles are compatible. One thing I've found that helps is an effort to make the relationship symbiotic. I make sure to get my buddy in some of the photos and video scenes, and I offer to make my footage and shots available to them, often burning the images/video to a disc for them. That way, my buddy doesn't feel totally ignored, it provides opportunities for periodic checks on our status, and they will have a visual record of our dive together to keep. By involving the buddy in the photography, I've found it makes us more of a 'team' and my buddies are much more likely to "watch my back" and alert me about potential shots, with the added effect of keeping me aware of my partner. Plus, it's just plain fun to share the images with others!

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Please read NWGratefulDiver's article. It is a wonderful discussion of how to accommodate the special needs of UW photographers and still do a good job of buddy diving.

I take a camera on almost every dive. My buddy does the same. We've worked out a system in which one of us establishes the pace -- usually ranging from very slow to snail's pace. Each diver visually checks on the other before setting up a shot and after taking each picture. Many times we're sharing our finds with each other. ("Look at that baby nudibranch!") If one buddy wants to linger to get several shots of the same critter, then the other lingers, too. The system works for us, but it takes good communication. We've done a couple hundred dives together in lots of different conditions (<1 ft. - 100 ft. visibility) and have never gotten separated. On occasion we've had to clip-off the cameras and maintain touch contact to get through a patch of awful vis. Some might say that we're just lucky...but I think we make our own luck.

That being said, many UW photographers enjoy the solitude of solo diving. That's fine, too.

I'm very wary of insta-buddies in general. During the pre-dive planning phase, I make sure that we discuss our goals for the dive. If our goals aren't compatible, then we don't dive together. Before entering the water, we discuss the logistics of the dive (air consumption, turn pressure, navigation, buddy separation distance, buddy positioning, pace, signals, lost buddy procedure, deep stops, safety stops, etc.).

I've had bad buddies with 5 dives and bad buddies with 500 dives. I've also witnessed discrepancies between a diver's comfort level/in-water diving skill and alleged experience level. Moreover, dive training/certification level is not a reliable indicator of the quality of a prospective dive buddy. I've found some novice divers to be better buddies than a few instructors that I've dived with. One of the worst dive buddies I've ever had was a former "Navy" diver. (Don't know if he was ever really in the Navy.)

Thanks for sharing your story. Have fun and dive safe...