Being left to dive solo

[Doubler]

Truth of the matter is, and my wife has told me this over and over again, photographers SUCK as dive buddies. It is actually your buddy diving solo, even if you are 5 feet away, while they baby sit our selfish butts. We concentrate on the subject, on the camera, on the sun, on the backdrop, hell a Great White could have come up and ate your buddy and you would not know. And then we get pissed when the group leaves us behind, "Jeez guys it was only ten minutes on the same coral head. I was waiting for that Flame Angel to come out. Look I got ten great butt shots." Get over it and find a baby sitter, pay for your own divemaster if you are that uncomfortable.

 

[HerraduraDivers]

When i go diving somewhere else i ask and pay for a guide for me (and my buddy) and expect that he follows my pace. If there will be no guides available or too expensive i will dive with another photographer if i don't have my personal buddy with me.
I would feel uncomfortable to slow down the whole group so i prefer to pay more and enjoy the dive doing it as i like.
Diving with a experienced guide knowing the local dive sites is much more worth than the +/- 25$
for a personal guide.


Chris

 

[farsidefan1]

I agree with those that say hire your own divemaster (an extra one) to accompany you if you are one of THOSE photographers (you know who I mean). I know some photographers that take FOREVER to get just the right moment with their subject and it is ridiculous to expect the entire group to wait on them. Or of course agree with another diver to be your buddy and make sure you know your way back to the boat. To some extent I agree with Dev in that the operator should have discussed whether or not it was appropriate for the photograqher to join that particular group. I have been part of groups where most of the divers are photographers and although I just carry a fairly simple point and shoot I'm fine with the slow pace because my wife and I love to just poke around rather than one of those "I want to get home to see the wife or hit the pub" divemasters that set a horrendous pace and seem to be trying to run everyone out of air as quickly as possible.

 

[Stu S.]

I would stop photography and dive solo for a few minutes is the direction the group was proceeding. If they could not be found I would surface and inflate the sausage.

 

[scubamarketing]

I'm a PADI instructor, so that side of me says the usual look around, surface, etc.

The person who paid for a dive trip isn't likely to abort a dive, however

I was in Hawaii on a night manta dive in a spot I'd been to many times. We saw two mantas at the main spot, so the guide decided to take us on a tour. I was taking pictures and video and fell behind a little bit, but thought I could identify the leader's camera lights. My mistake, they all kind of look the same in the distance I found myself alone in the dark, but I was completely comfortable and knew where the boat was. I looked around some more alone, then five mantas came out of the darkness and started circling me. The guide came and found me 15 or so minutes later, shot some footage and signaled to head back to the boat. Everyone but me had been waiting for over half an hour. I felt a little bad that they didn't see as many mantas and they had to wait for me, but I would make the exact same decision if I had it to do over again.

To me, it really depends on how comfortable you are.

 

[knowone]

When I look up I don't see no body nor no bubbles.

Ah the bliss.

I can hear bubbles though.

 

[diver 85]

Become a solo diver.....You have described my last 200+ vacation dives-ie solo & "doin' my thing"---with a camera.........

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

It is not possible for the DM to be the buddy with everyone in the group. They may try, but they just cannot be looking in six directions at once. You have responsibility to buddy with one person, and to stay with that one person. Taking photos makes it harder, but expecting everyone to center their dives on your needs is probably unrealistic.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

First you should find out how the operator operates; there are many differences by region and even within the same small town.

All the Maui Boat operators that I have intel on (pretty much all of them) have guide led group diving with max number of divers per guide in the 6-8 range and they will take a diver with no buddy on pretty much any and every trip. Tomorrow I will either lead 6 divers or 7 divers as our 13 passenger boat is sold out. There will likely be 1 or more non-buddied divers in my group.

I am not telling divers who they have to buddy up with. Is that my job in your opinion? My boss has never even brought up the subject. If solo divers want to buddy up, they should talk to each other; you are a certified diver, right.

My boss would be very unhappy if I got out of sight of my "tail end charlie." But I would have also made it clear in the briefing that one of the divers jobs on this dive is to "follow the guide."

The majority of our sites, the spectacular things to see are a fair distance apart and away from the mooring. We are also on a sort of deadline because most days you do not want to start back across the channel after 12 noon. From the dive sites there is no view of the conditions in the channel. We do a set profile on the first dive (60'/40min, 80'/35min, 100'/30min), at least a 45 minute SI and a 60'/60min max second dive.

There are a number of parameters listed above that cause numerous SB members to thankfully never even want to come to Maui!

 

[victor]

I have aborted dives before under these conditions.
The others were all in buddy pairs so I was buddied up with the DM, but I understand he was leading the dive and so has multiple roles to play.
I carry a Sausage but I did not have a redundant air source, something I think I should have for solo diving.
Other dive outfits I have used in the past have had a lead and a tail gunner, this worked much better, that was not an option here.

So what did I do.
Well I tried to keep up, sometimes more succsefully than others.
I emphasised to the DM's and the other divers that I would be going slow as I was taking photo's. One of the buddy pairs, 2 gents from Europe tried to act as a bridge between the groups.
I have good spatial awareness underwater so I could rise up the reef and find the bubbles, I always found them in about 5 minutes. I would not have dropped behind on a flat featurless landscape as it takes constant concentration to navigate which is not really compatible with photography.
So I plugged along as best I could, falling behind and trying to keep an eye on the group, stopping for a photo but not staying as long as I would like.

What should I do;
Have a redundant air source and dive solo
or
Rent a dive guide when I take my camera.