How often do you check up on your buddy during a dive?

[jlcnuke]

Really depends upon the diver I'm with. Experienced people I trust, I glance at them every couple minutes, and maybe ask if they're okay if I'm not sure for some reason (unusual). Someone I don't know or don't have confidence in, I check on them regularly and will ask them if they're okay fairly frequently.

 

[TMHeimer]

Really depends upon the diver I'm with. Experienced people I trust, I glance at them every couple minutes, and maybe ask if they're okay if I'm not sure for some reason (unusual). Someone I don't know or don't have confidence in, I check on them regularly and will ask them if they're okay fairly frequently.

I assume that if you glance at an experienced buddy every couple of minutes you are OK with being separated and finishing the dive solo. Not that there's anything wrong with that IMO, if that's the dive plan. My brother and I shore dive once a year with a plan of entering together and approximately what tank pressure to exit, then the first one to exit waits for the other.
But even in great viz, you can't count on being together if glancing every couple of minutes.

 

[jlcnuke]

I assume that if you glance at an experienced buddy every couple of minutes you are OK with being separated and finishing the dive solo. Not that there's anything wrong with that IMO, if that's the dive plan. My brother and I shore dive once a year with a plan of entering together and approximately what tank pressure to exit, then the first one to exit waits for the other.
But even in great viz, you can't count on being together if glancing every couple of minutes.

If I check on them and they're gone, I'll look for a minute and surface to reunite (with safety stop as necessary). When I "check on" someone it's specifically to see that they're still there and no apparent problems exist. That doesn't mean that I never look in their direction or wouldn't be available if they have a problem. I'm constantly "looking" for things in the water, and so are my normal dive buddies. If we see something, we'll get each other's attention. We don't find a formal "are you Okay?" signal or specific desire to check on each other every 10 seconds necessary to keep together in "normal" conditions. We're experienced divers and capable of getting our own assistance if necessary (by swimming to our dive buddy ideally), and otherwise diving with each other in the same area without having to hold hands or stare at each other for the entire dive.

Conditions obviously change the necessity of looking, and descending through the 3 ft vis layer in a local quarry will result in closer attention paid to each other, and having 100 ft vis and no current in the tropics will relax our need to be "on top of' each other.

I've had dive buddies that are scared to be out of arm's reach, and quite frankly, I can't stand diving with those people.

 

[foob]

One thing no matter how often one checks. Trouble can brew in seconds.

I realized this so recommend some noise generating solution. Like banging on you tank with a bolt snap. I was last in a group and trying to get someone's attention just a few yards away when I thought **** was hitting the fan was hard.

 

[happy-diver]

ALWAYS DIVE WITH A BUDDY
Diving with a buddy is just one of those scuba-rules, an inherent habit that comes with the underwater world. Your buddy is there to help you should you need them: you run out of air, your equipment malfunctions, you see something incredible that no one else will believe unless you have a witness.

Your buddy is there to hold you accountable, to encourage you, to calm you down should panic arise. A good buddy thinks not only of themselves, but of their counterpart as well. Your dive buddy could be a stranger you’ve just met on the boat or a lifelong friend with whom you share a passion.

You and your buddy enter the ocean on each other’s terms, agreeing on a dive plan, understanding that while each person is responsible for himself, they are also there to lend a helping hand. You share the dive together, exit the water together, drifting along in a sort of dependent independency.

Going through life without a buddy, without someone with whom you can communicate, without someone to be there should you need them, is not an ideal way of life.

That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with being alone. I think being alone is important in order to figure out who you are. We need to be able to be alone with ourselves, to love ourselves independent of others, in order to make ourselves happy.

But there’s something to be said for having a shoulder to lean on, an ear that listens to you, a heart that beats more soundly knowing that your heart is beating too. We can’t isolate ourselves too much, closing ourselves off from the rest of the world. We thrive on connection, on acceptance, on belonging to something bigger than ourselves.

In this big old adventure we call life, swimming alone can get, well, lonely. There is too much that can be shared, too many things to experience, too much that is beautiful to only see with one set of eyes.

You and your buddy, whether they’re a partner, parent, or best friend, can allow each other to appreciate the solitude found in our world while remaining there for each other should you need one another. The world has a way of throwing curveballs at us, and its comforting to know that your buddy will be there, or will need you too, when one of those curveballs hits just a little too close.


10 Life Lessons That Scuba Diving Taught Me

I can feel the love can you feel the love

 

[lermontov]

ALWAYS DIVE WITH A BUDDY
Diving with a buddy is just one of those scuba-rules, e

No- its one of your rules

 

[homerdoc]

every three breaths I take a look, I tell my girls to do the same. Only ask okay when we get to planned depth, or if I see an issue

Agree on the hovering above being annoying, my daughter seems to do that.

 

[Jcp2]

Communication is key. I would go as far as to say that almost every major problem, whether that be on an individual, communal, or global scale, is rooted in a conflict of communication.

Sometimes we don’t understand what the other person means. Sometimes we can’t comprehend why someone would say something a certain way. Different words and phrases have different meanings around the globe. Fingertips brought to a point with a rocking palm is one person’s “slow down and give me a minute” while it’s another person’s comically frustrated “what in the world are you doing?”.

Listening to each other, establishing a norm, understanding the root of what someone is saying and the reason why they would be saying it that way is something that has challenged me in my relationships with countless global nomads. We’re all brought up differently, raised to believe different things, but at the end of the day we’re all trying to communicate the same thing: this is me and I just want to be accepted.

Being empathetic and understanding other aspects of communication are vital to finding and providing that acceptance: reading the look in someone’s eyes, interpreting body language, deciphering why someone may be acting a certain way.

We’re all floating along in a sort of shared solitude, alone with our thoughts and interacting with others when we get the chance. But understanding each other, using those agreed upon hand signals and being aware of other cues, makes or breaks our time with each other. In a world where there are many languages and ways of interacting, it’s good to spread that universal connection, a connection growing from compassion, empathy, and kindnes

 

[kelemvor]

As title says, how often do you check up on your buddy during a dive?
If you're leading the dive and your buddy is behind you, how often would you flash the OK sign back to your buddy to check if he's alright?

Had a pretty heated discussion about this today, so many divers (instabuddies, anyone?) dive solely thinking about themselves and not really caring about the fact that you're a team.

When I was first certified, I'd check every few minutes..and my buddy was always on either side of me within arm's reach. By the time I was approaching 100 dives, that had changed to two or 3 times during the dive and buddy within one or two body lengths (maybe 5-10ft) from me.

When I dive with my wife (most of the time now) we use wireless AI and I can see her gas levels on my computer...and we dive within arm's reach most of the time, just because we want to be close.

I guess it was around the time I started taking more advanced training classes that I relaxed about the buddy system a little. Now days I dive with a pony on rec dives. I don't need that buddy to be there for me. If they need me, then they can stay as close as they like.

 

[Kharon]

I don’t want my buddy behind me. I want him/her next to me. If there is no reason I don’t ask my buddy if he/she is ok.

I don't want a buddy anywhere. I don't want to ever have to check on a buddy so, with rare exceptions, I dive solo. When I do dive with a buddy they know that I am self sufficient, we review and practice my handing them the pony, and I follow them closely in case they run into trouble. If they check me OK, if not, no worries - I'm fine.

Note: I don't do caves, I don't do wrecks & deco, I don't do penetration, I stay fairly shallow and observe fish & other marine life - I enjoy watching how they interact rather than spending time babysiting. Yes I'm selfish. My time underwater is limited and expensive. I don't waste a second of it.