What is the correct action ??

[Sean C]

Here is the question. If you are diving with a current and your buddy misses the line and is being carried away by the current but in no specific danger: do you stay with the buddy or wait to get back into the boat with the rest of the group and then let the boat retrieve the buddy? For the purpose of this question, lets assume the buddy is in no immediate danger and you would not be placing yourself in an any real risk by going with the buddy. An additional assumption could be that there are several divers waiting to exit the water, so drifting diver and boat will experience some considerable separation. I am aware that this should be covered in the brief, but I would still like your opinion....? Rag away, if you wish.

Sean

 

[jonnythan]

I would go with my buddy. I wouldn't want to be alone getting to the surface in a current, and I wouldn't want my buddy downstream alone either. Can't help each other when you're too far apart.

 

[redacted]

My wife is my buddy so there is no doubt what I'm going to do. But how about if we look at it this way: Why would you not stay with your buddy?

 

[Firebrand]

Ditto to what Jonnythan said. Two surface signalling devices will attract more attention.

 

[cmalinowski]

might as well stick with your buddy. While in no immediate danger at the moment, as you said, there may be a while before anyone else gets to him.

What if it was you drifting away? It's at that moment where you ask yourself "Do I have the safety sausage or was that my buddy?"

 

[The Kraken]

The operative caveat in the scenario is that the buddy "is in no immediate danger".

In this case I feel it would be safer to stay with the buddy for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is to reduce the probability of panic. The second reason would be the fact that two divers makes a larger target to spot from the boat given the fact that alerting the dive boat is not an issue.

But always keep in mind, are you likely to become a victim also if your intended course of rescue puts you in harms way. A dead rescuer can't save a victim.

 

[Diver0001]

Here is the question. If you are diving with a current and your buddy misses the line and is being carried away by the current but in no specific danger: do you stay with the buddy or wait to get back into the boat with the rest of the group and then let the boat retrieve the buddy? For the purpose of this question, lets assume the buddy is in no immediate danger and you would not be placing yourself in an any real risk by going with the buddy. An additional assumption could be that there are several divers waiting to exit the water, so drifting diver and boat will experience some considerable separation. I am aware that this should be covered in the brief, but I would still like your opinion....? Rag away, if you wish.

Sean

My first impulse would be to stay with my buddy, but if I were the one getting carried away I would want my buddy to exit and warn the crew.

R..

 

[miketsp]

I went through this in reverse. My son and I surfaced downcurrent into a strong surface current. Now I couldn't make any headway into the current and he swam off and left me. Well I was really cursing him for leaving me alone. Anyway he is young, fit and managed through a tremendous effort to get back to the boat where he alerted the crew and they came to get me.
I complained that he had left me and his reply was that if he had stayed who was going to give the alarm, plus the current was so fast that even the few seconds we would have wasted discussing it would have complicated matters much more.
He made a split second decision based on the circumstances and his abilities and he was quite right.
It's better to have somebody at the boat that knows where you went to and can make sure that measures are taken.

 

[novadiver]

Here is the question. If you are diving with a current and your buddy misses the line and is being carried away by the current but in no specific danger: do you stay with the buddy or wait to get back into the boat with the rest of the group and then let the boat retrieve the buddy? For the purpose of this question, lets assume the buddy is in no immediate danger and you would not be placing yourself in an any real risk by going with the buddy. An additional assumption could be that there are several divers waiting to exit the water, so drifting diver and boat will experience some considerable separation. I am aware that this should be covered in the brief, but I would still like your opinion....? Rag away, if you wish.

Sean

good question that deserves a good answer. Were I dive it is very important that should this happen you need to shoot a lift bag right away. the current will seperate you from the boat fast. and if you have any safety stop or deco stop that means you'll be even farther from the boat when you surface, by shooting a lift bag at the site the boat WILL be able to follow your position and KNOW that the missing divers are ON THE BAG. this will speed your recovery time and let the crew of the boat know were you are,

 

[The Kraken]

. . . but do you stay with your buddy or go to the boat?