What is the correct action ??

[novadiver]

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

ME, I'd go with my buddy if only for the ride, It would be like flying across the moonscape and you would be sure to see something that no other diver ever has. and knowing that the lift bag hit the surface right around the dive site would relieve and misgivings about being lost at sea. (ever hear a bag surface, it sounds like a whales blowhole spouting, very loud WOOOSH)

 

[miketsp]

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

After my experience I would say categorically "Go to the boat". The buddy getting on the boat is then in a position to expedite the rescue. If you stay with your buddy, maybe no one saw the pair of you drifting off. Other distractions may easily happen and you will be forgotten.
Say someone saw you but then somebody else slips on the ladder and hurts themselves. In the confusion you may be forgotten for some time.

In the example I gave above no one was on lookout because most of the group was doing a shallow water dive in the lee of an island and they were not expected to surface for some time.
We did a shorter deeper dive out in the channel. By the tide tables there was not supposed to be much current.
Of course nowadays I have my DiveAlert...

 

[RICHinNC]

Stay with the buddy.....you can be the stars of OPEN WATER 2

 

[ZAquaman]

You have to stay with your buddy. Who could live with themselves if you left your buddy and something bad happened to them? It's good to know the answer to this question before it happens to you. The split second it takes to decide to stay with you buddy or leave them could make a big differnce in certain circumstances. Heavy current can separate divers very quickly.

It happened to me on a shore dive. The surface currents beyond a point were very strong. I warned my buddy before the dive to stay near the bottom or risk being swept out to sea. At mid dive he ascended into the surface current to get a closer look at a huge jellyfish. That's all it took, he was in the current and going fast. I was so angry I had thoughts of letting him battle the current on his own. I followed him, we both fought the current as hard as we could and were gaining ground until he cramped up. I swam all out towing him for alomost ten min. until the current subsided and he could kick again. 45 min. later we were both on shore, exhausted. He was a changed diver after that and will not dive in currents to this day.

Had I let him go it would have been a coast guard rescue situation. He may have never been found. The lesson I learned that day was choose your dive buddy well and stick with them.

 

[redacted]

After my experience I would say categorically "Go to the boat". The buddy getting on the boat is then in a position to expedite the rescue. If you stay with your buddy, maybe no one saw the pair of you drifting off. Other distractions may easily happen and you will be forgotten.
Of course nowadays I have my DiveAlert...

In a difficult current, who is to say that either of you will make it back to the boat or that one of you will not get into trouble that would benefit from the buddy's assistance. Boats I dive with have quite good procedures for accounting for divers and recovering divers who do not make it to the ladder. Unless my buddy tells me he's fine and would just like to go for a Zodiac ride and asks me to make sure they get him, I'm staying with him. Even if he asks, I think I trust the boat enough to know that there is greater danger of a problem where a buddy can help than of the boat losing us at sea. I've watched a couple coast guard searches and believe they will recover us if we are on the surface. And visable markers will make it faster and easier.

 

[mjh]

I would board the boat, alert the crew and keep an eye on my buddy. If it was the wife, I would stay with her contrary to what I think is the right thing to do. There are no excuses for anyone diving in open water not to carry a sausage and whistle at minimum.

 

[matt_unique]

I would board the boat, alert the crew and keep an eye on my buddy. If it was the wife, I would stay with her contrary to what I think is the right thing to do. There are no excuses for anyone diving in open water not to carry a sausage and whistle at minimum.

For me it would depend upon the circumstances. A rescue attempt, of any kind, is completely useless if the rescuer becomes another victim. That is the first rule in rescue training.

If we were already on the surface I would alert a boat crew member and tell them to watch my buddy and this means they should not take their eyes off him/her. This person should do nothing except stand there and watch the buddy.

If I were under water during a deco stop or safety stop I would stay on the line and finish my stops as required. I would like to think I would be smart enough to take a compass heading of my buddies drift. The buddy should be properly equipped to float a SMB and then a safety sausage when he/she reaches the surface. I would surface and alert the crew to keep an eye out and proceed from there.

In the most extreme case for me I am 12 miles from land with 45 min of deco stops in ripping current. There are some here with much more advanced deco profiles but I am thinking out loud about my circumstances. One person on board the boat and two of us diving. In reality on most boats, including charter boats, the crew and captain are kicking back or preparing snacks or whatever until they expect the first divers to return. They don't post lookouts on the uppermost deck to search for SMB's for the entire dive for example. This would be the case on my boat as well. The surface support would be kicking back but keeping an eye on the predetermined time of return. If I stayed with my buddy and we floated bags my surface support is not likely to know. It would make more sense to take a heading of drift, finish my stops on the line, then hope my buddy did as he/she was trained to float a SMB then safety sausage/whistle/etc. when he/she reaches the surface. As soon as I surface I would alert my surface support buddy to keep a lookout and grab the binoculars if necessary. I would get into the boat in a hurry and hopefully have a visual reference by the time I was on board.

--Matt

 

[kent_1848]

I would stay with my buddy especially if it was my wife, or someone that I didn't feel confident leaving (i.e. newbie, or someone who gets nervous and freaks out easily). Also, I can't help a buddy that I'm not close to. I have yet to be on a dive boat where they weren't very concerned about everyone being on board. There isn't a dive operation out there that wants to be "Thanked" in the credits of "Open Water 2".

 

[DBailey]

In the original situation, I have to assume that I am on the line waiting to exit and I notice that my buddy missed the line, I would go with my buddy. Since I was close to the boat, I would immediately break out the whistle and sausage to get everyone's attention on the boat. If at the very least, it lets the boat know they have divers not on the line and drifting away, and hopefully they assign someone to keep an eye on us.

 

[Meteora]

Just my .02, but as a newbie, if I were the one floating away, I'd much rather have my buddy get to the boat and be sure they were looking for me ASAP - rather than take my chances that they'll notice me missing and find me & my buddy without having any clue where we'd gone to - not to mention that the added time it takes them to notice the missing people would mean I'd be further away and harder to find.

Probably a good thing for buddies to discuss before getting wet, though, because some people may not feel the same way.