Lost Buddy procedure. Should I have done things differently?

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I kind of understand the frustration, nobody likes to loose a buddy, insta-buddy diving, or whatever dives with you, I assume everything bad was going thru your head, but I try to understand what were you looking for in a 1-2m visibilty dive, did somebody lost something valuable, I will had call the dive, what is the point of diving in bad visibility ???
 
I agree with TSand M--it is a very frustrating situation because you really don't have a good option. If you decide after a while to go on with your dive, you have just potentially screwed up because the lost diver may be in trouble and still be saved with a prompt rescue effort, or the lost diver may make a belated return to the surface and not find you there. Even staying there for 40 minutes was not good because you were missing any opportunity to perform a successful rescue.

I was once diving in kelp in Monterey with a buddy who kept wandering off. Fortunately, he followed the lost buddy procedure and came to the surface each time to find me waiting for him. After the third time he got the hang of staying in contact.

What I just described is the only time I have ever seen the lost buddy procedure work. In each case, someone who knew the procedure well decided not to follow it. The most recent case came close to working. It was only a couple of weeks ago. I was diving with someone in a lake, and I stopped to make an equipment adjustment. I had signaled my intent and thought he had understood, but apparently not. It only took a few seconds, but when I looked up, he was gone. I looked for the required minute and then surfaced. I was near some steps leading into the water, and I climbed the steps for a better perspective. From there I could see his bubbles, and I went down after him. Later on he said he was indeed following the lost buddy procedure--he was still in his one minute of looking for me when I arrived. Either his sense of time needed to be adjusted, or his buddy awareness needed some work.

The lost buddy procedure works well when everyone follows it, but for some reason some people refuse to follow it, even when they know it well.
 
I think you did the right thing. You guys agreed to a dive plan and you stuck to it. Don't second guess that instinct. Plan your dive and dive your plan. Occasionally this kind of prudence will mean you lose a dive you might otherwise have had. But chalk that up to experience. This was a useful dive in that it taught you some things. It taught you to maybe be a bit more proactive with your own predive brief with your buddies. It also taught you something about the kind of diver you are. You are a diver who respects an agreed dive plan. I hope this is something you decide to like about yourself.

If your self assessment was that in those conditions trying to search or find that buddy from the surface was impossible or beyond your current skills, then I think the correct priority is to ensure your own safety first and foremost.
 
Quite a few years ago, a buddy team got separated at our local underwater park. One buddy followed protocol, went to shore, and called emergency services. The other continued his dive for over an hour -- and got out to face some very angry police, firemen, and divers.

Same thing happened here in Norway last fall. The buddies who called emergency services were told they had done the right thing. The missing buddy was treated to an enlightening conversation with the local police.




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Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug
 
I kind of understand the frustration, nobody likes to loose a buddy, insta-buddy diving, or whatever dives with you, I assume everything bad was going thru your head, but I try to understand what were you looking for in a 1-2m visibilty dive, did somebody lost something valuable, I will had call the dive, what is the point of diving in bad visibility ???

The DM - our mutual friend wanted to carry on saying that the viz would be ok. i.e. not to be a wuss. In hindsight I should have just followed my gut feeling to not join the dive and leave.

On the bright side, I now know what to do pre-dive. i.e. be anal.
 
In hindsight I should have just followed my gut feeling to not join the dive and leave.

You know the quote, right? "Anyone can call a dive" etc. Sometimes, the time to call a dive is before you splash, even if the reason is just "I don't feel quite good about this". The difficult thing, though, is to draw the line between completely normal apprehension for something close to the border of your comfort zone and a gut feeling you should listen to.

On the bright side, I now know what to do pre-dive. i.e. be anal.
:D :D :D


--
Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug
 
I'll admit I'm probably the worst buddy on the planet. The only time I make any effort to stay together is if I'm with a really new diver or a diver new to me. Having dived mostly in low visibility waters, buddy separation has become a fact of life. Sometimes a buddy can't be seen if they are only a body length away. I usually try to dive alone or with others with enough experience not to get flustered at separation. I'm up front with others and tell them if they can't dive same ocean buddy they probably don't want to dive with me. The truth is if we came up every time we got separated we'd spend more time on the surface then underwater. What if we are diving the U853 in 120FSW and get separated 2 minutes into the dive? Do we come up?

You did the right thing. Calling for help when the situation is unknown is a waste of resources and could cost someone else their life. Also giving him a piece of your mind was justified. You had expectations of what would happen in a given situation, knowing he was briefed the same and did the opposite should have pissed you off.


I'll add, if it had been me and another diver I wouldn't have waited more than a couple of minutes, before we went diving.
 
My question is - why, given the conditions (virtually no vis and high current), did you decide to dive that site. Doesn't sound like a fun dive to me. The conditions scream buddy seperation unless you are tethered together. I wouldn't have wasted a fill on those conditions.
 
Did he by any chance join the wrong buddy pair, mistaking identities in low visibility? It's astonishing that someone with 30 dives experience would continue diving by himself for 40 minutes in 1m visibility. It would take a special kind of stupid. Special kind of lucky to survive it, too.

That happened to me (joined wrong group after losing contact) on a shore dive not long after OW cert. Took a couple of minutes to realize my mistake and I did surface but didn't see my group which BTW had shop owner and former instructor in it.

On another note, these folks calling OP 'judgmental' sound like pot calling kettle black to me. Words on a screen are sometimes a lot diff from being there. Just sayin'
 

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