Approximately How Often Have You Experienced Buddy Separation?

Approximately how often have you experienced buddy separation?


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OK...my 2psi done.
 
I checked < 1% but I will say I have never really lost my buddy but I was not in sight of my buddy so some folks would call that losing them. There have been a few times in places like Little Cayman where my wife and I have been diving in more or less of a group. While swimming back to the boat along the top of the reef there have been a few occasions where she would stop with a couple of others in the group to film something of which I have no interest. So I will keep moving along in the direction of the boat. So while I may lose sight of her for a brief period of time, I know where she is, or at least where I last saw her with our friends.
 
I have difficulty answering the question, as my diving is so varied. While I teach in challenging visibility conditions, I use a hand mirror and lights on my students (dive and tank - so I can keep track of them out of the corner of my eye) to help me keep track of students (I prefer to keep rations of 3:1 or even less. 1:1 in some cases). When I dive tec, I also never lose my buddy. When I'm on a challenging drift dive, again never (which can be hard when going through the Tacoma Narrows).

But when I have a camera, and the conditions are calm, it sometimes happens. I was diving with a group, and when I started recording two octopuses fighting, everyone else swam off. My ex-girlfriend who got me into diving would completely ignore everyone when she had a camera in her hand. She never looked up. I had to stay close, but I still feel that falls under the case of buddy separation. When I have a camera in my hand, I feel that I'm solo-diving with a buddy. While I maintain eye contact (I pause to check up on my buddy in between shots), I can still lose him/her. If I buddy up with a beginner, then I'll just take my GoPro and leave the FF DSLR in housing (the "beast") at home.

So it really depends. As others have said, communication is key (before you get to the dive site).
 
No buddy. No problem.
Two computers. Redundant air source. Multiple Cutting Tools.

The less I see the other divers, the better.
 
I guess like most things in scuba I'd have to say "it depends". One of my favorite dive buddies is, like me, a photographer. We sometimes go on dive trips together and ... shall we say ... dive as a rather loose buddy team. We're both experienced solo divers, and each carry a pony bottle. She has a tendency at times to get on a subject and stay with that subject for an extended time. I, on the other hand, like two or three quick shots (most times) and move on. So when she finds a particularly interesting subject I will sometimes just continue my dive. If I find something interesting, I'll come back and get her after I'm done with it and show her where it is. Then I'll move on to other subjects. At times, we just meet back on the boat. We're both comfortable with this arrangement, as we're used to each other's abilities, and each prepared to either share or solo, depending on what we find during the dive. But it's an unusual situation for me, and one I will only do when I'm completely comfortable with and prepared for the arrangement. I usually either just solo dive or buddy dive, with a commitment to whichever I choose for that particular dive.

As for accidental separation ... it's happened to me in the past, but it's been a very long time ago ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
I dive in a lot of low vis conditions, and there is a good chance you will lose sight of your buddy. We always discuss our plan on what to do if separated, depends on the buddy. Several of the divers I dive with are very experienced in low vis diving and we don't have to worry about each other nearly as much as newer divers.
 
Less than 1% since 1976.

Of course, when solo diving I often "lose myself" in the beauty and wonder of my surroundings, so does that count? :rolleyes: :coffee:

Seriously, all my buddy separations, and there have only been a very few, resolved themselves within a minute or so with my buddy and I rejoining quickly quickly underwater per agreed protocol.

But the feeling I had when looking over to check on my buddy and not seeing her/him at my shoulder was highly "unpleasant" during the moments before locating them.

Best wishes.
 
i checked every dive because you dont have a 3/4 of the time. if i am not within arms reach i am too far but i do know where they are and we do communicate topside before diving that some separation will occur and when we do separate we tend to find each other pretty quick on one of my regular dive sites that i know like the back of my hand and that i do approximately 30-50 dives each year on and has a max depth of 30 feet i separate quite often i do know where my buddy is though and we do know we will separate before the dive and we find each other to signal when we are surfacing and will usually meet up at the end of the dive that being said we are never more then 50 feet away from each other
 
I put down "almost never, <1%," becaues I mostly solo dive. Even when I do buddy dive, I stick close because the other diver is not usually very experienced. One time when buddy separation could have been very costly, we dove with a buddy line attached to a buddy belt with parachute-style D-rings on it. We stayed together after being rolled by a humongous wave (15-20 footer) off the Oregon coast in December.

SeaRat
 
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