Advice on Selecting Dive Buddies Please!

[annasea]

So now that I'm certified, I'm in need of dive buddies and advice on how to best select them. What I read on various SCUBA forums are divers offering to dive with whomever lives in or comes to their town. While I think such generosity and hospitality is wonderful, I'm also a bit wary. My primary concerns are:

a) people are not always what they appear to be (one way online, quite another in person)

b) others may make great friends, but aren't great dive buddies (SCUBA-related matters don't mesh)

1. How do you decide who you will or won't dive with?

2. Do you rely on the experiences of others? (referrals from other dive buddies, friends, family)

3. Do you have a screening process? If so, what types of questions do you ask?

4. Do you meet them in person first before actually making arrangements to dive?

Any suggestions you have are most welcome!

 

[BrianV]

I've dove with some instant-buddies before (actually I am today).

My recommendations are to pick someone who is willing to discuss a dive plan and will agree with you as far as how deep, what to see, how far to stay away, etc.

A pony bottle is never a bad idea in circumstances like this.

 

[RICoder]

I think you have the right attitude about it based on your post.

Personally, I usually start off with a conversation prior to the dive to discuss diving in general. Being a fairly conservative, buddy-conscious diver, I'll state that in no uncertain terms and give them the option to back out. If I'm going to dive with someone, I want to know they are going to be there if I need them, and I'm not going to spend my time swimming like a mad-man to catch up with them.

You can usually tell if they'll be a repeat buddy after the first dive, but you need to be confident enough with your own skills to either call the dive or be ok alone if they turn out to be different then you expected underwater.

My circle of SCUBA-friends is eclectic, some are PADI instructors who are uber-conservative, some are shop owners who are layed back in style and some are tech divers who seek adventure and dive on the edge. We all know where we stand, and when we dive together we decide what type of dive its gonna be and either conform or don't go.

So there is my verbose response...my terse response is one word: TRUST

 

[Sideband]

Depending on the dive I'll splash with just about anybody. Once.
Quarries are a great place to test dive a new buddy. You can meet there and get to know them a bit better than meeting on a boat headed for a big dive. You have time to talk and watch them set up their gear. The dives aren't typically as demanding as a boat dive and are a lot cheaper to thumb if things aren't working out. And for the ladies, there are usually a lot of people around if the guy turns out to be a jerk.

Joe

 

[cummings66]

As somebody else said I'll dive with anybody once, more if we get along. To me the goal is to have fun safely. If they seem to have a handle on things we'll do more expensive dives, if not then I'll still dive with them in the local quarry for example.

The way I look at it is if they don't try to kill me then I'll dive with them regardless of their skill level. The exception would be that if they are a hoover I'd dive with them on cheap dives, but if it's going to cost me a lot to dive then I want a buddy who's got the ability to stay under as long as I do, so either similar SAC or bigger tanks for whomever needs it.

I'm not the best, don't pretend to be and am up front with anybody I dive with. That's my advice, talk to them and be up front about what you want, see if you have any common areas and take it from there. For me the only common area needed is to love diving, anything else is gravy...

 

[S. starfish]

I dive with the people I've been trained with pr have trained, so it works out quite well for me. infact, the person I dive the most with I met in my OW class and did everything up through instructor with. I think the best way to decide who to dive with is just to talk to people about planning the dive etc. If your buddy says "if you lose me don't worry, we'll just meet at the end of the dive" (this did hapen to me once, diving dodd narrows) they're probably not going to be the greatest buddy ever. Needless to say, i forgot to give that guy my e-mail. I suggest hanging around dive shops and just chatting with people and then going to a nice tame site like porteau where if your buddy's being an idiot you can just get out of the water.

 

[ItsBruce]

Annasea, you ask good questions. Until I thought about answering yours, my decision making process was real easy. Now that I've tried to formulate a good answer it will be much more difficult.

The good news is that I dive with the dive buddy that the doctor gave me. I raised him and now he's my primary dive buddy. For those instances where I dive with someone else, I want to talk to them first, then meet and talk. If they seem solid and compatible with my diving, I'll dive with them the first time and then decide if I'll do more. If it is a simple, local dive, I'm not too picky about skills--so long as I'm warned in advance. I'm more picky if I've travelled a long way or paid a lot for the dive.

You may have seen my posts warning about potential liability to a buddy who is injured during a dive. I acknowledge there are risks of liability, especially to a stranger. However, I manage the risk and act accordingly. That's why I want to see if the potential buddy is solid. It is a balance between protecting myself and either having the opportunity to dive or giving someone else the opportunity to dive.

 

[ZenDiver]

Avoid the diver with all new gear with price tags still on it that didnt even bother to take them off before they got on the boat....they also have at their disposal exactly 10% of their bodyweight in lead.....and they use it....

Avoid the diver with old crusty not kept up gear from the 60's,70's or 80's.....Its time to upgrade and stop shopping at garage sales for $5 regulators.....

Avoid the diver who hooks his regulator up backwards....you know who you are...

Avoid the diver who brags the most.....They are the ones destroying Barrel Sponges and a consumption rate of greater than 1 cf p/ min....who knew

Avoid the diver who asks how much weight he or she needs to get down...your first clue

Avoid the diver who doesn't know what a dive profile is or how to calculate it....Dive tables = $10, Dive Computer = $300 +/-, How to use them = PRICELESS

Avoid the diver that puts more than 20 pounds on their weight belt with a 3mm suit....They coincidentally also have the "Peak Bouyancy" C-card as well....Good one...cudos for their instructor

Avoid the diver that puts their wetsuit on backwards.....Trust me, they are out there...

Avoid the diver that says "I come up when my air runs out...."

Avoid the diver that has the every gadget they can fit on every D-ring they own.....Christmas is in December.....

Avoid the diver that hasnt dove in 5 years and wants to do a 120 foot wreck dive with rental gear they never used and no clue what decompression sickness is, much less what a dive profile is, hooks their equipment up backwards and swears they are right while asking in the same dialog what a safety stop is exactly..... A winning combination

Avoid the diver who shows up to a dive boat with no watch or computer to track their bottom time....I'm still trying to figure this one out.....

Avoid the diver who says that deep dives help his hangover go away.....I guess they take the Martini Law quite litterally....

Avoid the diver that states, "I have, like thousands of dives....etc..." and they dont dive for a living.....These are the ones with no bouyancy skills or navigational skills, crazy consumption rates and cant do a safety stop if they were paid at the end....Hovering is something helicopters do....

Im sure the list can go on from here.......Hope this gets you started in the right direction

 

[S. starfish]

Avoid the diver that puts more than 20 pounds on their weight belt with a 3mm suit....They coincidentally also have the "Peak Bouyancy" C-card as well....Good one...cudos for their instructor

Hahaha! This made me laugh, I know one of those and the person who certified them is a friend of mine.

Avoid the diver who shows up to a dive boat with no watch or computer to track their bottom time....I'm still trying to figure this one out.....

I've seen this one a bunch of times too, it scares me. When I'm out DMing I really shouldn't have to ask people if they have a dive watch. Timex's are cheap and they work, mine has survived nearly 200 ocean dives, a good 40-50 pool dives and it still going strong.

 

[plife]

This is a great question. Two of the worst dives I ever had were with people I had never dove with before, although they were "friends." Don't assume that your friends want to dive the same dive you do.

In one case, we jumped off the boat and he took off. Never looked back. Disappeared into the ocean so fast. I hung around near the anchor line for a while looking at the sand and rocks, and then decided to surface. He came back to the boat about 45 minutes later, "Hey, what happened to you?" Last dive with him.

In another case I dove off a boat with a good friend who had asked me to dive with her many times - what a great time we would have! Well she hung on to a rock and stared at me like a deer in the headlights. I had to drag her back up to the surface. She had told me so many times what a great diver she was and all the great adventures she had had. After that, I never believed her again.

Mostly I have, in the past, had a close-knit group of good friends to go diving with and pretty much stuck with them. We all knew each other both as divers and as friends, and that makes all the difference.

My suggestion is to sign up for more classes. Go on group dives with your local dive shop. The more you dive with people, the more opportunities you have to find people to dive with. Signing up for group events, joining your local dive club, taking classes - that is the best way I know of to find dive buddies. Don't wait until you are on the boat and hope someone good will dive with you - that rarely works out well.

Good luck, and congratulations on your OW cert! :wave-smil :wave-smil

Patti