Anatomy of a dive buddy

[Mike Boswell]

Bob makes a very good point here which I've noticed doesn't seem adhered to a lot. My gf and I talk about the distance thing frequently ... if you are using your buddy as a source of emergency air, you need to make sure you stay relatively close AND have a way of signalling each other or it really isn't going to help much. Sadly I've watched a lot of buddy teams where if the trailing diver has a problem the other diver in the buddy team not only wouldn't be able to help, they wouldn't even know there was something going on.

Boy-oh-boy, do I agree about the "signalling each other" part. If you hear my signal and you are swimming towards me knowing there is a problem, we could cover a lot of ground quickly. But if you are swimming away from me, it might take me 50 feet, or 500 feet, or never, to close that 25-foot gap.

So ... What do you use to signal with? Do those tank-bangers work?

 

[Water Monkey]

I have found and have always taught that there is only one way to function as a buddy team.

And that is, prior to jumping in the water you decide who is going to be the buddy team leader and who is going to be the buddy team follower.
It’s the buddy team leaders job to determine where you are going how deep you go and how long you are going to be there, in other words follow the dive plan, and it’s the buddy team followers job to stay next to the buddy team leader. That’s not to say that the buddy team follower is oblivious to the profile. But it is there job to stay next to the leader. If the follower wants to stop and look at something then they bump or tap the leader and let them know there intentions. Sometimes if I am the follower and I fall behind a little I will bump the leaders fins occasionally to let him or her know that I am still there without making them turn around and look for me.

Especially in limited visibility I have found this is the only way that works.

 

[TSandM]

Mike, in warm water, where people's ears are uncovered, banging on the tank makes a sound that can be heard quite a ways. Whether someone focused on taking a photograph or peering into a hole will notice it or understand it's meant for them is another question. Communication in clear water can be quite challenging, and I'm actually considering investing in a new gadget I've seen, which attaches to the mask and flashes if the buddy squeezes or taps theirs.

Ideally, you should have a scan built into your brain -- What's my depth? Where's my buddy? Look at the fish . . . What's my depth? And so on. I try never to go more than 30 seconds without checking on my team, and if I happen to be taking pictures (which I rarely do) I start to feel extremely guilty after that much time has passed.

But Water Monkey has a good point, too. It is everyone's responsibility to do what my dear friend HBDiveGirl calls "diving to stay found". We all know what our buddy's range of vision is; it is our responsibility to stay IN that range. If I'm diving along and find something absolutely wonderful, and I can't readily signal the team because the water is too sunlit and clear, I'll sit where I am and I EXPECT that in less than a minute, my buddies will turn to look for me, and I can signal them to come and see. (This doesn't work on high velocity drift dives, which is one of the reasons I'm not unduly fond of them.) Otherwise, it's my responsibility to stay where folks can see me -- not too high, not behind, but in that funnel of vision that we have as a result of our masks.

It takes time to learn to be that kind of buddy, and it takes a commitment to BEING that kind of buddy.

 

[AfterDark]

I always assume I'm diving solo. I'll stick with an insta-buddy but would do it with the assumption that I'll help him/her if needed but, they'll be no help to me. I've never been disappointed.

 

[The Chairman]

When I dive i often track my buddy by the sound of their breathing. Heck, I do this with classes too, and can track a number of unique breathing patterns around me. If I can hear the breathing getting fainter, then I am going too darn fast. If it changes in tempo or tenor, it's time for me to visually look at my friend(s).

 

[TSandM]

That works great, Pete, where people aren't wearing 12 mm hoods . . .

 

[DaleC]

I always assume I'm diving solo. I'll stick with an insta-buddy but would do it with the assumption that I'll help him/her if needed but, they'll be no help to me. I've never been disappointed.

That's my MO too. While it would seem that a solo diver might not make a good buddy I clearly distinguish between solo and buddy dives. If I commit to a buddy, they can depend on me. I also think that, because I try to be self reliant, I anticipate problems proactively and am a better buddy because of it.

The best part is that, because I try to be self reliant, I generally have a good feeling towards potential buddies and diving in general. I would dive with the 78 year old. The ten year old should either be with a parent or DM but I have no problem diving with a local 14 year old we have here. On a recent group dive I saw a newer diver struggle a bit and, if our SI's hadn't been out of sync, I would have dove with them. It really doesn't matter to me.

What does matter is attitude. If someone is grumpy, arrogant or foolhardy I'll excuse myself. Inexperienced but honestly trying is AOK.

 

[parkerco]

So ... What do you use to signal with? Do those tank-bangers work?

A Dive Alert Plus ... gadgety and a tank banger would probably work (and we have them as backup in case air issues would make the DA useless), but that quacking noise cracks my gf and I up and carries far enough for us to hear it, plus the surface mode it gives us some redundancy to the whistles we carry for surface signalling.

... and I'm actually considering investing in a new gadget I've seen, which attaches to the mask and flashes if the buddy squeezes or taps theirs.

Please let us know if you get one of those ... saw an ad for that in a recent magazine and was curious how well they work and how annoying it would be to have on the mask.

 

[Mike Boswell]

That works great, Pete, where people aren't wearing 12 mm hoods . . .

I really can't hear other people breathing underwater, but maybe I'm just not listening.

I did a little search and found an article* which states that underwater sound is not "stopped" by our eardrums, but rather by our hard bony structures. Thus, we hear underwater mostly with our skull, not our eardrums. It could be that Pete's skull is unusually hard.

* Excerpt: "My source of information with respect to human underwater perception is Michel Redolfi himself, who, as I have mentioned already in my introduction, is the world's first (and only?) underwater musician and has been putting on underwater concerts for the past fifteen years or so since his work at UCSD in coordination with the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. He kindly forwarded me an interview translated from German between himself and the Festival ARS ELECTRONICA which was held in September of 1996 with regards to "scientific research aspects and psychoacoustic related effects" of underwater music. From this interview, I have learned that the most important thing to understand with regards to human underwater listening is that our ears are mostly useless; this occurs for the same reason that a normal microphone does not function well underwater--as has been previously described there is a poor impedance match between the construction materials of the auditory device and the propagation medium: "In the water, the audience picks up the sound only by the effect of bone conduction. Basic principles: In immersion, the ear drum (tympani) is too close to the density of the water to stop any sound wave (the ear drum is made of 90% water). Only the bones are hard enough to stop the fast sound waves (1450m/s, four times the speed of sound in the air). So, the bones from the neck and skull resonate and carry the vibrations simultaneously to both of the inner ears, the nerves' endings located in the skull"

One result of bone conduction is that the skull provides only one source of transmission instead of two as with the ears. Stereo reception, therefore, is not possible and sounds will consequently lack direction cues. "A listener in the water doesn't hear in stereo so he loses his sense of direction, [and] Cartesian space (Left-Right/Up-Down) dissolves. Psycho-acoustically, this loss of Cartesian space translates in one's mind as an inner vibration that would come from inside the body... "

https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~blackrse/h2o.html

 

[Rhone Man]

What is your definition of a dive buddy?

Tank Sherpa and/or Lobster Bag Holder