Approximately How Often Have You Experienced Buddy Separation?

[MaxBottomtime]

Pretty much every dive. We usually dive in group of three photographers. We don'y usually descend together, but if we do we always head off in different directions looking for subjects. We do tend to see each other throughout the dive but are not really buddy diving.

 

[christ daniel]

Always stick to my buddy

 

[Trace Malinowski]

I answered less than 1% of my dives. In 35 years of diving team breakdown happened rarely, but did happen, before the discipline of tech/cave training. Even after nailing the window shut on separation with discipline I experienced 3 buddy separations with well-trained divers.

1) My girlfriend who was a cave instructor and I allowed zeal to locate human remains for a cave diving documentary cloud our judgement and we became separated when positioned far apart while intent on finding cultural artifacts. Percolation of exhaust bubbles on the ceiling caused bacterial sediment to dislodge and rain down in thicker and thicker penny sized floating clumps reducing vis to near zero. We both ended up lost off the line, took safety measures, and found our way to reunite in the cavern zone. Lesson: If you go looking for dead people you just may find them.

2) Cave diving with another girlfriend, I discovered an issue with a new drysuit I began to fuss with during exit. I was leading out and did not notice her primary light failure. She stopped to deploy a backup light. That failed to ignite. She got her third light deployed before I noticed no light behind me. I turned around and swam back to find her. After the dive we found her failed back-up had a battery explosion with fresh batteries installed. We never heard of the brand she picked up at a gas station and only bought name brand after that. Lesson: Pay attention to team the same as you would in class when dealing with failures.

3) A tech student was behind me as I was keeping my eye on the wall we were aiming for in lower than normal vis during a hot drop in the St. Lawrence. I normally position myself behind the student but we were last off the boat and I knew we had to haul @$$ to reach the wall to get deep enough to miss the eddy so I wanted to set the pace and reduce his stress of having to navigate, keep team, deal with his first hot drop and first drift dive. No exaggeration. He was right behind me and I made eye contact as I performed an "okay" with the light. I looked ahead and spotted the top of the wreck we were drifting into coming up just as we made depth. I pointed at the wreck and wall. He gave me the "okay" and I swam forward hard to reach out and snag a hold of a piece of wreckage expecting to halt my speed, turn and gesture for him to do the same. He was gone! WTF! I mean I had my eyes off him for just what seemed like 5 seconds. I figured he missed the wreck and so I decided to go back into the current and swim with it fast expecting to catch up to him. Nope. I worked my way back and forth along the wreck and up the wall moving into the current with pull & glide and drifting with the current getting ever shallower searching in an "S" pattern up the wall. I was ashamed, embarrassed, and most of all concerned. But, I was comforted by the fact that I heard the captain open up the engines and speed over me soon after the separation and thought maybe he was picking up my student. Yep. That's what happened. Student ended up experiencing a sports injury like in football. Something happened in his ankle. He felt a severe pain. Stopped kicking and blew by me in the 3 or 4 kicks it took to reach the wreck. He surfaced quickly did minimum deco in mid water and popped a bag. THIS ONE WAS INEXCUSABLE on my part! Lesson: NEVER EVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF A STUDENT ... LIKE NEVER ... NOT EVEN FOR A FEW SECONDS ... NEVER FREAKIN' EVER! His leg swelled up and he couldn't put weight on it the next day and sought medical help. We finished class a year later and I didn't lose him and never lost a student before or since. I should have been side by side or even in touch contact to help him move faster. Instructor leading ... bad.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I have always been extremely concerned about buddy separation. Unfortunately not everyone sees buddy separation as an issue. If you dive solo... dive solo... if you are supposed to be a buddy be a buddy. lacking respect for the buddy procedure is the best way to have me mark a diver off my "dance card".

I watch my buddy but no matter how hard you try it is possible for a separation to occur if the buddy doesn't watch you and isn't committed to the buddy relationship. You can't keep your eye on your buddy every second of every dive. In limited viz it takes very little time for a buddy to get out of visual range.

I indicated less than 1% I have lost my buddy twice. First time as a fairly new diver we were all taking pics and when I looked up they were gone. I followed lost buddy procedure, they didn't. I never counted on either of them as a buddy again.

Second time my experienced buddy followed their normal process of doing their own thing at the end of the dive in stead of spite of repeated requests to maintain buddy contact.. That did not end well.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Depends on what you mean by "separated". Out of view for 10 seconds, or 30, or 60 or a few minutes? Most dives for 10 seconds would be not uncommon (poor viz, lots of fishlife, large boulders in way). As others have pointed out, it is up to both divers to ensure they are not separated. The person not leading has a particular responsibility to not linger, especially when the plan is to go faster over some sections of the dive (eg the start or finish of a shore dive).

 

[lowviz]

...//... THIS ONE WAS INEXCUSABLE on my part! Lesson: NEVER EVER TAKE YOUR EYES OFF A STUDENT ... LIKE NEVER ... NOT EVEN FOR A FEW SECONDS ... NEVER FREAKIN' EVER! ...//...

Not at all worried about your attentiveness, sometimes things just happen way too unexpectedly and way too fast.

Someone should have told that to this guy: Parents sue Boy Scouts for 2011 negligence death

 

[Phil_C]

I answered less than 1% because I have only ever had one dive where I lost my buddies and couldn't find them. We were shallow, 35-40 foot, but with a 3-4 knot current across a 300 year old wooden shipwreck we were mapping. There were three of us in my team, and a camera crew filming us work, and two other teams working elsewhere on the wreck, visibility was poor at 5 or 6 foot (severely hampered the filming ).

The film crew wanted a repeat of a shot, we stopped and did it, then I looked up for my buddies and they were nowhere to be seen and I did not know which direction they had gone. Several people were in FFM with comms so we checked in with the boat and knew everyone was safe, I couldn't see any of the other teams so I just stuck with the camera crew and surfaced with them, I never did find my dive team until we surfaced.

But - if you want to know how many times I have lost sight of my buddy, then the answer is different, at certain times of the year quite often.

Fairly often I do very low visibility dives, by which I mean I have a hand on my buddies tank and still can't see him. In these conditions it is quite common to lose sight and contact. It happened three times on a dive last weekend. But we plan for it, one diver swims half a bodies length ahead, the second diver keeps physical contact with the tank or hip of the front diver, if the front diver feels loss of contact they stop, the following diver then catches up/searches on the appropriate side until contact is regained.

In all three cases last weekend contact was re-established within probably 15-20 seconds or so, but it would have been a nightmare if both divers were swimming around looking, we would probably have missed each other.

If we don't find each other within 2 minutes we surface and rejoin on top. We could of course use a buddy line, and have done at times, but generally we don't like the restraint of one of them. - Phil.

 

[seeker242]

I'm feeling grumpy today because my "buddy", after telling him I only want to go to 60-70 feet, and NOT enter the wreck... after he agreed on that, he went deeper to 90ish ft and entered the wreck, by himself, leaving me outside...Not only that, he was also the operations DM guide...who I was supposed to buddy with because everyone else had a buddy. Not diving on that boat anymore!

 

[The Chairman]

If you dive solo... dive solo... if you are supposed to be a buddy be a buddy.

And please: Communicate this clearly with the people you're diving with. I've lost my buddy a few times and I've had buddies lose me a few times.

If your buddy is behind you, learn to listen to their breathing. The cadence of their breathing will indicate their mental condition amazingly accurately. Of course, once you don't hear them, you need to stop and find them. Look for the bubbles!

You have not truly signalled to your buddy if they don't acknowledge it.

 

[KeithG]

never. but i have also been lucky enough to have always had the same divebuddy and she understands that i am carrying her emergency air...