Steelyeyes
Contributor
Part of rescue diver training for me was searching for a submerged diver. I don't suppose they'd teach that skill if staying on the surface waiting was the best protocol to follow.
I sometimes dive with my son, he's in his mid 30s, ex commercial diver, used to working underwater alone. Buddy diving is a newish thing for him so sometimes, like when we were doing a shallow kelp dive in Sekiu WA, he'd scoot ahead, turn around a large rock and disappear. I'd look for him for a minute or so, surface, look for bubbles, and if I saw them I'd descend and swim on that heading to catch up. If I didn't see bubbles right away I'd give it a minute or so more, he'd realize that I wasn't behind him and he'd pop up and we'd reconnect. In Puget Sound if you're not nearly or actually in touching distance losing your buddy is far easier than say in the Caymans, the Keys, or Belize where the water has more of a transparent quality.
The rest of the time my buddy is my wife. She's got about 200 dives and is a good buddy. Once in a while she gets distracted and lags behind but we figure it out.
So, looking for your buddy is situational. Depends on your relationship, the visibility, if you are heading for a specific target or direction, etc. Back in the 80s I went diving with a few people about one time each that were terrible buddies and I spent a lot of time on those dives chasing them, or their bubbles down. On an ascent after waiting or looking around for a minute or so I'd go up in a widening spiral and since we were in Hawaii most of the time the vis allowed me to see their bubble stream before reaching the surface more times than not. Those buddies got one dive with me.
I sometimes dive with my son, he's in his mid 30s, ex commercial diver, used to working underwater alone. Buddy diving is a newish thing for him so sometimes, like when we were doing a shallow kelp dive in Sekiu WA, he'd scoot ahead, turn around a large rock and disappear. I'd look for him for a minute or so, surface, look for bubbles, and if I saw them I'd descend and swim on that heading to catch up. If I didn't see bubbles right away I'd give it a minute or so more, he'd realize that I wasn't behind him and he'd pop up and we'd reconnect. In Puget Sound if you're not nearly or actually in touching distance losing your buddy is far easier than say in the Caymans, the Keys, or Belize where the water has more of a transparent quality.
The rest of the time my buddy is my wife. She's got about 200 dives and is a good buddy. Once in a while she gets distracted and lags behind but we figure it out.
So, looking for your buddy is situational. Depends on your relationship, the visibility, if you are heading for a specific target or direction, etc. Back in the 80s I went diving with a few people about one time each that were terrible buddies and I spent a lot of time on those dives chasing them, or their bubbles down. On an ascent after waiting or looking around for a minute or so I'd go up in a widening spiral and since we were in Hawaii most of the time the vis allowed me to see their bubble stream before reaching the surface more times than not. Those buddies got one dive with me.