Ishie
Guest
Hmm... I'm the bad buddy a lot because I'm a photographer. I do try to be mindful of where my buddy is and let people I'm diving with know that sometimes they'll need to poke me to make sure I'm still alive (slow diver).
Worst buddy by far was when I had about 20 dives (as did my normal buddy) and we were teaming up with a "pro" who'd "show us the ropes" because she had a whopping 40 dives... of course, she was showing us the ropes in Monterey, where we'd logged all of our 20 dives within about two months, and all her dives had been over 4 years in Cozumel, and she'd never dived Monterey. Naturally, we picked the worst possible day imaginable to dive with probably a 13' swell going on, bad vis, and major surge
Highlights:
1. Trying to talk us into going off Lovers, which was so blown out even the surfer's were avoiding it because she saw the standard float and ONE dive float way out in the water... to that effect, the ONE person dumb enough to dive it that day ended up in the paper the next day after he had to be rescued.
2. Making wild "NO" hand gestures after my regular buddy attempted to touch a bat star to show it to her as if he had just skinned a sea lion. It's a Monterey starfish in the middle of a storm getting pummelled by surge... it can handle a glove.
3. Hitting the wrong button on her BC, my grabbing her hand to try to get her back down... her continuing to hit the wrong button, her REFUSING to let go of my hand as I tried to yank it free (learned right then and there, always grab the GEAR), thus dragging me on an uncontrolled ascent. Upon popping out of the water like a cork, commences yelling at BC, totally unapologetic to me because "oh we weren't that deep".
4. Informs us post dive that we were "on the bottom" and "stirring up the silt" so much (vis was about 3-5', and surge was so strong we were clinging onto the bottom for dear life looking for some form of viable life to make dive interesting) that she couldn't see, and that she was just "letting us know" because no one in CO-zumel would dive with us wrecking the (sand) bottom like that, but we were "noobs" but we'd learn eventually.
In retrospect, should have gone to the aquarium... and thrown her in the shark tank.
Mostly, I've had good luck, including with instabuddies. I've dived with newbies plenty of times, and generally I'm surprised at how many have excellent buoyancy, good nav skills, decent air consumption, and are all around pleasant. I often enjoy diving with them more because they're still really excited about stuff.
Worst buddy by far was when I had about 20 dives (as did my normal buddy) and we were teaming up with a "pro" who'd "show us the ropes" because she had a whopping 40 dives... of course, she was showing us the ropes in Monterey, where we'd logged all of our 20 dives within about two months, and all her dives had been over 4 years in Cozumel, and she'd never dived Monterey. Naturally, we picked the worst possible day imaginable to dive with probably a 13' swell going on, bad vis, and major surge
Highlights:
1. Trying to talk us into going off Lovers, which was so blown out even the surfer's were avoiding it because she saw the standard float and ONE dive float way out in the water... to that effect, the ONE person dumb enough to dive it that day ended up in the paper the next day after he had to be rescued.
2. Making wild "NO" hand gestures after my regular buddy attempted to touch a bat star to show it to her as if he had just skinned a sea lion. It's a Monterey starfish in the middle of a storm getting pummelled by surge... it can handle a glove.
3. Hitting the wrong button on her BC, my grabbing her hand to try to get her back down... her continuing to hit the wrong button, her REFUSING to let go of my hand as I tried to yank it free (learned right then and there, always grab the GEAR), thus dragging me on an uncontrolled ascent. Upon popping out of the water like a cork, commences yelling at BC, totally unapologetic to me because "oh we weren't that deep".
4. Informs us post dive that we were "on the bottom" and "stirring up the silt" so much (vis was about 3-5', and surge was so strong we were clinging onto the bottom for dear life looking for some form of viable life to make dive interesting) that she couldn't see, and that she was just "letting us know" because no one in CO-zumel would dive with us wrecking the (sand) bottom like that, but we were "noobs" but we'd learn eventually.
In retrospect, should have gone to the aquarium... and thrown her in the shark tank.
Mostly, I've had good luck, including with instabuddies. I've dived with newbies plenty of times, and generally I'm surprised at how many have excellent buoyancy, good nav skills, decent air consumption, and are all around pleasant. I often enjoy diving with them more because they're still really excited about stuff.
