Anyone who's been here awhile knows my three basic dive buddy rules:
1) I won't buddy up with a Rebreather diver
2) I won't buddy up with the mobidly obese
3) I won't buddy up with a hunter
So this weekend I'm diving in the No Channel Islands. And the dive boat I'm on does 4 dives on Sat. I'm in a dry suit, intended buddy is diving wet. After the 3rd dive, buddy announces they're cold and want to sit out number 4.
Fine. I'll insta-buddy myself onto someone else.
So there was this group of really nice guys we were talking with between dives on the trip. Intellegent, fit, funny, engaging, sweet guys. I'm all, "cool. I'll hang with these two on dive 4..." I know they're hunting (spearguns) but I figure its no biggie - I'll just hang out and hover over them out of the way...I mean, I need a back up gas supply, and these guys seem competent and experienced enough. They were cool with it, so there it is.
I wrote rule number 3 for Lobster Hunters... notoriously poor buddies. I've never dived with people with, you know, loaded weapons before. I thought how bad can this be...
I need to stick to my own rules.
The dive was mercifully short because these guys are MOTORING around this reef. I mean, I've never seen anyone dive so fast. KICK KICK KICK KICK and hoovered through most of their gas. Plus there were no fishy targets to skewer. But what an ugly profile - up down up down up down... Yikes.
I was looking at my download today, and noticed I was all saw tooth, up to about the 8 minute mark - then I decided to chill out and hover over them and not follow them around. I kept my HID18 beam within their site, so they always knew where I was - and after a few minutes they got the idea to stop swinging around and look for me (with associated speakgun swinging) and just hunt while I hovered like a helecopter over the next LA high-speed pursuit.
It was OK. It was short. I probably could have selected a buddy who was more into diving and less into scurrying about - but these were good guys and I picked the divers and not the diving, you know. Dive 4 was sort of a wash. It was my own fault. Lesson learned.
I gotta follow my own rules.
---
Ken
1) I won't buddy up with a Rebreather diver
2) I won't buddy up with the mobidly obese
3) I won't buddy up with a hunter
So this weekend I'm diving in the No Channel Islands. And the dive boat I'm on does 4 dives on Sat. I'm in a dry suit, intended buddy is diving wet. After the 3rd dive, buddy announces they're cold and want to sit out number 4.
Fine. I'll insta-buddy myself onto someone else.
So there was this group of really nice guys we were talking with between dives on the trip. Intellegent, fit, funny, engaging, sweet guys. I'm all, "cool. I'll hang with these two on dive 4..." I know they're hunting (spearguns) but I figure its no biggie - I'll just hang out and hover over them out of the way...I mean, I need a back up gas supply, and these guys seem competent and experienced enough. They were cool with it, so there it is.
I wrote rule number 3 for Lobster Hunters... notoriously poor buddies. I've never dived with people with, you know, loaded weapons before. I thought how bad can this be...
I need to stick to my own rules.
The dive was mercifully short because these guys are MOTORING around this reef. I mean, I've never seen anyone dive so fast. KICK KICK KICK KICK and hoovered through most of their gas. Plus there were no fishy targets to skewer. But what an ugly profile - up down up down up down... Yikes.
I was looking at my download today, and noticed I was all saw tooth, up to about the 8 minute mark - then I decided to chill out and hover over them and not follow them around. I kept my HID18 beam within their site, so they always knew where I was - and after a few minutes they got the idea to stop swinging around and look for me (with associated speakgun swinging) and just hunt while I hovered like a helecopter over the next LA high-speed pursuit.
It was OK. It was short. I probably could have selected a buddy who was more into diving and less into scurrying about - but these were good guys and I picked the divers and not the diving, you know. Dive 4 was sort of a wash. It was my own fault. Lesson learned.
I gotta follow my own rules.
---
Ken