billtodive
Contributor
Well put. I can live with losing a basketball game due to lack of teamwork.
Buddies - the good, the bad and the evil
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Well put. I can live with losing a basketball game due to lack of teamwork.
hopashore
Registered
So as a very beginner (3 OW dives) who has only ever dived with family or close friends, what are some suggestions, pointers, tips, etc. that you want to see in a buddy? It's likely that if I want to dive I'm going to be going alone places and thus be paired off and I really hate making "newbie" mistakes.
Obviously being upfront about experience, comfort level, safety check (or perhaps not so obviously?)...but what else can make a good stranger-buddy diving experience?
Obviously being upfront about experience, comfort level, safety check (or perhaps not so obviously?)...but what else can make a good stranger-buddy diving experience?
Be HONEST about your experience level! first and foremost this is my biggest pet peeve. If someone claims to be Cousteau when I meet them they better have good skills or guess what? I'm not diving with them after the first one.
Know your gear intimately. If I have to help you set up your tank and reg without getting paid for it I'm probably gonna try to find you another buddy. Especially if it's on an expensive vaction I had to work all year for.
Local dives this is not an issue. I'll help anyone I can if asked.
If you are new chances are I'll let you lead until I get an idea of your skills. I can pretty much keep up with anybody. Do too many things that cause safety concerns or vary too much from the AGREED upon plan and you will be on your own.
If you tell me you're new and still a little unsteady that's fine. I'll work with you and try to help. But if you completely disregard my advice and insist on shooting off, dive deeper than planned, race around like Mario Andretti, and use up an al80 in 30 minutes on a 30 ft dive, or continue to take unnecessary risks then we'll not be diving again.
As to what to do- stay with the plan, relax and enjoy the dive, don't try to see everything-the reef is too big you won't be able to. Again be honest- I have no problem showing you my log and certifications- show me yours. Pay attention to the divemaster's briefing. Chances are he knows the area alot better than you.
If someone says the dive is over it's over. If you call the dive I'll surface with you. I may go back down and finish if there's time and air but I'll not let you surface on your own. If I tell you I'm going to be taking pics expect that there will be times I'll stay in the same spot for 5-10 minutes. Tell me if you will be doing the same. I actually enjoyed the dives I did with a guy who was doing macro stuff. Gave me a chance to work on my buoyancy and finning techniques and discovered there's alot to see in a meter square or less patch of reef!
Plese try to work on a skill on every dive and let me know which one it is. I make it a practice to work on at least one skill every dive and expect my buddy to accomodate me. I'll do the same.
Stay within rescue/assist range. Usually depends on vis. If you don't know what your range is better be within arms reach. If the vis is bad it's ok to touch. If the vis is great it's not necessary- unless you're female and hot.
But most of all realize that this is upposed to be fun. We are not on a mission. I save that for my tech dives. Warm, clear reef. Relax and go slow. Save your air. Don't overexert and by all means don't do anything dumb and get yourself or me hurt. I'll do the same for you.
Know your gear intimately. If I have to help you set up your tank and reg without getting paid for it I'm probably gonna try to find you another buddy. Especially if it's on an expensive vaction I had to work all year for.
Local dives this is not an issue. I'll help anyone I can if asked.
If you are new chances are I'll let you lead until I get an idea of your skills. I can pretty much keep up with anybody. Do too many things that cause safety concerns or vary too much from the AGREED upon plan and you will be on your own.
If you tell me you're new and still a little unsteady that's fine. I'll work with you and try to help. But if you completely disregard my advice and insist on shooting off, dive deeper than planned, race around like Mario Andretti, and use up an al80 in 30 minutes on a 30 ft dive, or continue to take unnecessary risks then we'll not be diving again.
As to what to do- stay with the plan, relax and enjoy the dive, don't try to see everything-the reef is too big you won't be able to. Again be honest- I have no problem showing you my log and certifications- show me yours. Pay attention to the divemaster's briefing. Chances are he knows the area alot better than you.
If someone says the dive is over it's over. If you call the dive I'll surface with you. I may go back down and finish if there's time and air but I'll not let you surface on your own. If I tell you I'm going to be taking pics expect that there will be times I'll stay in the same spot for 5-10 minutes. Tell me if you will be doing the same. I actually enjoyed the dives I did with a guy who was doing macro stuff. Gave me a chance to work on my buoyancy and finning techniques and discovered there's alot to see in a meter square or less patch of reef!
Plese try to work on a skill on every dive and let me know which one it is. I make it a practice to work on at least one skill every dive and expect my buddy to accomodate me. I'll do the same.
Stay within rescue/assist range. Usually depends on vis. If you don't know what your range is better be within arms reach. If the vis is bad it's ok to touch. If the vis is great it's not necessary- unless you're female and hot.
But most of all realize that this is upposed to be fun. We are not on a mission. I save that for my tech dives. Warm, clear reef. Relax and go slow. Save your air. Don't overexert and by all means don't do anything dumb and get yourself or me hurt. I'll do the same for you.
Well said, Jim!
Ian
Ian
Hmm... could that Swedish diver have been trained outside of our largely-American training agencies? Of course it sounds like he had substantial training post-open water if he dove tri-mix.
Insta-buddies can be a real pain if they overstate their qualifications. I much prefer an insta buddy who says "look, I'm an air hog and have some trouble with my buoyancy... are you sure you want to dive with me?" vs one who openly defies the DM by stating he isn't going to observe the rules. I had both kinds one day on a trip in Fiji.
Peterbj7, it is a real shame that the PADI standards leave you concerned that you might offer something "value added" in your classes and be punished for it. IMHO "standards" should be the minimum agencies and instructors train to, not the ceiling. An instructor who goes beyond the basics in OW training here at our dive park should be admired, not admonished.
Insta-buddies can be a real pain if they overstate their qualifications. I much prefer an insta buddy who says "look, I'm an air hog and have some trouble with my buoyancy... are you sure you want to dive with me?" vs one who openly defies the DM by stating he isn't going to observe the rules. I had both kinds one day on a trip in Fiji.
Peterbj7, it is a real shame that the PADI standards leave you concerned that you might offer something "value added" in your classes and be punished for it. IMHO "standards" should be the minimum agencies and instructors train to, not the ceiling. An instructor who goes beyond the basics in OW training here at our dive park should be admired, not admonished.
I'm with Jim -- Tell me if you're new. Pay attention to the dive plan. Dive the plan, or if you want to deviate from it, let's discuss it. (I carry wetnotes -- we can.) Dive to stay found -- STAY where you can be seen, and within easy communication and rescue distance. And the team dives as a team -- we descend together, dive together, and ascend together.
I often dive with new divers -- it's a particular joy of mine. I've never felt I had a bad dive, so long as the other person stays where I can see and help them.
I often dive with new divers -- it's a particular joy of mine. I've never felt I had a bad dive, so long as the other person stays where I can see and help them.
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Here's an article I wrote a few months back for my dive club newsletter (I do a monthly column called "Sound Advice").
I've since had several of them tell me how much it helped them not only become better dive buddies, but also set expectations with other folks they dived with. Perhaps someone here will find it useful ...
Hey! Where’d my buddy go?
By Bob Bailey
I watched it happen … standing on the beach at one of my favorite dive sites and looking out I saw a lone diver surface. Watching to see what he’s up to I watch him look around for a couple of minutes, then submerge. A few seconds later, another lone diver surfaces 100 feet away. He does the same thing. A few seconds later the first diver pops back to the surface again. I holler out and tell him to wait on the surface … his dive buddy will be right back. He waits, and in a few minutes, the two are reunited.
We’ve all heard horror stories about the buddy of circumstance … aka the “buddy from hell” … the guy who gets in the water without a clue or a care, doesn’t follow the dive plan, or quickly gets separated from his dive buddy. Such divers are the bane of a dive vacation, in particular, because they frequently end up causing you to cut your dive short, or spend some stressful minutes underwater at a time when you’re paying big bucks trying to have a good time and maximize your bottom time.
And sometimes, perhaps, we are that buddy … even though we may not want to be.
So why does it happen? What can we do to make sure we’re NOT that buddy? And what can we do to help assure that the person we get paired up with on the dive boat isn’t either?
I like to think that most divers WANT to be good dive buddies. But perhaps they never got the skills to know how to be one. Perhaps they covered the skills, but aren’t in the water often enough to be comfortable using them. The reasons are as diverse as the knowledge, skills, and motivation of the individual divers themselves.
Let’s start by looking at what I believe to be the biggest single contributor to poor buddy skills … awareness. Diving isn’t “natural” to us as human beings. Besides the fact that it puts us in a physical orientation we’re not used to (horizontal vs the vertical position we spend most of our waking time in), it also removes one of our most important feedback loops … our vision. We’re used to being able to perceive things that are going on around us by using our peripheral vision … essentially a 180-degree field of view in which we can see and respond to things going on around us. Putting a dive mask on our face reduces our field of view to less than a third of what we’re used to. By narrowing our visual range, we inhibit our awareness and therefore our ability to respond to what’s going on around us. We have to learn a new behavior … that of turning our head from side to side to see what’s in our peripheral view, rather than simply moving our eyes. At first it takes conscious effort. Eventually it becomes more natural, and our ability to extend our awareness improves. So our skills, as a diver, must include teaching ourselves to look around more often than we’re used to doing.
Now that we’re looking around, what are we looking FOR? Well, our buddy, obviously. Are they in a position where we can see them easily? Are we in a position where they can see us easily? In Open Water class most of us learned the “lead-follow” style of diving … where one buddy swims behind the other. This is great for the person in the back … they can keep constant vigilance on their dive buddy quite easily. But it’s not so good for the person in front … as they haven’t yet invented a dive mask with a rear-view mirror. The diver in the front constantly has to turn around to check on their dive buddy … and that’s a pain. Because it’s a pain, the diver in the front is unlikely to be doing it very often. We develop a “trust” that our dive buddy will be there when we turn around to look … and that’s not always a good assumption to make. Suppose the dive buddy stops to look at something. Will you know to stop also? Or will you keep swimming, assuming that your buddy is still behind you? For this reason, in most open water situations, it’s better for two divers to swim shoulder-to-shoulder … or as we like to say, swim to be seen. When swimming side-by-side, two divers can easily and continuously keep track of each other simply by turning their head to look at each other. Even wearing a dive mask you will have a wide enough field of view to be able to see your buddy … and if they are suddenly not in your field of view when you turn your head you will know to stop and look around before swimming very far. Because of this, your chances of losing each other are reduced dramatically.
Now we’re in a position to be seen … what else can we do? Or what if we’re diving a wall or a wreck … where side-by-side isn’t really practical? Well, in many situations, that’s where a good dive light comes in handy. A dive light can be an “extension” of the diver. Shining it where it’s easily seen by your dive buddy tells him you’re there … if your buddy can see your light shining on the bottom or on a surface nearby, then they know you are not very far away. We call that “passive communication” … giving your dive buddy a visual cue as to your whereabouts. Dive lights can also be used for active communication, using signals analogous to those you normally provide with your hands.
Other things we can do to be good dive buddies? Slow down! Many divers … especially newer ones … tend to swim pretty fast. Sometimes it’s because swimming fast makes buoyancy control (seemingly) easier. Sometimes it’s just what we were taught to do. One of the selling points for many of the more expensive models of fins on the market is the “speed test”. But what’s the hurry? You may not even see that octopus or sea horse that’s sitting right there in plain sight … because you just blew right past it. Going slow has a lot of benefits … from improved air consumption, to seeing more, to giving your buddy a lot more of an opportunity to share your dive with you. Consider this … the faster you go, the quicker it’s possible to lose your dive buddy. I’ve seen it happen time and again … one buddy sees something, stops to take a look, looks up to show their buddy, and the buddy is nowhere in sight … he kept going and didn’t even realize that his dive buddy had stopped.
So these are some simple things that every diver can use, practice, and make an every-dive part of their routine … look around … swim to be seen … make use of a dive light when possible … and slow down.
There are other aspects of diving that can also be used to avoid buddy separations … making, discussing, and sticking to a dive plan … descending and ascending while facing each other … and communicating with each other during the dive.
By knowing, and using, these techniques … most diver separations that occur would never happen. You and your dive buddy will have a more relaxed dive, probably see more, and have lots more enjoyable things to talk about after the dive is over.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
I've since had several of them tell me how much it helped them not only become better dive buddies, but also set expectations with other folks they dived with. Perhaps someone here will find it useful ...
Hey! Where’d my buddy go?
By Bob Bailey
I watched it happen … standing on the beach at one of my favorite dive sites and looking out I saw a lone diver surface. Watching to see what he’s up to I watch him look around for a couple of minutes, then submerge. A few seconds later, another lone diver surfaces 100 feet away. He does the same thing. A few seconds later the first diver pops back to the surface again. I holler out and tell him to wait on the surface … his dive buddy will be right back. He waits, and in a few minutes, the two are reunited.
We’ve all heard horror stories about the buddy of circumstance … aka the “buddy from hell” … the guy who gets in the water without a clue or a care, doesn’t follow the dive plan, or quickly gets separated from his dive buddy. Such divers are the bane of a dive vacation, in particular, because they frequently end up causing you to cut your dive short, or spend some stressful minutes underwater at a time when you’re paying big bucks trying to have a good time and maximize your bottom time.
And sometimes, perhaps, we are that buddy … even though we may not want to be.
So why does it happen? What can we do to make sure we’re NOT that buddy? And what can we do to help assure that the person we get paired up with on the dive boat isn’t either?
I like to think that most divers WANT to be good dive buddies. But perhaps they never got the skills to know how to be one. Perhaps they covered the skills, but aren’t in the water often enough to be comfortable using them. The reasons are as diverse as the knowledge, skills, and motivation of the individual divers themselves.
Let’s start by looking at what I believe to be the biggest single contributor to poor buddy skills … awareness. Diving isn’t “natural” to us as human beings. Besides the fact that it puts us in a physical orientation we’re not used to (horizontal vs the vertical position we spend most of our waking time in), it also removes one of our most important feedback loops … our vision. We’re used to being able to perceive things that are going on around us by using our peripheral vision … essentially a 180-degree field of view in which we can see and respond to things going on around us. Putting a dive mask on our face reduces our field of view to less than a third of what we’re used to. By narrowing our visual range, we inhibit our awareness and therefore our ability to respond to what’s going on around us. We have to learn a new behavior … that of turning our head from side to side to see what’s in our peripheral view, rather than simply moving our eyes. At first it takes conscious effort. Eventually it becomes more natural, and our ability to extend our awareness improves. So our skills, as a diver, must include teaching ourselves to look around more often than we’re used to doing.
Now that we’re looking around, what are we looking FOR? Well, our buddy, obviously. Are they in a position where we can see them easily? Are we in a position where they can see us easily? In Open Water class most of us learned the “lead-follow” style of diving … where one buddy swims behind the other. This is great for the person in the back … they can keep constant vigilance on their dive buddy quite easily. But it’s not so good for the person in front … as they haven’t yet invented a dive mask with a rear-view mirror. The diver in the front constantly has to turn around to check on their dive buddy … and that’s a pain. Because it’s a pain, the diver in the front is unlikely to be doing it very often. We develop a “trust” that our dive buddy will be there when we turn around to look … and that’s not always a good assumption to make. Suppose the dive buddy stops to look at something. Will you know to stop also? Or will you keep swimming, assuming that your buddy is still behind you? For this reason, in most open water situations, it’s better for two divers to swim shoulder-to-shoulder … or as we like to say, swim to be seen. When swimming side-by-side, two divers can easily and continuously keep track of each other simply by turning their head to look at each other. Even wearing a dive mask you will have a wide enough field of view to be able to see your buddy … and if they are suddenly not in your field of view when you turn your head you will know to stop and look around before swimming very far. Because of this, your chances of losing each other are reduced dramatically.
Now we’re in a position to be seen … what else can we do? Or what if we’re diving a wall or a wreck … where side-by-side isn’t really practical? Well, in many situations, that’s where a good dive light comes in handy. A dive light can be an “extension” of the diver. Shining it where it’s easily seen by your dive buddy tells him you’re there … if your buddy can see your light shining on the bottom or on a surface nearby, then they know you are not very far away. We call that “passive communication” … giving your dive buddy a visual cue as to your whereabouts. Dive lights can also be used for active communication, using signals analogous to those you normally provide with your hands.
Other things we can do to be good dive buddies? Slow down! Many divers … especially newer ones … tend to swim pretty fast. Sometimes it’s because swimming fast makes buoyancy control (seemingly) easier. Sometimes it’s just what we were taught to do. One of the selling points for many of the more expensive models of fins on the market is the “speed test”. But what’s the hurry? You may not even see that octopus or sea horse that’s sitting right there in plain sight … because you just blew right past it. Going slow has a lot of benefits … from improved air consumption, to seeing more, to giving your buddy a lot more of an opportunity to share your dive with you. Consider this … the faster you go, the quicker it’s possible to lose your dive buddy. I’ve seen it happen time and again … one buddy sees something, stops to take a look, looks up to show their buddy, and the buddy is nowhere in sight … he kept going and didn’t even realize that his dive buddy had stopped.
So these are some simple things that every diver can use, practice, and make an every-dive part of their routine … look around … swim to be seen … make use of a dive light when possible … and slow down.
There are other aspects of diving that can also be used to avoid buddy separations … making, discussing, and sticking to a dive plan … descending and ascending while facing each other … and communicating with each other during the dive.
By knowing, and using, these techniques … most diver separations that occur would never happen. You and your dive buddy will have a more relaxed dive, probably see more, and have lots more enjoyable things to talk about after the dive is over.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
For 20 years I was a insta buddy (working DM/Inst.) I had no problem stopping a buddy that I had been diving with and telling them to slow down/stay with me and most of them were grateful for the education I would impart to them while we were diving together.
Some were just plain A##'s about it so I would go into solo diver mode and take care of me first then try to keep an eye on you. I can only be a buddy to you if you are willing to be a buddy to me.
Moere than a few times I had no problem telling Cowboy divers they had to sit this dive out for being a "problem buddy".
As for camera carring divers I liked being their insta-buddy. I would play "find cool shots" for them and I got to see stuff I would more than likley have not seen if I was just swimming around.
As others have said be honest about your skill/comfort level, you won't impess anyone once you are in the water and they see different.
Some were just plain A##'s about it so I would go into solo diver mode and take care of me first then try to keep an eye on you. I can only be a buddy to you if you are willing to be a buddy to me.
Moere than a few times I had no problem telling Cowboy divers they had to sit this dive out for being a "problem buddy".
As for camera carring divers I liked being their insta-buddy. I would play "find cool shots" for them and I got to see stuff I would more than likley have not seen if I was just swimming around.
As others have said be honest about your skill/comfort level, you won't impess anyone once you are in the water and they see different.
Darnold9999
Contributor
To those who won't dive with someone carrying a camera - I suggest that you might want to rethink your diving - you are almost certainly swimming too fast and missing much of what there is to see. Slow down, enjoy the dive, if I am taking a picture of something there is probably something else really cool within 10 feet - stop, hover over a likely spot and have a really close look, your dive experience will be better for it.
In my experience the next coral head has pretty much the same critters as this one. Do we really need to zoom past a dozen of them on a dive? Slow down, look under things, wait for the fish to get used to you and come back out.
If you have to, pretend you have a camera and need to be still for a couple of minutes to get the shot of that shy fish. The reef comes alive after the reef rockets have passed.
Frankly if I get paired with a reef rocket I just let them go and do my own dive. (Unless you are a danger to yourself in which case I will follow and pass on diving with you the next dive) I do warn people at the beginning that I dive really slowly and am not interested in covering a lot of ground.
In my experience the next coral head has pretty much the same critters as this one. Do we really need to zoom past a dozen of them on a dive? Slow down, look under things, wait for the fish to get used to you and come back out.
If you have to, pretend you have a camera and need to be still for a couple of minutes to get the shot of that shy fish. The reef comes alive after the reef rockets have passed.
Frankly if I get paired with a reef rocket I just let them go and do my own dive. (Unless you are a danger to yourself in which case I will follow and pass on diving with you the next dive) I do warn people at the beginning that I dive really slowly and am not interested in covering a lot of ground.
Mike, insta-buddies have been the bane of my dive life, since I travel mostly alone. I've had all manner of insta buddies, from the newbie with 6 ow dives, divers with solo mentalities to great divers I thoroughly enjoyed. It's a crap shoot. I still have not found a way to screen a prospective dive bud without sounding like you're doing a job interview.
The camera thing is great advice. If your insta-bud has a camera, it usullay means you are diving alone. Come to think of it, when you get a crappy bud, for all intents and purposes, you ARE diving alone
On the great last day of diving I mentioned, we were both carrying cameras. That didn't stop either of us from constantly checking on the other or indicating if we would be moving out of sight - this was wreck diving with a lot of compartments so very easy to lose your buddy.
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