Buddy Checks

[MikeFerrara]

Mike I am not familiar with S drills or valve drills. Can you explain those?

S-drill = safety drill. Simply a practice run at sharing air. A modified s-drill is an abreviated version just going through the motions making sure that both regs are functioning and the reg you are going to donate is deployable.

A valve drill is going through valve shutdowns. A modified valve drill is just reaching back making sure you can reach them and that they are on.

Although I do know what a bubble check is, at what point do you do this? Before the dive or when you first submerge?

It depends on conditions. If conditions allow we'll do it at the surface. In rough OW conditions we may descend a little way and then stop to check eachother before continueing our descent.

 

[miketsp]

I agree about buddy checks. I know on some dive boats, they make you think you have to hurry off the boat with the famous, "Dive!, Dive!, Dive!". I'm sure almost all divers who have been on a dive boat has heard that and felt like they need to hurry off the boat. I found out the boat with wait for you and your buddy to do a check. The boat has even repossessioned for the drop off because divers were not ready, but they never made the divers feel bad.

Remember, it is you life. Take you time and make sure you gear and your buddy's gear is right.

I regularly dive in rough conditions and sometimes it really makes sense when people can get into the water quickly.
Once the boat stops and starts rolling around people start getting sick and then they lose concentration and start making mistakes.

Also doing drift dives. Most times we go in fast in pairs, BC empty and descend directly. Whenever possible the boat will find somewhere relatively sheltered so people can get kitted up and then when everybody is ready go to the start point.

 

[CBulla]

I agree about buddy checks. I know on some dive boats, they make you think you have to hurry off the boat with the famous, "Dive!, Dive!, Dive!". I'm sure almost all divers who have been on a dive boat has heard that and felt like they need to hurry off the boat. I found out the boat with wait for you and your buddy to do a check. The boat has even repossessioned for the drop off because divers were not ready, but they never made the divers feel bad.

Remember, it is you life. Take you time and make sure you gear and your buddy's gear is right.

Right on with this Murphy. I'm usually the last off of any boat by choice. I want to know my buddies gear, I want to see them gear up and be able to help without shuffling around a group. I'll even ask the boat before I book if there is any problem with me hitting the water at my own pace and if they have time limits on dives - if they have that then I won't dive with them.

Also, if your my buddy, expect me to rummage around your rig after you set it up... I like having an idea of what you've added to your setup for safety or for play underwater.

 

[grazie42]

On rec dives I tend to just watch my buddy set up his gear and only ask questions if I feel the need to. I pay attention to see that they test breath their regs and do the other stuff.

If its a "buddy of circumstance" I pay more attention and usually go over signs and other stuff and also ask how much they´ve dived recently. In the end though, I tend to think of myself as a solo diver with these people as you just never know...

On more complex dives ditto what MikeFerrara said:

We do an equipment match to make sure we have everything we need and that each knows what the other has and where. We do a bubble check to make sure nothing is leaking. We do a modified S-drill to be sure all regs work and are deployable. A modified valve drill is a good idea too.

 

[SubMariner]

A similar discussion thread got me to thinking about this and I decided to post as a new topic. On a recent dive trip we were 10 divers on a boat and the DM divided us into groups of newbies and experienced. All divers except two were husband/wife teams. My husband and I were in the newbie group and obviously we were a buddy team. The two new buddyless divers were told to pair up as a buddy team and the four of us were to stay close to the DM. All of the spousal teams checked their own gear and then did a buddy check on their buddy's gear, however the unrelated buddies were preparing to enter the water with no buddy check whatsoever :11: Being the mother hen that I am, I gently suggested they might want to familiarize themselves with each other's gear and do a buddy check. That kind of broke the ice and they did a very cursory check that really was not adequate at all. Foks this is definitely not the time to be shy! I'd be interested to hear if others have encountered this behavior. Kinda scary...

Every dive; every time; ALWAYS do a Buddy Check.

Most problems that occur could have been avoided with a simple BWRAF.

 

[ShakaZulu]

You buddy is an extension of your safety, not checking him is stupid.

 

[chrisch]

You buddy is an extension of your safety, not checking him is stupid.

If he (or she!) is hopeless they are hardly an extension of your safety - they are a liability... I would check to see if they are hopeless for sure.

Chris

 

[String]

They can be a safety aid OR a liability.

 

[ShakaZulu]

If he (or she!) is hopeless they are hardly an extension of your safety - they are a liability... I would check to see if they are hopeless for sure.

Chris

They can be a safety aid OR a liability.

True, sometimes you can't choose your buddies "Buddies of Circumstance".

 

[Finnatic]

All the comments are very enlightening. I think what struck me the most about this situation was the fact that everyone on the boat except these two were buddied with a spouse. I felt we all had some sort of psychological edge in the amount of trust and responsibility we felt in and toward our buddy/spouse. While we all felt free to touch each other and manipulate our equipment at will, I felt the "buddies of circumstance" (great term) were very ill at ease with invading each others space. Just an observance of human social interaction at work here. The buddies in question were both male, one early thirties, the other 40ish and also different nationalities. Both, as we were, were doing some of their first boat dives. Just a manifestation of being newbies? They located each others alternate from across the deck and eventually did check for air on, but that was the extent of it. Comments?