Buddy contact - in a herd

[Conor]

Some of the buddy debates reminded me of the following. On a recent diving holiday, myself an a friend signed up for a couple of boat dives. The group consisted of a DM, My buddy and me, a threesome of more experienced divers and a newly certified OW diver (doing his AOW) and his instructor.

The first dive was fine, myself and my buddy stayed to the back of the group, but still within line of sight of the DM and had a nice dive. The second dive, we started out just behind the DM with the threesome behind, and the AOW pair at the back.

A couple of minutes into the dive all had bunched up, and I was beginning to get a bit sick of people swimming over the top of me and pushing me towards the coral, then trying to over take and finning me in the face. The worst of this was the AOW guy, who was in a strange sitting position, as if trying to run and swimming with his hands (why the instructor didn't fo anything I don't know). I didn't feel comfortable with the herd approach and was having difficulty keeping track of my buddy within the scrum, so I signalled to my buddy that we should move to the back, he acknowledged, but after a few minutes he had returned to the middle of the group again. I found myself with a dilemma, should I stay with my buddy and have an unenjoyable and potentially unsafe dive, or stay back and essentially dive solo but in some ways feel a bit more comfortable.

As it turns out I stayed back and signalled my buddy a couple of times to stay back but he continued to swim in amongst the group. From were I was it all looked quite comical with people bumping into each other and losing buddies within the pack.

For this and other incidents (e.g. never acknowledging my signalling with a torch during a nightdive) I have serious concenrs about diing with this buddy again, but my question is did I do the right thing ? I was essentially leaving my buddy ( although I stayed quite close and kept an eye on him). What would you guys do, firstly in finding yourself in a 'herd' and secondly if your buddy insists on staying there ?

BTW one of the reasons I felt unsafe in the pack was that I was using my octopus, as it had freeflowed at the start of the dive and the DM reccomended I switch rather than lose air or discontinue the dive. This meant I had the large loop of Octopus hose that people kept snagging in the group, not sure if this was the right solution either.

 

[Walter]

Did you discuss it with your buddy?

 

[Conor]

We did discuss it, his response was a shrug with the explanation ' I forgot'.

 

[Walter]

Sounds like you have different ideas about the buddy system. You may not be suited, unless you can work out your differences.

Why did the two of you stay with the group?

 

[Big-t-2538]

you could dive without the group and see how things go as far as communication. IF that worked out, then great, that would be a good step in the right direction. From my standpoint there was a communication break down between you and your buddy. What if either of you would have had a problem....who would have been able to help whom. My suggestion would be to work on communication before you go down.

 

[Conor]

Walter - I think you are probably right, the guy is a good travelling companion, but like you say maybe not my type of buddy.

We stayed with the guide because we are both relatively inexperienced and it was a new site. I don't think the DM would have been to impressed if we wandered off, so we had to say within line of sight of the DM, that would normally give me enough scope to enjoy the dive, being slighly off to one side, seeing different things etc. but the whole herding thing made it a bit strange. Essentially you had 6 divers all the same distance from the DM, crossing over each other in a very tight pack.

Big T - I think the communication was fine in a way, he understood what I was communicating and that I wanted to move back from the group. I think the issue was more personalities, I would like to think that if my buddy suggested this and I had no problem with it I would respect it for the remainder of the dive or signal that I would rather do something else and reach some agreement. I think it was simply that he doesn't 'play the game' the same way as I do and so doesn't see close buddying as important.

I had to make a choice between staying close to my buddy even though this put me in an uncomfortable position and dropping back slightly. I think in terms of distance we were always within reach in an emergency (I was only ever a few meters behind), the concern would be more about whether or not he would see me if I had a problem as he kept moving forward in the group. I have tried to explain to my friend how I like to buddy, and out of the water he agrees, but in the water he forgets. Quite often he will apologise afterwards but it doesn't seem to change the way he dives.

Is this kind of 'pack' approach common (BTW the vis was excellent) ? What would you do if you found yourself in a group like this, and if you decided to move back what would you do if your buddy continued to stay in the pack ?

 

[Big-t-2538]

the pack thing is something I've seen before on charter boats. Some Dm's have to see everyone, others let "buddy's" wander a bit. I can understand it from thier point of view (responsibility for the diver's below)

As for your buddy, if you're comfortable with being put in a decision making position, that's your call. I have had to dive with some "vacationers" as a group of four (with my regualr buddy). I understand the fact that they "forget" about communication when we are underwater. IT sure doen't make things any more enjoyable though. I wouldn't dive with these people anywhere other than that reef, and I wouldn't dive with them without Brian being there....I don't think they could handle it if I had an equipment malfunction, I also don't think they'd know if I tried to get their attention to tell tham I HAVE to go to the surface.

 

[Conor]

...'hit the nail on the head'. I think I suffer from taking diving more seriously than my buddy and the other vacation divers, before I read some of the posts on this board I thought maybe 'too seriously'. I guess what concerned me was the fact that although me and my buddy agreed to change positions (move behind the group), he just forgot.

I enjoy taking diving seriously, scuba is not a high powered snorkel, although all my diving is recreational at the moment I love wrecks and want to train to enter wrecks, in that environment I would hate to dive with some of the vacation divers I have seen (in fact I would probably refuse to do that kind of dive with one of the herd).

I suppose I don't understand how that kind of dive could have been enjoyable for any of that group as they would have had to spend more time looking at each other than the reef.

I guess in a way when you do vacation diving without a familiar buddy, you can not rely on the buddy you meet on the day, which is concerning as this represents most of my diving.

 

[Phil TK]

Conor once bubbled...


Is this kind of 'pack' approach common (BTW the vis was excellent) ? What would you do if you found yourself in a group like this, and if you decided to move back what would you do if your buddy continued to stay in the pack ?

The DM or dive leader could/should take steps to sort this sort of thing out but there's only so much he can do with some people. When I lead, I turn round/swim backwards every now and again and take stock of what's going on (as I should) and if there are two 'detached' buddy's I point at each and make the buddy signal and just sit there with arms folded until they get back together -it usually does the trick. But really, buddy discipline is something that should be emphasized in the brief -and understood.
If I get someone who really can't grasp the concept then I'll re-assign buddy pairs for the next dive and have the guy buddy with me instead, but I've only had to do that once. It's not a proper solution to this sort of behaviour, the real solution for your buddy's sake is to establish a two man team mentallity between you both and communicate better.

Failing that, well.. I'd simply duff him up on the way back to port.





Phil TK

 

[chepar]

is something I do quite often. Pretty much all boat dive operations here put 4 to 6 divers per DM in a group to be guided around a dive site. As I don't have a regular buddy, I am either paired with another solo diver or with the DM. If I'm not paired with the DM, I'll mention to my buddy to stay to the back of the herd, as I really hate that crowding, too.

However, when I'm buddied with the DM, who is leading the group, I try to stay up front - following the rules of being a buddy. It is harder, though - everyone wants to be up front by the DM, they crowd you, kick you in the face, drop down on top of you, etc.

If I'm paired with another diver, have the talk with them about hanging to the rear and they still keep moving to the front (and ignoring all my other signals to hang back), I'll move up to wherever they are in the group - and be quite peeved about it. While it's a pain and makes the dive less enjoyable, I'm their buddy, even though sometimes it doesn't seem like they realize they're mine.