Buddy ditches the dive plan

[TSandM]

I'm curious about this, because I've read some stories. How many of you have had a buddy who was willing to sit down and make a dive plan, and then, once in the water, just ignored it? The closest I've come is two occasions where my buddy swam away from me, despite having agreed that we were diving as a buddy pair. But I've never had anybody violate the hard deck for the dive, or insist on going somewhere or doing something we had previously agreed not to do. Has anybody?

 

[budgy]

I once ended up in the pot because I followed a buddy who ignored the dive plan. It was my decision. I'd say men are generally less observant of their buddy and the dive plan when diving together than they are when diving with a lady. I can't say how ladies dive with one another.

 

[Trixxie]

I would say that if anything we have been more conservative on a dive than not.

A couple of times while diving in Roatan off the boat, the DM told us the depth we would be at would be around 90' at the deepest point of the dive. When my buddy got in the water before we got that deep, he signaled that he wanted to stay on the reef at around 30-40'. He told me to go with the group and that he would be OK since he was near the boat but I did not leave my buddy. 90', 40' what's the difference.... as long as I am in the water, I'm happy.

There was one time with a buddy on a live aboard back in '97, we didn't throw the plan out the window but more of a miscommunication, she thought I was leading and I thought she was leading. We surfaced about 150 Yards from the boat with 100 lbs of air. Can you say surface swim? that has never happened again. :no

 

[String]

Quite common for us here on a site to make a very very loose plan and then wing it when we get in the water.

Othertimes myself or buddy has changed it underwater if the dive surprises us/warrants it.

Things where air/deco calculations or importantly slack water times you cant get away with this but a no stop dive/minimal deco dive its often the best way.

Getting in the water with far too rigid a plan can sometimes just restrict.

Then again with a lot of common "buddies" we dive on the understanding that mainly we're looking out for ourselves and to conduct it that way. The fact someone else is around is a bonus but thats it.

 

[everlasting]

I have. A group of four of us (two buddy pairs) were diving a canyon that has a max depth of over 200 ft. We did sit down and make a dive plan, and decided on a max depth of 90 ft for our first dive. We descended to about 80 and the group stopped. One individual signaled to go down more, and everyone else gave him the level off signal. Despite that, he started descending. I signaled to follow, the three of us went after him, caught up to him at about 110 ft, stopped him, and insistently showed him our depth gauges and signaled up. He kept shaking his head and signaling down, and started descending without us, again. This time we weren't going after him. The rest of us aborted the dive.

The guy turned out ok. He told us (and his dive computer confirmed) that he did a bounce dive to 200 ft (on air). He wasn't narced and this had been his original plan all along (he does this particular dive site with other buddies and apparently this isn't his first time diving that kind of profile), which he didn't inform us of, and had even agreed to our dive plan, thinking we'd just follow him when the time came and he said he wanted to descend further.

None of us LIKED leaving him or wanted to do it, but there was no way, short of physically stopping him that we could've prevented his leaving us. And no one was about to follow him, with no plan or any idea what he was going to do.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I have. A group of four of us (two buddy pairs) were diving a canyon that has a max depth of over 200 ft. We did sit down and make a dive plan, and decided on a max depth of 90 ft for our first dive. We descended to about 80 and the group stopped. One individual signaled to go down more, and everyone else gave him the level off signal. Despite that, he started descending. I signaled to follow, the three of us went after him, caught up to him at about 110 ft, stopped him, and insistently showed him our depth gauges and signaled up. He kept shaking his head and signaling down, and started descending without us, again. This time we weren't going after him. The rest of us aborted the dive.

The guy turned out ok. He told us (and his dive computer confirmed) that he did a bounce dive to 200 ft (on air). He wasn't narced and this had been his original plan all along (he does this particular dive site with other buddies and apparently this isn't his first time diving that kind of profile), which he didn't inform us of, and had even agreed to our dive plan, thinking we'd just follow him when the time came and he said he wanted to descend further.

None of us LIKED leaving him or wanted to do it, but there was no way, short of physically stopping him that we could've prevented his leaving us. And no one was about to follow him, with no plan or any idea what he was going to do.

He wasn't narced? I call BULL SHIITE big time. What do you call him? I say an a$$hole. Good way to get other people killed or hurt. You coulda cut his airhose. Then he'd of came up. What a dick he was.

 

[do it easy]

I dove with someone who deviated from the deco plan on a 190' dive. We agreed to a deco schedule before the dive. He thumbed the dive 5 minutes early and decided to change his schedule, but never communicated the change to me. He skipped my first few stops, so he was 1 or 2 stops above me until I caught up with him at 20'. He did finally communicate to shave some time off the O2 stop, which was fine by me. Up until that point, I stayed with the original schedule to be more conservative, although I would have bailed out to shorter tables if it were communicated.

At the first two stops, I got tired of looking up to keep an eye on him and accepted that I was effectively abandoned (and just when I thought I was done with the therapy!)

 

[Pearldiver07]

Let's see,

An instructor with our shop asked if I could "buddy up" with a diver to do a EANx dive (back when PADI required one), so I said "sure."

He asked about depth, wanting to do a dive where the calculations between EAD and actual were somewhat significant (Don't ask me why - I just work here), so I said that this could be arranged as the light was penetrating pretty well. I didn't have a light at the lake, by the way.

Well, our plan was to slowly descend to allow my eyes to adjust while hugging the wall. Having done this before, it works pretty well. Based on that day's viz and light penetration I was expecting around 75-80 feet of depth. He did have a light, by the way.

Anyway, we dropped pretty much according to plan, but at 80 feet without notice or signalling, he turned and started swimming midwater through the trees (lake was down - normally this would be 100' plus).

As I tried to catch him, I snagged on some tree limbs and watched him swim off into the lake.

So there I was, hung up in low-light (not dark) watching this guy swim off into the proverbial, and almost literal, sunset. Every bubble hitting the surface was probably not appropriate for polite audiences at this point.

After freeing myself I looked for a minute or so in the general direction he was heading, then started a slow spiral up, hoping to catch his bubble stream.

At the surface, I notified the other instructor, and he and I started to look for his bubble trail. Anyone at Windy Point Park in Austin knows that on a weekend a bubble trail is not hard to find. Finding the correct one is though.

Well, as we were organizing/plannning what was hopefully going to be an unnecessary search party, he pops up almost 15 minutes after or separation (about 10 after my surface), and asks how my dive went.

Funny, he was really torqued when I wouldn't sign off on his dive.

I've had miscommunication before and since, but nothing else like this.

 

[everlasting]

He wasn't narced? I call BULL SHIITE big time. What do you call him? I say an a$$hole. Good way to get other people killed or hurt. You coulda cut his airhose. Then he'd of came up. What a dick he was.

Well, I honestly have no idea whether or not he was narced. He CLAIMED that he wasn't, and that's what I meant in my original post. I also wanted it to be clear that this wasn't like he was having issues and was plummeting down - that's not a purposeful deviation from a dive plan. He was aware of the dive plan, and seemed aware of the depth at which he was at. He purposely left his buddies.
Although I was extremely terrified that he had been narced when we stopped him at 80 and later at 110 ft and hadn't understood how deep he was, but even narced, he still should've been able to understand "up" and agreed to ascend, at least when he realized that we weren't going with him (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong). Leaving any buddy alone at depth, even knowing that in that situation there was nothing else I could've done, is awful.

But I do agree with your post. The way he was acting was dangerous and irresponsible. That's not someone I'm ever diving with again.

 

[diver 85]

He wasn't narced? I call BULL SHIITE big time. What do you call him? I say an a$$hole. Good way to get other people killed or hurt. You coulda cut his airhose. Then he'd of came up. What a dick he was.

Nah, that's what spearguns are for......sucka would have come up on the end of that fork......