Buddy Orientation

[Vayu]

I am a new diver. Unfortunately all of my classroom buddies have slightly different schedules and I will be taking a few trips with old friends and new diving buddies. I am wondering if all you buddies out there do buddy breathing exercises or if you just jump into diving. I'd like to trust new people, but i'm not sure if all the rescue and alternate air exercises translate between certifying agencies and with different people.

Thanks,

-V

 

[spectrum]

I am a new diver. Unfortunately all of my classroom buddies have slightly different schedules and I will be taking a few trips with old friends and new diving buddies. I am wondering if all you buddies out there do buddy breathing exercises or if you just jump into diving. I'd like to trust new people, but i'm not sure if all the rescue and alternate air exercises translate between certifying agencies and with different people.

Thanks,

-V

I'm also a new diver and most of the divers I've dove with other than my wife were taught by instructor or have been diving with the shop for a while. I know I look around for anything off on their gear and I've had one diver point out to me that he had a RH Alternate Second Stage. We have not spent dive time doing drills though. I do need to stary making that a consciuos part of my dives at least with my wife since she's my primary buddy. If I end up with ouer frequent buddy's I'd do the same.

The exercises should be fundamentally the same with personal preference stuff being more a factor than agency standards. You also want to communicate where your ditchable weight is as well as cylinder capacity.

The cylinder capacity is important since most dive air checks are in pressure and if you have a smaller/high pressure tank you may have less breathing gas than someone with a lower pressure at that moment. Because of this I think establishing turn pressures is one of the hardest things since a lot of divers seem clueless about evaluating their actual air supply.

Pete

 

[Spoon]

i guess the best advice i would give is whether you are diving with a new buddy, seasoned buddy or a team, it would be wise to go through the basic hand signals, air sharing exercises and dive plan. even experienced divers take this for granted. Imho its very important to get used to these habits and employ them before everydive. youl never know you might need them sometime and you dont want to find out that you or your buddy neglected this step when you need it most. dive safe!

 

[jcm996]

I don not practice buddy breathing with everyone I dive with. But new buddies I do let know I have an Air2 and if there is a problem take my primary. The Air2 is to short for someone else to use. And this usually gets them to explain thier setup. So at least you know what to expect if there is a problem.

This also causes me to involentarly grab my Air2 if someone starts swimming at me fast

 

[scubafool]

When I dive with a new buddy, an air share drill is a requirment. I want to see how they react to my OOA signal, I want to watch how they deploy their alternate second, I want to breath from it to make sure it works right,etc. I also would like for them to do the same with me. With any of my regular buddies, I don't necessarily demand that we do a drill before a dive, but they all know that I like to "sneak" one in at the most inoppurtune moments, hehe.

 

[spectrum]

This also causes me to involentarly grab my Air2 if someone starts swimming at me fast

Does this happen often?

Maybe you need to work on turn pressures with these folks.

Pete