Buddy separation

[DiverBuoy]

One of my frustrations on the subject of losing a buddy is few people tend to be truely honest, to themselves, about their responses and reactions in an emergency. Have you really made the experience an opportunity for your own personal growth as a person and diver. The quick response is the only time there is no chance of losing your buddy is diving solo.

I have lost my "buddy" on 2 occasions both pleasure dives (I'm not arrogant when I say I prefer to think my buddy lost me but I realize it takes two to tango. On both occasions conditions unexectedly changed to reduce the visibility - on one occasion a wall of mud fell from the cliffside on Catalina island (they told us later on the boat) at approximately 40 feet we watched "helplessly" as we succumed to a billowing and fast moving cloud of complete brownout. But on the second occasion we changed our dive plan and should have realized we invited the unexpected.

Sticking to your pre-arranged dive plan reduces the chances of losing your buddy in conditions like these, or at the least helps you to get reunited quickly. What kills me is when I hear about divers losing a buddy in the carribean, or other places with 100+ visibility. I've been diving in six destinations there and I don't even know what a bad day is - perhaps diving in a hurricane or tsunami? However, here in Laguna Beach, Southern California, USA we are cheering when vis is over 10 feet and when swells and surge are under 3 feet. If we waited for better conditions we'd never dive. So we adapt.

A subject recently revisited in a couple of dive journals after another tragic diving accident in So Cal, is how long (how many dives) it takes to really get to know your frequent diving partner. A more pertinent question perhaps is do you really know yourself that "well". How do you cope/deal with a situation where you end up getting paired with an unfamiliar buddy on a dive boat - do you ask the hard questions or avoid confrontation because of fear. This subject thread has been visited more than once on this forum ... but I think its reoccurance comments to the idea that most people really don't even know how they will actually react in an emergency ... much less one encountered in a hazardous environment. Training helps, a plan helps, but when the chips are down the automatic responses we have seem to come from deep inside our characters, more primal, more base.

I offer this: whenever you have the opportunity to mentally review a diving incident involving yourself - minor or major - do some honest self-evaluation, ask yourself the hard questions. I did, I was surprised at my own answers.

 

[waynne fowler]

Some good thought in the first 10 replies I read..

Forgive me if I'm reiterating something someone else has said. My observations and recomendations would be

1) Get yourself some divelights... don't get cheap stuff unless it is very effective for communication. Spend some time learning and developing some communication techniques while using divelights.. they are an awesome communication tool! In my opinion HID is best.. It ain't cheap but I think it's the greatest thing since toilet paper.

2) Learn more about general dive planning. A seperation plan should have been in place and it appears to me that it was not.. or at least if it was it was not followed. If it was in place and executed properly.. please re-read the 1st sentence under the heading 2).....

3) Learn more about buddy management.. One of the best ways to learn to stay close for newer divers, especially in low viz, is to just hold hands.. it get's you close and properly oriented for most/many divesites. The thing that you have to worry about using this method is that it can make you lazy about looking over at your buddy. Get in the habit of 'seeing' your buddy every 10 - 15 seconds maybe more as you are fairly new.. as time goes on you will be able to let go of each other and maintain orientation. As time goes by you'll find, the need to look at each other will lessen, however I would not recommend going any longer than 20 seconds or so between glances and a hard OK with the light every minute or so. As you start to venture away from each others hold start implementing the light signals more and more.

4) as someone already mentioned.. rethink getting out of the water and gear when your buddy is still unaccounted for..

5) Learn to use a reel.. don't go out an start using it for this kind of diving.. spend some time with someone that knows how to use them and get some pointers.. they can suck, suck, suck, if you don't control them.. then hop in the pool and practice a bit. They can be nice in low viz.

Have fun good luck
Enjoy the Dive

 

[Charlie99]

2) Learn more about general dive planning. A seperation plan should have been in place and it appears to me that it was not.. or at least if it was it was not followed. If it was in place and executed properly.. please re-read the 1st sentence under the heading 2).....

Please explain. It looks to me like they followed an agreed upon lost buddy procedure. Do you object to the safety stop that they did?

 

[piikki]

Please explain. It looks to me like they followed an agreed upon lost buddy procedure. Do you object to the safety stop that they did?

Even if one didn’t object to safety stop in this incident, the sentence:

“The time discrepancy was due to her attempts to reach the boat under the current”

tells that the plan was not followed or someone did not read their timer correctly. There should be minimal difference upon surfacing in this case (accounting for the different time noticing missing buddy which should be minimal, and possible trouble ascending). In this case there is minimum several minutes (getting on the boat, doffing +3 mins?) difference, so someone did not agree to, know or follow procedure.

There is no need to be defensive when learning. It’s great to have a buddy whose actions you can predict pretty accurately but in all honesty it can get you bit sloppy too. Better be prepared, and keep on fine-tuning. I don't know much yet but I know I would be pissed after an incident like this if I was part of it.

 

[sidthejedi]

Some good thought in the first 10 replies I read..

Forgive me if I'm reiterating something someone else has said. My observations and recomendations would be

1) Get yourself some divelights... don't get cheap stuff unless it is very effective for communication. Spend some time learning and developing some communication techniques while using divelights.. they are an awesome communication tool! In my opinion HID is best.. It ain't cheap but I think it's the greatest thing since toilet paper.

2) Learn more about general dive planning. A seperation plan should have been in place and it appears to me that it was not.. or at least if it was it was not followed. If it was in place and executed properly.. please re-read the 1st sentence under the heading 2).....

3) Learn more about buddy management.. One of the best ways to learn to stay close for newer divers, especially in low viz, is to just hold hands.. it get's you close and properly oriented for most/many divesites. The thing that you have to worry about using this method is that it can make you lazy about looking over at your buddy. Get in the habit of 'seeing' your buddy every 10 - 15 seconds maybe more as you are fairly new.. as time goes on you will be able to let go of each other and maintain orientation. As time goes by you'll find, the need to look at each other will lessen, however I would not recommend going any longer than 20 seconds or so between glances and a hard OK with the light every minute or so. As you start to venture away from each others hold start implementing the light signals more and more.

4) as someone already mentioned.. rethink getting out of the water and gear when your buddy is still unaccounted for..

5) Learn to use a reel.. don't go out an start using it for this kind of diving.. spend some time with someone that knows how to use them and get some pointers.. they can suck, suck, suck, if you don't control them.. then hop in the pool and practice a bit. They can be nice in low viz.

Have fun good luck
Enjoy the Dive

I agree with waynne. If it's a drift dive and the vis is iffy, the best way I've found is that one buddy controls the reel attached to the SMB, the other holds onto the line, ideally off to the side. That way you are connected, but are not so close that you are bumping in to each other, and are less likely to get tangled up.

 

[String]

Side by side is preferable except if its a wall dive which means one person is always away from the wall seeing nothing. Even if not side by side a diver needs to be able to grab the other person so within arms reach. Low vis and currents mean separation is very easy.

If you absolutely have to get back to a line then consider reeling-off from it. That way you can always return. This can also help buddy pairs stay together as the diver without the reel just lightly lets a bit of extended line run through his fingers.

You then have 2 divers in close contact AND capable of getting back to a line.

 

[JRScuba]

Were you going one person in front and the other behind? -I recently lost my buddy that way too when he had a problem with his BC and couldn't catch up to me to signal something was wrong because he was in back.

The incident resulted in us deciding that swimming side-by-side is better. (Others confirmed this as well.)

Good Idea!!!!!!

 

[ItsBruce]

At the risk of being redundant, I agree with Jim (and most everyone else). Both you and your wife followed the plan. She just re-submerged. That is my only criticism. I'm not sure there was a right or wrong with respect to taking off your gear. Not only is it generally good to swim side-by-side in low vis, you might consider marking "keep close" on your dive slate with a permanent marker. That way you only need to hold up the slate and point to the message.

In short, while I don't know you or your wife well enough to say I'd buddy with you or your wife, I've heard nothing here that would make me think I wouldn't.

 

[DiverBuoy]

One more thought on the original story, if the plan was search for no more than a minute and surface to look around, it probably wasn't a good idea to do a safety stop. If it was a decompression stop that's different, but a safety stop no. As it is you may have not even realized she was missing for 30 seconds, then you added at least a minute during the search (may have been longer), then at no more than 1 foot per second ascent, then a 3 minute safety stop, then another 14 seconds to the surface, wow, from the time you lost your buddy to the point where you were on the surface looking around, or able to call for help/assistance was perhaps more than 5 or 6 minutes! Way too long. Of course depending on the dive environment, the dive plan, how deep, and the circumstances of the separation, then you have to make adjustments, however in this case given the facts of current, the need for that mooring line, and 20 dives experience ... more urgency was called for.

I'm glad of course it turned out well, with everyone healthy, and a bit wiser.