Buddy up OW course couples?

[Gargoyle]

I was buddied with my partner for both OW and AOW. We both had different skills that we found to be problamatic. The advantage of us being together was that we could talk these problems through and get the confidence for the next dive. Although my partner required more one to one tuition I think doing the courses together really helped as we dive together and know each others limits.

 

[dsafanda]

It seems very strange to assume that two strangers would have better buddy skills together than a husband and wife. Fortunately, I was buddied with my wife when we did our OW. This made perfect sense to me since 9 times out of 10 she's the person I'm going to be diving with. By far, she's the person I feel most comfortable diving with as a buddy. I have dived with others but there's no one I trust more or communicate as easily with as my wife. This probably has something to do with the fact that we were dive buddies from day one. Also, not only do I feel safer with her as a buddy but I also have more fun. What's the point of diving if not to have fun and be safe.

It's good that you've given in-depth thought to your instruction and your reasoning make sense to a certain extent. However, if I was signing up for a diving course of some sort in which I knew we would be split up I'd look for a different instructor who would be willing to teach us as diving buddies.

 

[RonFrank]

It's your class, IMO do what you feel works best.

Maybe one approach would be to switch buddy pairs a couple times during the pool sessions, and tell them that is part of the training to become familiar with working with non-familiar buddies, which is certainly a valid scenerio in real world diving. It may be an excuse, but might go over better than bringing the whole couples may fight, may overcompensate, may make googlie eyes and fondle one anothers snorkels argument into play.

I applaud any instructor who is constantly refining their methods in the name of making people better divers.

 

[cal2632]

My husband and I were separated during our confined water, but only because the instructor rotated buddies. We were first buddied together during our OW dives. I wish we could've had more buddy time in class, but I guess it was probably good for us to work with other people.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It depends on the couple.

I got certified about 3 months before my (now ex) wife. When she took the class, she wanted me to go through it with her. I talked to the instructor and he said OK, as long as I didn't try teaching her anything ... this was his polite way of telling me to pretend she was just another dive buddy. I had to remember that advise several times during the class, as it's natural for a relationship to get in the way and for spouses to want to "help" each other learn things. But it worked ... mainly because we talked about it openly before the class started.

In my experience, many times when family members are in an OW class together they WANT to experience the class as dive buddies. Unless there is a compelling reason to break them up, I would be inclined to let them be buddies. However, if I see one of them becoming reliant on the other in any way, I will separate them and explain that I feel they will both get more out of the class by not doing their CW or OW coursework as a buddy team. This has only happened twice, and both times I found that honest, open communication ... emphasizing the safety aspects of self-reliance ... was the best approach to take.

At any level, when I have a buddy team who are family members ... especially if one is more experienced/competent than the other ... I always precede the class by letting them know that I'm happy to have them pair up as long as they let me do the teaching.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[spectrum]

My wife and I started out together but it turned out she needed more focused attention. Luckily in a class of 10-12 we had almost a 1:1 rato between the students and instructors, DMs DM candidates and a few other helpers.

We spent the last 1/2 of the final regular pool session together and she was very comfortable and competent in the drills we needed to do.

We're going back for a few more pool sessions to really get tuned in as a buddy pair since we will probably be doing most of our diving together. We've worked up a list of drills we plan to do and have been talking the procedures through so we're as in sync as possible.

When she fell behind I was a tad frustrated at first but the instructor was on top of it and my wife soon realized she was just going to need a bit more time. She wasn't the only one and that helped too. In the end each of us needs to be an independent diver so we just went our own ways at our own pace.

On the first few drives home I learned to be a supportive good listener!

Speaking for myself I think it was good to be broken up since I got to do drills with a varriety of students with various skill levels.

Pete

 

[jeffreyd]

Just like everything else there is no perfect solution. I'm sure some couples would benefit from having their SO as their buddy, and others that would halt their diving career before it starts.

During my OW certification we had a lady whos husband started diving 15yrs ago. So she was getting certified to dive with him. During the first pool session she had a little difficulty getting comfortable in the water but after a few minutes she got down. The last pool session (2nd) she was almost in tears. She left before we even got in the pool. Turns out her husband was telling her stories of when he got certified they shut off his tank. She thought that was going to happen on that day.

I think shes going to go back though.

Just more food for though.

 

[peterf]

Whatever works for you and the couple in question. I often split up couples but am also happy to buddy them together if that appears to work for them. I find that you can often tell how "dominant" one half of the pair is (usually but not always the guy) by watching them carefully as they kit up etc. If I see one of them being overly "helpful" to the other that's a good sign that it would probably be better to split them up underwater.

Once you're into the open water dives putting them back together, or rotating buddies is usually fine.

 

[Firefyter]

When my wife got certified, her instructor allowed me to "audit" the pool and OW sessions, since it had been a while for me. I specifically asked him to NOT buddy us up. I was more than willing to help him anyway I could, I just didn't want my bride to depend on me to fix everything that went wrong. I felt that if she did it with another partner that it would help develop her confidence and buddy skills. This way she looks back and says "I did this". Plus, as someone else already stated, it cut down on frustration for both of us. I'm happy to say that this worked, at least for me. She has confidence in herself and her abilities, as do I. I'm able to go diving with her and enjoy it without feeling like I have to watch over her and protect her. It's nice to have a buddy that you trust implicitly, and know that they're able to help themselves as well as help you if something goes wrong. YMMV.

 

[Lead_carrier]

I will usually talk about how difficult it can be buddying with your spouse and I let them know that I will put them with different buddies if I think it is necessary, and I have yet to have a complaint. Probably the most drastic that I have had to do was take the husband out and talk to him about his talking down to his wife because he caught on to a lot of things quicker than she did. Amazingly, he felt kinda bad about it and apologized to her in front of class.