Contacting your buddy under water

[BettyRubble]

Thal makes a good point . . . you BOTH have to be devoted to good buddy skills. . . I've had buddies who are very good and we never lose contact, and I've had buddies who are very bad and are rarely within 2 feet. I spend my dive chasing them down. Of course, they spend their time looking up to find me so I need to work on this too!

 

[Hatul]

Wow - you are a brave man. I am curious to see how long it is until you get buried under platitudes. Please - let me begin: "There is no such thing as an accident;" "Always plan your dive and dive your plan;" "You need a new buddy..."

Those who think they can avoid accidents are mistaken. Even with best procedures there will be separations and accidents. I've read stories of expert cave divers who follow extremely tight procedures and they get separated. It happens frequently with casual divers and it's happened to me many times-- I've had to surface to look around for my buddy.

Adam

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Those who think they can avoid accidents are mistaken. Even with best procedures there will be separations and accidents. I've read stories of expert cave divers who follow extremely tight procedures and they get separated. It happens frequently with casual divers and it's happened to me many times-- I've had to surface to look around for my buddy.

@Hatul: Accidents happen, no question. However, if you are buddy diving, becoming separated should be an exceedingly rare event. The fact that you have lost your buddy "many times" is an indicator that you and your buddy should modify your diving habits. We both dive in SoCal -- temperate water, dark, low vis, rip currents, surf, surge, etc. -- so I can empathize with the challenge of sticking with your buddy in those conditions. I don't want to give a new diver the impression that "many" buddy separations is acceptable. It just isn't.

 

[TSandM]

I do know a guaranteed way to lose a buddy... Invite a third person along for a dive.

To the contrary. Probably most of my dives are done in three person teams, and we have no problems losing buddies. It DOES require a commitment to keeping the team together.

Buddy separation is probably not unavoidable. But in the last three years, with the single exception of novice divers who cork when I'm not looking at them, I cannot remember ANY instance where I got separated from my teammates so badly that anyone had to surface. Peter and I had one nasty one in about 10 feet of viz, when he caught an upcurrent and blew about 15 feet up the slope in front of me, but we regrouped as I headed up.

We've kept teams together in high current, low viz, and on scooters. It can be done.

 

[AbyssalPlains]

What Bubbletrouble said. Or, take a Solo Diver Certification class. That's what I did.

 

[Thalassamania]

Those who think they can avoid accidents are mistaken. Even with best procedures there will be separations and accidents. I've read stories of expert cave divers who follow extremely tight procedures and they get separated. It happens frequently with casual divers and it's happened to me many times-- I've had to surface to look around for my buddy.

Adam

Acutaly those of us who know that we can avoid accidents are not mistaken. Take my case, I'm well over 10,000 dives and I've never had an accident. Additionally I can count on one hand the number of times that I've become separated from my buddy. Perhaps that's because I pay attention, perhaps that's because my buddy pays attention ... I do not dive with "casual divers." If you have had to surface many times to look around for your buddy, I suggest some soul searching before you have an accident that can't be resolved just by surfacing and looking around.

 

[SkimFisher]

Those who think they can avoid accidents are mistaken. Even with best procedures there will be separations and accidents. I've read stories of expert cave divers who follow extremely tight procedures and they get separated. It happens frequently with casual divers and it's happened to me many times-- I've had to surface to look around for my buddy.

Adam

Not to jump on you - because I'm really not trying to. But I honestly can't think of ANY accident reports I've read that did not in some way involve diver error. Is it possible? Sure, but that is usually not the case.

Most often what I read is a minor problem that is exacerbated due to poor/no training or lack of practice\experience. Or a huge problem due to no planning, poor/no training, lack of practice\experience or a combination of all of the above. S*** does happen - but that's why you plan and prepare for it. Isn't it?

 

[StreetDoctor]

Do you normally dive with the same paranoid level of alertness that you do in a GUE class? Most people I know don't . . . We actually relax and enjoy the dive a bit now and then

I wouldn't say that it's a paranoid level of alertness, more that we know something IS going to happen in class, it wasn't really as stressful as you make it out to be. WHEN a failure happened we handled it, no paranoia or unecessary stress involved. In the real world I'd like to think we dive the exact same way in terms of positioning and using light signals, especially because the "real" world is darker with worse vis.

 

[Hatul]

Not to jump on you - because I'm really not trying to. But I honestly can't think of ANY accident reports I've read that did not in some way involve diver error. Is it possible? Sure, but that is usually not the case.

Most often what I read is a minor problem that is exacerbated due to poor/no training or lack of practice\experience. Or a huge problem due to no planning, poor/no training, lack of practice\experience or a combination of all of the above. S*** does happen - but that's why you plan and prepare for it. Isn't it?

With any accident you can in retrospect put the blame on the operator as there was almost always something he could have done to prevent the accident. And so it is with car accidents, airplane crashes etc. I'm sure the Georgian luger who died did something wrong just before he flung out and hit the steel pole. And one can say that with proper technique and practice and training he could have avoided that. I believe this is the wrong approach and attitude for staying safe. Which is why systems that deal with safety in mind take into account that no matter how good the driver is accidents will happen-- so we have removed sharp steering wheels, put in seat belts and air bags in cars.

Adam

 

[suzette]

Back to the topic at hand...

When I dive (In Key Largo), I carry an Aqua Maraca I end up with a lot of insta-buddies, so I can't always count on them staying close or practicing good buddy protocol. I am usually close enough to reach them for an emergency, but I absolutely loathe when someone grabs my fin and I don't do it to others. I am usually just trying to get their attention to say "Lookit!". One thing I learned though- when people are taking pictures, focusing on looking around, etc they don't hear it- they aren't tuned in. So I let my buddy know that I have it and that when we get down, I'll shake it so they know what it sounds like. After that, they have no trouble at all and look immediately when I shake it. Works for me.