Did you ever change your regular dive buddy?

[chiara]

Did you ever need to change your regular dive buddy?

If so why?

A couple of recents events I had to survive through made me wonder about it...

Please, don't just vote, give an explanation!

 

[Rick Murchison]

I've been diving since.... well, "legally" since '71. I've never "dumped" a buddy, and to my knowledge never been "dumped" as a buddy, but I've certainly added and lost buddies along the way due to moves, changes in interest etc...
Rick

 

[ScubaStan]

I have 3 buddies.

One is a Divemaster, One is AOW and one is BOW and has fewer dives than I have.

I have never had any problems with my buddies it is just that it happened thisway.

 

[FredT]

Relocation or changes in dive purpose causes buddy pairs to form and break up over the years. Some buddies simply refuse to learn, which can make for a very short pairing.

Be aware that finding good dive buddies is MUCH harder than finding a good mate. Finding a good mate that is also a good dive buddy is at least an order of magnitude rarer.

I have 5 or 6 that I'd dive with anytime, anywhere. Three of those are female, one of which I'm married to. Getting us all on the same boat is a hoot, but happens way too rarely. One of these is the best female spearfisherman I know, with a husband who won't dive. I call him up and ask to "borrow his wife for the weekend" occasionally. We all agree that risking a good dive buddy by mixing in other adult activites is a VERY bad idea so group travel in any mix is no problem.

FT

 

[Scottri]

I sort of dumped my regular dive buddies when they stopped diving. I'm still friends but I have new buddies to dive with. I found a couple of new divers and mentored them for about a year and now I couldn't imagine diving without them. I also found a new shop with a new crew.


Scott

 

[Walter]

Seems an odd question. I don't have a "regular" dive buddy, I never have. There are lots of people with whom I dive. Some share all my interests in diving, others share some of my diving interests. Schedules vary, some live close by, others live a few hours away, others live on the other side of the country, others on the other side of the planet. Having a "regular" dive buddy would be very limiting. I find new dive buddies frequently while continuing to dive with old ones. I enjoy diving with folks with lots more experience than I've accumulated, I enjoy diving with students, I enjoy diving with those in between. Different dives for different buddies.

 

[wcharz]

I'm relatively new to diving (~2 years) and util now I've always been diving with my son as my regular buddy, but that might change soon, when he will be going to university next year...

 

[Uncle Pug]

I have scratched folks off the list who seemed to present what I considered either an unacceptable safety risk or diving philosophy inconsistent with mine.

I have demoted others (without telling them so... just on my list) to only those dives that I feel comfortable doing with them.

I do have one main dive buddy, Shane, that I would dive with on any of the dives that I do.


To answer your real question... yes... you need to demote your current dive buddy (and thus unfortunately limit yourself) and begin the process of finding a more reliable buddy who is committed to safety.

 

[otter-cat]

I dive with lots of different people through my dive club, and through working as a DM, and for the most part, I really enjoy it. However, I have yet to find that person who loves diving as much as I do, and also needs a dedicated buddy (like me) who wants to go diving all the time (like me!)

I wish I had someone who I could have as a regular buddy, not so that I could dive with them exclusively, but so I could dive with someone I knew and trusted regularly, who liked the same types of diving I do. It's kind of a bummer when I go to a dive-club dive, and end up diving with someone who wants to spearfish, while I would rather wander around slowly and just look at all the fish and other organisms in their natural habitats.

Also, dive-club dives are usually only once a month, and I want to find someone else who wants to dive every week (or even better, every day!)

There are lots of people I like to dive with. They just don't dive often enough for me!

 

[art.chick]

When I first started, my husband was my main buddy. We got into this to have a togetherness activity. As we dove, issues bubbled up between us that seemed diving-related but were deeper (ie: I would indicate that I was low on air & he would reacte as if I was being overly fussy & keep goofing around while I neared panic. His impression of me as being too twitchy interfered with our communications.)

He got embarrassed when I exited in a crawl or entered with my fins on. I got sick of having my dives micromanaged & began planning dives without him. I found many buddies one dive at a time & still circulate among them, but I have added my husband back in the mix to a degree. Nonetheless, I usually regret including him because he keeps me up all night before we are supposed to dive together. Then he badgers me about needing too much sleep. There are some people who can use diving as a way to pick on others. It is not worth it to tolerate bad buddy reltions.