Diving with strangers

[PerroneFord]

Since I've never had to dive wiht a stranger, I have a couple questions for anyone...

1. How do you determine your dive plan? Do you just agree on land/boat how the dive will proceed? Max Depth, time, ending pressure?

2. How do you decide who will "lead" the dive? Person with most experience, person with most local knowledge, draw straws?

3. What do you do if this person deviates from the dive plan and you are leading? Or following?


It seems pretty risky getting into the water with an unknown person. Although I understand it's unavoidable in some scenarios.

 

[scuba66]

check out your own gear for leaks. make sure everything is in its place yourself. you are your best buddy when diving in a group of strangers, and dont be afraid to speak up and ask for simple things like buddy pairs, and gear checks. these are all basic fundamentals of any dive. when i dive with a stranger i dont rely on them for anything. imo i think every diver should at least train up to rescue as it teaches self rescue and self reliance is very important, the more confident and trained you are in a situation the better you are to handle it. a good diver always follows a certain set of dive protocols, and if the group you are diving with doesnt follow these mention it to the entire group sometimes as divers get comfortable with the group they dive in they forget to mention these things as it becomes habit. i dive so much that gear checks and leak checks are done without even thinking about it , as it has become habit.

 

[scubadobadoo]

Since I've never had to dive wiht a stranger, I have a couple questions for anyone...

1. How do you determine your dive plan? Do you just agree on land/boat how the dive will proceed? Max Depth, time, ending pressure?

2. How do you decide who will "lead" the dive? Person with most experience, person with most local knowledge, draw straws?

3. What do you do if this person deviates from the dive plan and you are leading? Or following?


It seems pretty risky getting into the water with an unknown person. Although I understand it's unavoidable in some scenarios.

I dove with new folks today and I knew they would be good buddy's because we literally discussed all of these things before the dive and I didn't have to initiate the conversation. I know it's time to consider calling the dive and looking for another buddy if the buddy says, "Yeah yeah ok" and doesn't seem into discussing the plan. All this does to me is make me feel uncomfy and then I don't enjoy the dive. If the person deviates in a very dangerous way, I call the dive and leave them if it is safer than staying with them. This is of course risky but I think the key is to avoid this situation in the first place by watching and listening to your buddy long before the dive. I ask questions like how long have you been diving, I watch them put their gear together, and I watch how well they play with others. A little observation goes a long way. I am more relaxed in warm waters but I take no chances in the NE in cold water with 5 feet of visibilty. In poor conditions you may be safer alone than with a time bomb.

 

[paixx01]

i often can't find a buddy so a few times have driven up the popular place(shark's cove), i found these 3 guys there, whom were friendly enough to allow me to go w/them, but weren't up on the site much, though they had already done a first dive, it wasn't completely flat, but seemed calm when one of them wanted to poke around a cave.
well to make long story short, i got out of cave, just then a very strong surge came in and only 1 guy in the cave, so strong i couldn't swim back for him to look for him, and i gave up 2' danger, finally his friend swam in and he swam out like nothing happened, i swear the guy was dead or must have been in danger though maybe i overreacted, goes without mention nobody checks each other's gear anymore before diving around here, should get back into doing that
aloha

 

[downdeep]

We call them group gropes.
I did the same thing once in the Bahamas. When you are on a really popular site, it can happen. Fortunately, I did have my buddy with me or I would have stressed. It does make you more aware though.
We were diving a maze of swim-throughs in Cozumel recently. When we came out we met another group who were going into an adjoining cavern. My husband stopped and "directed traffic" for our group, many of whom were new divers, or else we would have surely lost some folks. Always nice to have an alert DM around to bring up the rear.

 

[Goose75]

It seems pretty risky getting into the water with an unknown person. Although I understand it's unavoidable in some scenarios.

Most of the time it works fine. Sometimes you get unlucky. Instructors and DMs face it everyday.

 

[PerroneFord]

Which is one reason I have zero interest in being an instructor or DM.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Since I've never had to dive wiht a stranger, I have a couple questions for anyone...

1. How do you determine your dive plan? Do you just agree on land/boat how the dive will proceed? Max Depth, time, ending pressure?

2. How do you decide who will "lead" the dive? Person with most experience, person with most local knowledge, draw straws?

3. What do you do if this person deviates from the dive plan and you are leading? Or following?


It seems pretty risky getting into the water with an unknown person. Although I understand it's unavoidable in some scenarios.

This is a resort/vaction location scenario.

1. DM or Instructor gives the dive briefing, usually vague, to the group and either assigns buddies to those who don't have them or says that it will be a group dive.

2. DM or instructor leads dive.

3. Divers follow where ever the DM/Instructor and don't think about the plan.

This is what happens in the dive resorts I've been to except for Chuuk where there is a much more detailed plan and you stick to it. This is warm water, good vis diving. I'm not saying this is the right way to do it, just that this is the reality of how it's done.

 

[PerroneFord]

I've seen some of this on various TV shows about diving. And I've heard it mentioned by other divers. Really says to me that I don't want to do this typical vacation type diving. Oh well. Thanks for sharing, DD.

 

[shark.byte.usa]

I experienced this as well, group of about 5-6 divers, night dive, I was checking something out with some of the group close by, next thing I know, I can't see anyone's lights, everyone is gone, apparently a big fish went by and they all chased it while I wasn't looking. I now have a buddy within the group, if not designated at briefing I take someone aside and make it so, make sure they know my equipment config and I know theirs, take note of bc wetsuit and fins, etc. It was a little freaky on a night dive, alone, when I wasn't expecting it.