Diving with uneven skill/experience levels

[alphonsis]

I am looking for tips on how to handle positioning when diving with a less experienced diver.

 

[Hemlon]

As long as the divers with less experience aren't pressured to dive beyond their ability or training, I see no problems.

Just make sure that everyone is on the same sheet of music, as the expression goes.

 

[Garrobo]

Every dive I 've been on has been like that. Jump in the water, keep an eye on each other and dont worry about it. Leaders will lead and followers will follow.

 

[Marek K]

You mean where the buddies should swim, relative to one another?

I think, no matter what the realtive experience levels, buddies should stay as even with and next to one another as possible. Making eye contact often.

When one person gets too far ahead, it'll be difficult to see the buddy behind them. Even worse is when one buddy is behind and above the other; the one lower and forward can't see the other buddy at all.

Unfortunately, there's often a tendency for the less-experienced person to stay higher and back.

No matter what the relative experience level, you're each other's buddy.

Rather, team member.

 

[DepthProducts]

The most important thing is the plan. Work it out, discuss it, and rehearse it. Always envision the dive before you do the dive.

Then stay slightly behind and above the diver in question, keeping them in your field of view at all times; it takes but seconds for a mishap to occur.

Make sure your signals are worked out. With or without lights.

Letting the new diver go in front; with supervision, helps to build their confidence. Let them explore and (lead).

 

[DiverBeth]

I've been diving with my son this summer and he just started diving. He's 18, but was still a noob. He stayed close sometimes right on top of me. However, as the number of his dives increased he started swimming more even with me and a little farther away but still we were just a couple of kicks away from each other.

I've dived with others who have less experience and like I did with my son on our dive plan (even though we were following a DM) I stressed the need to keep close and keep an eye on each other. Never had problems with less experienced divers.

I have had a problem or 2 with more experienced divers who just take off on you, feeling I was experienced enough to fend for myself. In those cases I always stayed close to the DM or another pair.

Just because buddies may not have the same level of experience, if the dive is within both of their capabilities, they can both have a great dive.

 

[DeputyDan]

For some reason that has nothing to do with skill or ability - I prefer my buddy to be on my left. Whether they are slightly ahead or slightly behind does not matter.

 

[markfm]

Pick your relative position (say, you are on the left of your buddy), then stay side-by-side, arm's length. If I glance to my right and can't see my buddy, our positions are bad.

Practically speaking, when I dive with really new divers, just post cert, I like to be there in case they have a buoyancy issue. Also, if buddy has a random issue, like a cramp, if we're pretty much even they have time to signal me even if they stop dead in the water.

Doing side-by-side also should force the stronger swimmer to go slower, a good thing -- many of the things to be seen require slow speed, not a sprint.

If my buddy is pretty experienced, we'll separate a bit more, no big deal. With my regular buddy we'll tend to be within 5 or 6 feet max.

"Pretty experienced" isn't purely number of dives. Some people have poor buddy awareness even with a large number of dives.

 

[alphonsis]

thanks for all the input. good ideas and thoughts.

 

[SteveAD]

I don't get this "above and behind" stuff. I like to be able to stick my right arm straight out to the side and hit my buddies shoulder.