When I was in high school, my parents gave me a scuba course as the only thing I wanted for Christmas. The pool sessions were at a community pool where I was a lifeguard. One of the other students was this *really* annoying girl I knew from physics class. Unfortunately, she wasn't a great swimmer, so guess who got assigned as her buddy?
She's been my only buddy, really, for a while now. We did lots of courses in college as P.E. (Advanced Open Water, Divemaster, Assistant Instructor), then slowed down while she was putting me through medical school. It's been over 25 years now. Our 11 year-old is now starting to dive with us. Her swimming got much better over time, by the way.
On one hand, we know each other's diving skills and gear as if they were our own. We know what we need help with and when to stay out of the way. We've always got a buddy available when one of us feels like diving, no matter where or when. We've got all our lies about the size of that eagle ray down to a science. It's fun and comfortable.
On the other hand, whatever bad diving habits we may have we learned together, so will be blind to them. We don't really have any "buddy skills" such as going over signals or procedures before a dive. We never have a buddy who hasn't heard all our old diving stories (including our poor kid).
