How do you find a dive buddy?

[Boarderguy]

One positive point for living here

Are there others?

 

[BoltSnap]

Are there others?

Great weather all year long, easy access to the sea that has lots to discover and explore, lots of history and antiquities onshore, much cheaper cost of living, plenty of natural resources, short flights to Europe, Africa and Middle East and many other points. It can be the best place in the region if there is political stability and less foreign intervention.

Note: Libya is almost 3 times the size of the state of Texas but with less than 7 million people living here. Libya I think is 3/4 the size of Western Europe (or all of Europe sans Russia but not sure).

 

[apedai]

Great weather all year long, easy access to the sea that has lots to discover and explore, lots of history and antiquities onshore, much cheaper cost of living, plenty of natural resources, short flights to Europe, Africa and Middle East and many other points. It can be the best place in the region if there is political stability and less foreign intervention.

Note: Libya is almost 3 times the size of the state of Texas but with less than 7 million people living here. Libya I think is 3/4 the size of Western Europe (or all of Europe sans Russia but not sure).

What? you live in libya now? cool.

 

[BoltSnap]

What? you live in libya now? cool.

Yes, that's where I have been living for the past few years actually.

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

It sounds like for the OP the answers are yes, yes, and yes!

1) tons of local diving, and here is the best guide for Vancouver Island

index

www.victoriabcdiving.com

who am I kidding ... this is probably the best guide for diving in BC, and the author has done all the dives Solo
2) even the local Kool-Aid crew, is welcoming of new divers, to join their casual dives
3)local FB groups are amazing, for finding buddies

 

[Gandalf-the-Diver]

My regular dive buddies are in my closet- my solo certification card and pony bottle.

Consider doing that yourself, there are tons of advantages and not just eliminating the legal, ethical, and physical liabilities when diving with someone else and assuming responsibility for their well being.

11 months, after I did my OW, I did the SDI Solo course. I had 177 dives under my belt, when I did the course.

 

[DXHI]

My shop dives almost every weekend. I spent my first 2-3 years diving with random people. In that time i dove with people I never care to dive with again ; but I also found about 4-5 people that are now good friends and have similar air consumptions and attitudes and we try to plan our Spear fishing trips together. But another benefit of multiple dives with multiple people.. you get to see scenarios and learn how more experienced people work through them.

My future step kid is my dive buddy a lot as well… how I met his mom.. he started spear fishing at 14. His mom also dives but she only likes diving the Caribbean.. which is where we became official

 

[Fishdip]

I live on the south end of Vancouver Island. There are 3 shops in my local area, 2 of which have Facebook Groups, for finding dive buddies. There is also a local Facebook group, for divers from my city, and a local (to the island) Facebook group for divers from the island. The groups that align with local shops, have close to 300 members between them, and hundreds of members in the other groups, although a fair number of those numbers are in all groups. They are the primary way, for divers to find dive buddies, and for dive buddies to plan dives. It works great; one can post in the mornning, and be diving in the afternoon, with either a new buddy, or a regular buddy. Our local GUE crew, do a weekly casual dive that anyone can join, Kool-Aid not included, but they always hit the pub or a social after. When I was a relatively new diver, I met a lot of these folks, as I was diving a lot. They were always very helpful, and a few of them are dive buddies now.
Recently, one of my regular buddies, moved back to the Eastern Seaboard, NE USA. He has his instructor cert. He was looking forward to diving wrecks out there. I asked him, how easy was it to find buddies. I had noted that, on ScubaBoard, I sometimes see postings, people looking for dive buddies, most of these seemed to be Eastern Seaboard listings. He mentioned it was not as easy as back in Victoria. I asked, was there not a strong Facebook presence, like we have here on Canada's West Coast, for finding buddies. His responce was no, that what we have in Victoria, is pretty special in a dive community.

My question for the hive; does your local dive area, have a strong Facebook Group Diving Community, that facilitates finding dive buddies, or or you finding buddies other ways?

Yes people use this site too, but local FB groups, are specific to an area, and responces can be instant. This I am guessing, will depend on how much local diving there is. Here where I am, there are a pleathera of amazing shore diving sites, all within an hr drive, the majority being 40 min drive or less. There is also a strong local diving community, especially those with all their own gear. Just curious if other places have the same conectivity, in the community.

For me it's been really hard, not just in MT but other states "AZ CO NM FL TX". Not only do I dive far too often but now I also do tec dives so it limits the number of people even more. So 98% of my dives are now solo.

 

[Fishdip]

That's what I plan to use for my new setup but with 19 cf pony. Used to dive with 80cf alum and 13 cf pony backmounted. Changing now to steel 120 with 19 pony mounted alongside. With my SAC rate, 13 cf is a bit dicey to get me out of trouble when diving deep.

Why not just use a staged 40?

 

[NYCrecdiver]

Why not just use a staged 40?

Find it rather big to mount on the single on my back.