How To Be A Buddy?

[kathydee]

My best buddies shared a sense of partnership, a concern for the saftey and enjoyment of the team - at best, a sense of shared experience rather than solo endulgence, or even shared awareness of responsibility towards each other along with solo endulgence - but in all cases clear communication took place before diving and we stayed with in a few meters of each other.

Buddy pet peeve - It drives me crazy when new buddies decide to hover just above and behind so they can watch you - but you can't see them without turning around.

 

[Captain12Pk]

Just a few months ago there was a WONDERFUL thread posted on this very topic. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find it since.

 

[RJP]

To these, may I add position yourself so that you and your buddy can maintain easy eye contact?

Not always necessay, and often not practical.

Sure you want to be able to maintain good visual contact, but "buddy contact" doesn't require "eye contact" in many/most situations.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

First time I've seen that acronym! Nice one though.

SEABAG - it's a basic NAUI acronym for a buddy check prior to diving. It's a reasonable start, but that's really all it is.

I spend a lot of time in AOW working on buddy skills. It starts with the realization that there's more to being a dive buddy than just getting in the water with somebody. You have to communicate ... before, during, and after the dive. You have to dive in such a way that you make a conscious effort to share your dive experience with each other. You have to maintain eye contact during ascents and descents. And you need to talk to each other after the dive about what you liked and didn't like about the team experience.

Being a dive buddy is all about predictable behavior ... you each have to know what to expect from the other person, and what they expect from you.

I wrote an article on this subject some time ago ... you can find it on my web site ... NWGratefulDiver.com

A companion article applies to those who dive with photographers ... NWGratefulDiver.com

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[rstofer]

I wonder if being a buddy (good or otherwise) is even a goal. The author here: http://www.airheadsscuba.com/soldvrarta.pdf talks of legal liability if your buddy should happen to be injured or worse (3rd paragraph).

Richard

 

[Charlie99]

Like others, my OW course mentioned buddies in passing, but I really didn't have a clue.

I still didn't have a clue in my first dozen or two dives since I was concentrating 100% on low level mechanics like breathing, finning, and buoyancy.

Only when I started leading on some dives did I start to get an appreciation for the importance of good relative positions between buddies, and how a good buddy makes it easy to stay in contact and aware of each other.

IMO being a "good buddy" is closely related to another somewhat ill-defined term, "situational awareness". Only with experience (and a conscious effort) did I start signficantly improving my awareness of what was going on around me.

I've found the key to a good buddy relationship is good situational awareness, including good awareness of my buddy; and doing the little things that make it easy for him to be fully aware of the situation, including me.

This of course, assumes that you and your buddy have passed the first hurdle --- having a desire and goal to be aware of each other and to be ready to assist each other.

 

[Charlie99]

Being a dive buddy is all about predictable behavior ... you each have to know what to expect from the other person, and what they expect from you.

Amen! Part of my standard briefing with an insta-buddy is NO SUPRISES, PLEASE!

I say it in a humorous tone towards the end of our discussion. While "No surprises, please" is somewhat trite, it also is a pretty good summary of the motivation behind a lot of the detailed discussion we had already been through.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I wonder if being a buddy (good or otherwise) is even a goal. The author here: http://www.airheadsscuba.com/soldvrarta.pdf talks of legal liability if your buddy should happen to be injured or worse (3rd paragraph).

Richard

Ahem ... he's selling something.

Solo diving's all well and good ... but before someone decides to go there, they first need to get some experience and develop some skills. It's not something I would recommend for the casual vacation diver.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[BioLogic]

My OW instructor brought up being a good buddy a lot -- doing checks, developing a plan together, staying where each could see the other and not get further apart than you'd want to swim with no air, respecting someone calling the dive, knowing their equipment as well as your own, being aware of their gas situation. Nothing surprising there, but worth hearing.

 

[ArcticDiver]

It looks like others have had a similar experience to me; not taught very much, if anything, about HOW to be a good buddy until well after their basic training.

Like most others during my OW I wasn't taught the How, just that having a buddy was recommended. It wasn't until a little later when I was deserted on a night dive, I think it was around dives 10-12 that I realized that people just didn't know how to be a buddy. That was the dive also that I realized I could survive on my own and started looking at diving a little differently.

Instead of looking at it like we were each other's lifeguard, in the swimming pool sense, I looked at it as though we were two single-seat airplanes, each with air-to-air refueling capability. The analogy isn't perfect but it conveys the idea.

After that I sought out examples of the How. Along the way I've met some good examples and some, well not so good.

================================================================

One thing though: I often hear of divers dissing other divers for being a burden, or using the term Insta-Buddy as a slur. Whatever that is it certainly sounds terrible. Frankly, I don't understand that at all. It smacks of an elitist and selfish mindset that reflects poorly on the person making such comments. Wouldn't it be better to say to yourself: "Self, this person isn't as smooth as me. Maybe, I can help make the planet a better place if I give them a good example and some leadership? At the same time I still can have some fun."

My daddy told me: Don't think too highly of yourself. Through life you are going to meet some people who are smarter, some who are dumber; some who can do it better and some who can do it worse; some who are faster and some who are slower; with the exception of the rare truely evil person they are all people with the same ultimate destination; never forget that.