How to Be the Best Dive Buddy I Can Be

[ScubaWithTurk]

Sorry work has gotten in the way of a great dive discussion. Thank you all who have responded so far. Keep the ideas flowing and I will comment more once I get out of cubicle hell.

Now if this terrible weather would end I could get back to diving!

 

[TMHeimer]

Simple answer. Stay together--if even to a ridiculous extreme. Best formation I've found is leader slightly ahead of follower, who is to one side and perhaps 5' away (depending on viz--closer if need be, but not much farther). This makes it easy for the leader to see the follower without twisting the neck much. Look at each other at least every 10 seconds or less, which admittedly is a pain in the neck (perhaps literally). It goes without saying that both should be sharp on all the needed buddy skills, but if separated none of that matters. Since PADI instituted the "mini dive" as the final OW checkout dive, I stressed this above all.

Agreeing on a plan and objective is always stressed, but to me shouldn't have to be as what is more obvious than that?

 

[Fossil_Diver]

To find a good insta buddy put your regulator on backwards. The first person to point it out is it. Just kidding, kinda.

 

[NorCalDM]

Like life, don't be a dick and you will do just fine.


Bob

This is the best advise yet and is my life motto!

 

[Neilwood]

For me it comes down to a number of things (quite a few have previously been mentioned):
1) Attitude - do they come across as a know it all ass or are they interested in learning? Are they honest about experience? I would be happier diving with someone straight out of OW and happy to admit their shortcomings than someone with 50+ dives who claims god given skills
2) Awareness - when you talk are they listening? Do they pay attention during a predive check?
3) Do they actually know how to gear up without babying?
4) Planning - do they do any or is it follow the leader?
5) Skills - do they display good skills? Do they look like I can trust them with my life or do I need to treat this as a solo dive with a diver to babysit?
6) In water, do they swim off or do they stick with their buddy or buddies? If you want to deviate from the plan (to follow a fish or check out a feature), communicate it and we can decide on it but don't just swim off.
7) Decide on your formation and try to stick to it - side by side is often good or possibly with one diver slightly ahead. Don't constantly switch sides as it can get really tiring searching about to find you.

@Bob DBF I like the "don't be a dick" comment!

 

[boulderjohn]

The only thing that really bugs me is the buddy who insists on going his or her own way on a dive, leaving all the buddying effort to me. I should not have to spend my entire dive trying to figure out where my buddy just surprisingly disappeared to. Here is a story about the worst one, a diver who said he had over 600 dives (and I believe that to be true).

It was in Cozumel, and our group paired off in buddy teams while being led by a DM, as is required by law there. On the first dive, he kept dropping behind me and then darting off to check out one thing or another. I had to keep turning around and looking for him, and the DM had to do the same thing, often stopping the whole group while waiting for him to come back to the pack. For the second dive, we agreed to do a site called Paso del Cedral, and we specifically decided to do it because there is a complex Swiss cheese-like swim through that can be fun. As we went through the first part of the dive, he kept hanging back and going his own way, like before, and I kept hanging back to stay with him. As the group headed for that swim through, he darted off in a different direction, well behind the group. The visibility was not great, so I tried to stay half way between him and the group so I could see both. The DM turned and looked back. Seeing me hanging so far back and not moving to him, he gave a WTF? gesture, and I pointed to where my buddy was swimming. Even in the distance I could see how exasperated the DM was--that diver was now too far along in the current, and he would never be able to join them. The DM led the entire group to join my buddy, and so everyone missed the focal point of the dive. Back on the boat, my buddy asked the DM what had happened to that great swim through that was supposed to be on that site, and one of the other divers told him that we had missed it because we had to go chase after him. He thought that was pretty funny, and he didn't seem to be bothered by the angry glares of everyone else on the boat.

It is just selfishness to put your own interests and desires ahead of your buddy and anyone else on the dive.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

I love the responses to this thread. All good points for me to focus on as a newly certified OW diver.

As I read these I am curious about buddy skills. I have very little experience with those specific skills. Would you be ok, when diving with someone as green as I am, doing a shared air ascent or practicing an OOA situation where I use my buddies octo for the ascent?

How about working on buoyancy at a safety stop?

I know my buoyancy skills need a ton of work and the emergency situations such as LOA or OOA are areas I would like to continuously practice as my only experience with them have been my OW class. As a military veteran I always refer back to my training where you learn something but then constantly drill it in order to have that skill become second nature when your in the s*!t. So my thought process is to practice those emergency scenarios on each dive.

Thoughts or comments?

 

[boulderjohn]

As I read these I am curious about buddy skills. I have very little experience with those specific skills. Would you be ok, when diving with someone as green as I am, doing a shared air ascent or practicing an OOA situation where I use my buddies octo for the ascent?

How about working on buoyancy at a safety stop?

You can work on an air share if you plan it ahead of time and tell any DMs who might be in the water what you are going to do.

Always work on buoyancy during a safety stop--for the rest of your diving life. The only exceptions will be if you have to hang onto a line in high current.

 

[kablooey]

removed to prevent repetition.

 

[PACKRMAN]

I like to know where my dive buddy is. I hate it when leading a dive and every time I look my buddy is in a different place, directly over head, directly behind me, 100' to the left etc. Of course you cant always be slightly behind and to the right but pick a spot that you are easy to find. With new divers I will even have them lead so I can have my eyes on them all the time. When they do look I am where they found me before. If I feel they don't look often enough I get their attention and we continue. Its not long before it becomes a rhythm.