How to handle a bad buddy?

[Cacia]

The people I see usually want to try a night dive at around six dives....would be a very interesting poll, to get a feel for when people are deciding to try one...

Mtremere, how would you feel about an air share at the stop? (Before dropping below 500?

If the buddy is not a friend you can communicate with well, just dump him and dive with someone you have more of a sympatico with.

 

[Jay Roy]

Why? Because it's dark and you have to deal with a light?

If so, the nOObs are in trouble even in the day around here...

Do you think an open water diver with 6 dives would know what to do if he had a light failure at 80 feet on a nightdive? Nevermind the fact that he was 20 feet deeper than the max depth for an O/W diver, and don't quote me on this, but I'm pretty sure that when they say 60 feet, they're talking about in the day light...

 

[countryboy]

This "buddy" behaved dangerously....

Did (s)he go through any night specific items with you prior? Light signaling, backup lights, location of each, etc.? If there was no specific "help" to teaching you about night diving beforehand prior to the dive, the dive should have been thumbed prior to getting wet. This would fall into the "trust me" category...

The number of dives does not determine when to do your first night dive. The people you are with / location / familiarity of the site would be the determining factor.

 

[Willie]

... The plan was stick together as a group of 6. The two dive instuctors wanted to play with their new full face/ communicators.

Several questions come to my mind. Was this a class or just a group getting together to dive which happened to have two instructors in the group? What happened to the other 4 while you and your buddy were making your dive?

Glad things turned out alright. Dont hesitate to go solo if you feel it is the safest option.

I had a similar experience with a buddy I met on the spot. It was my first time at the site as well. This buddy turned out to be a speed demon. If he didnt stop occasionally to take a photo, I would never have been within 20' of him. About :15 into the dive, I made the decision to make my first solo dive. At this point the buddy was almost out of site and we were at around 70'. I knew which way was home and started that way, slowly, catching my breath and really enjoyed the rest of the dive. After the fact, no doubt in my mind, that going solo, was the safest thing I could have done on that dive.

All in all, the experience gave me a lot of confidence. I made a good decision in what was a rapidly deteriorating situation (I was finning so much that my consumption was very high) rather than yielding to the panic that was trying to creep in the back door. I totally regained control and leisurely made my way back in while enjoying the remainder of the dive.

Willie

 

[mrtremere]

I defense of myself ... I read the PADI book and this web site before deciding to go on the dive. It really wasnt that much different; nor harder than the day. I'm going at tommorrow with the instructor so I'll see how much of a change it is. But I SHOULD have gone with someone I was more familiar with. Gear wise I was fine. I had spare lights, knew the signals. Then again, if everything is always perfect we would never learn.

A light failure @ 80ft. I would have switched lights and ended the dive.

 

[Nailer99]

I am going to say that 6 dives probably isnt enough experience to go on a night dive at any depth....

My 6th dive was a night dive, and it was a great experience. I was with an extremely experienced diver, however, who never would have done the crap described in the original post.

 

[Nailer99]

Agreed.

I say, "it depends." See my post above. Sounds like the original poster handled the situation OK, and learned something, too. When was your first night dive? How many dives before someone's "ready?"

 

[Cacia]

I want to say that the sketchiest part of a night dive is actually the reduced visabilty on the boat. Boats with flood lights on deck make for much safer preparation. I have seen new divers overlook connections etc when it is too dark to set up on boats without lights. I do okay on dark boats but would not want to do it until very familiar with the gear, etc.

 

[TSandM]

Just in possible defense of the buddy . . . I did a dive with a novice diver a week ago. We talked about turn pressures before we went down, and agreed on 1700 psi as turn pressure, and agreed on the signal protocol. When my buddy reached 1700, he signalled me. Unfortunately, I did not recognize the signal. Whether he did it wrong or I was having a brain fart, I don't know, but I did not recognize it at all. Later, he tried to signal me again, but the signal he used meant "hold" to me. So I held, wondering why he needed to stop, and once again, no useful information changed hands.

Throughout the dive, I was monitoring my gas, and I had so much left (surfaced with almost 2000 psi) that I figured the reason he hadn't signalled me is that I was diving a 95, and he had a 120, and was probably still above turn pressure. He finished the dive with 800 psi. He told me he was happy to see we were ascending, and had we not been, he would have been much more emphatic about his signals.

So did you debrief the dive? Are you SURE your "buddy" knew what you were trying to say to him? An "experienced" buddy who hasn't done a lot of diving with novices may not know how closely and how often you need to share your pressures. I don't think I'm a bad buddy, but I was a bad mentor in this particular.

 

[mrtremere]

I did not debrief the guy. I figured lesson learn. The other people just called him an Assh*le and said leave it be. This was a shore entry so we had a ton of lights at the park to get setup.

This did encourage me to get some steel 100 tanks.