How to handle a bad buddy?

[mrtremere]

Hey Guys, its sarcasism. Remember, we are on the internet. Maybe I spent too much time on http://www.fark.com or http://www.slashdot.org. Hey I live Mexifornia with Ahrnold as the Govornator. Hell I might move to Canada or Mexico, At I can live the and have Liberty and pursue Happiness. I guess its not Fascism when WE do it. So mod me down as a Troll -1. Besides Canada is cool... They are still a free state. Oh lets get back scuba.

 

[mrtremere]

double post

 

[TSandM]

The best way to avoid an emergency is to not be there when one happens.

Doc, you are an endless source of pithy comments!

 

[Squashie]

Life is too short to dive with craptastic buddies.

Between Doc and Terry, I think all that needs to be said about this instance has been said. Glad to see that you survived and hopefully have learned a thing or two about buddy selection, dive preparation, underwater communication and dive debriefing, not to mention the risk and rewards of posting on highly opinonated websites. (j/k)

Also glad to hear this did not sour you on continued diving...get the tanks and enjoy the future safely.

Squashie

 

[IceIce]

Yes, you indeed had a bad buddy, but you dived exceed your certification limit.
Your first and big mistake is to go down at night without proper training (I assume this since you are not AOW) on your 6th dives which is basically counted as inexperience yet.

Some of you say that you don't when you are ready etc, but if you sit down and think, you are lucky to come out well from this dive. There were so many possibilities for it to go wrong, and night dive is certainly something serious and not something to test or to prove and you need somebody eligible and responsible to go with you on your first one especially.

 

[Diver Dennis]

This diver had only 6 dives, give him a break. He thought he was going with an experienced diver who he could count on. While he should not dive with his buddy again, he did what most new divers would do and trusted the guy. Hell, one of the reasons I solo dive now is bad buddies who sounded great topside but turned out to be terrible as soon as we hit the water.

 

[Cacia]

Life is too short to dive with craptastic buddies.

Terry nailed it.

If you throw a thumb and your buddy fails to end the dive, the next step is to display the "You're Number 1" signal and surface without them.

Sticking with a moron will only subject you to a bucketful of ad hockery when they finally discover that they have issues and now you're both in the stank.

The best way to avoid an emergency is to not be there when one happens.

That's your responsibility, particularly when your buddy isn't cooperating.

sounds like a good survival plan learned somewhere in real life.

pretty entertaining doc. Bet you keep them loose at the Pentagon...or whatever you do.

Lynne, you could take some loooong breaks up on the nursery and avoid all kinds of unpleasant thrashes.

 

[mrtremere]

The following week I took the AOW class with a night dive elective. Nothing against PADI or the instructor, but that dive was a mess. We didnt do much, people where banging agaist each other. Some guy forgot his mask and the loaner kept flooding. He actually got separated from the group. There were 6 students and 2 instructors and a DM Assistant. They watch over us well the dive still sucked. I learned alot more on the screwy dive than the AOW dive. Prior to both I read up on the night dive chapter. Since then I have had 16 more dives. I feel alot more comfortable in the water at night now. I dove in Jamaica for a week. So going back to San Diego sucked abit. Nothing beats 85 degree water 90ft down with 100+ vis. San Diego lately has been 53 degree and 20 vis.

I learned alot from that experience and it was worth it.
I just dont get enough time in the water.
Looking forward to the Rescue Class.

 

[AXL72]

Hey, Did you signal with low on air by placing a closed fist across your chest and then signal a thumbs up at 700 psig for vertical ascent and immediate safety stop?

May I suggest for future instances that when the turn around pressure is iggied by your buddy, lie and say you are 300 to 400 psi less than you actually are. In that way, if you say you are 1t 1700 and it happens to be the turnaround pressure, the buddy iggies you, wait for 1500, say you are at 1200, 1300 say you are at 1,00 psig. And at 1100 give the low on air signal for 700 psig.

And let me guess, if you confronted your buddy on the dive plan deviation or the dive op about their poor job in buddying you up rspoonsibly, the buddy and /or dive op probably gave a classic a-hole response of "oh well, that's diving"?

 

[Diver Dennis]

Hey, Did you signal with low on air by placing a closed fist across your chest and then signal a thumbs up at 700 psig for vertical ascent and immediate safety stop?

May I suggest for future instances that when the turn around pressure is iggied by your buddy, lie and say you are 300 to 400 psi less than you actually are. In that way, if you say you are 1t 1700 and it happens to be the turnaround pressure, the buddy iggies you, wait for 1500, say you are at 1200, 1300 say you are at 1,00 psig. And at 1100 give the low on air signal for 700 psig.

And let me guess, if you confronted your buddy on the dive plan deviation or the dive op about their poor job in buddying you up rspoonsibly, the buddy and /or dive op probably gave a classic a-hole response of "oh well, that's diving"?

Frankly, if you have to lie to your buddy to get him to listen, he is not worth diving with and furthermore may be placing himself in danger by not leaving himself enough air in case of an incident let alone you. I would leave him.
This "buddy" was supposed to be experienced. I've heard it all before, you can't tell until you get him in the water.