A lot of good advice. The only point I would stress (which only one poster seams to have specifically made) is to SWIM SLOWLY. It is much easier to maintain buddy contact if tou are not racing away from each other.
How to stay w your buddy in murky water
- Thread starter BCCroney
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I don't know about panicky diver, but I can say from personal experience that a line can help calm an anxious diver. I got certified in horrible viz, and I was terrified of losing the DM I was doing the tour with. He had a pistol-grip light on a lanyard, and he gave the light to me. Then, not only did I have a light so I could SEE things, but I also knew that, at the end of that lanyard, was my buddy/escort. It was immensely reassuring.
Everything seems to have been covered already so I'll just add for anyone who hasn't been in these kinds of conditions that a light is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for not getting separated. When the viz is really bad you don't have to get too far away before you can't see a light ...even a 21W HID.
Swimming slow using lights and with shoulders and fins bumping into each other is how it is. I don't mind someone bumping into me if conditions are that limited...otherwise I like a little personal space.
It's best not to have newer divers in conditions like this as it's just asking for multiple trips up and down.
Swimming slow using lights and with shoulders and fins bumping into each other is how it is. I don't mind someone bumping into me if conditions are that limited...otherwise I like a little personal space.
It's best not to have newer divers in conditions like this as it's just asking for multiple trips up and down.
Pre-dive communication is crucial. One part of dive-communication I go over with my fun-dive buddy before the dive is to agree on a tapping code with the anchor rod against the tank. Two taps means "look at me/this". FIVE taps means "I can't see you. Stop and shine your light so we can reconnect. Tap back to tell me you're okay." If we have to go through this a couple of times, we ascend, reconnect on the surface, and go back down. It's not infrequent that we do a five-tap during a low-viz dive since when we're diving together we sometimes really aren't--our cameras are our real buddies. A light is the best tool, though. I've often found my buddy by watching for his strobe flashes before I have even got to the point of five taps (we're never really very far apart, just occasionally too far to see with no light).
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