"I refuse to dive with him!"

[SharkRider]

I just noticed something.... the title say's, "I refuse to dive with him!" so is this to insinuate that you would dive with her? Do females have an easier time finding a good insta-buddy vs a male diver?

Makes one wonder.....

If she's a hottie... I can only hope for a dive accident requiring mouth to mouth! If she's not, I'd still likely take her over a guy. Most women play follow the leader under water... and I'd prefer that to someone that expects me to follow them...

 

[annlaur]

I'll probably get flamed, but this is my experience on over 1,000 dives and many boat trips. I have said this previously, but it needs to be repeated, you need to have the capability to dive solo and be responsible for your own life. The reality is that on must dive boats, the DM will not be able to do everything you'd like them to do and no matter who your buddy happens to be, it is up to you to know when to say when and take care of yourself.

Knowing that, makes you a better diver. You do not have to dive solo, just be capable of doing that. NEVER assume someone will be there for you. It is nice when it happens, but never bet the odds. If you are ever not sure then the answer is no. Not maybe or I hope. The environment down there is not forgiving and too may take it casually.

Practice your skills in a safe environment with knowledgeable divers. Do not take a trip into an unknown with just hope as your assistant. You are just lucky and thats not a good dive plan.

I agree with you, d(r)iver DanBMW.
That’s actually the one thing I told myself coming back from Egypt : I’ll never dive with someone I don’t know and trust as an instructor until I feel I have enough experience to take care of myself and possibly help others.

I know nobody’s forcing me to practice a potentially-risky activity, yet if I’m signing up with a Padi and Cmas dive-op, and I tell them my level of experience (ow, 15 dives, haven’t done it for 11 months, need to practice my buyancy), I expect them to either :
- not take me along
- sell me a refreshing course before the real dive (which I asked for the day before and they said «no, we’ll be diving in shallow water anyway, and we brief everybody onboard, you’ll be OK»)
- or keep up their word and not speed up into and under the water with me lagging behind.

I wonder what’s going on in some DMs’ mind (the two I dove with in Egypt and others I’ve read or heard about) : are they just overworked ? Underexperienced ? So sure of their life-saving skills that they’ll just wait for something to happen to change their behavior ? So used to dives-that-end-well that they tend to overlook potential risks ?
No judgment here, I’m just really curious. I’d love to get some feedback from people who worked in places like the one I described.

One last question : Do diving organisations, such as Padi, SSI or CMAS, ever do (surprise) check ups in the places that carry their logo and reputation ?

Annlaur

 

[TSandM]

BabyDuck, I have to disagree with you on one thing. In my book, he was NOT a good diver. A good diver doesn't take off and not notice his buddy can't keep up, and a good diver doesn't get so wrapped up in something over there that he doesn't notice signals from his buddy. Even if somebody has great skills underwater, if their buddy behavior is like that they don't rate for me. Maybe that's one of the reasons I like the GUE ethos so much.

 

[naui 15694]

When I lived in PA, I went down to Ft. Lauderdale on business and signed up for a day of diving. The water temp in Erie was in the high 40's low 50's and in FTL it was around 80. As we did in Erie when it got that warm, I dove in a thick skin. Everyone else had wetsuits. I asked to dive solo, but they teamed me up with a smartass kid who was one of the operator's former students. The last thing he told me before we went in was that if I got cold, I better not ruin his dive.

We were doing a drift dive. They gave us good instructions on the 40' depth light to moderate current so I figured it to be a no brainier dive. We dropped in and the kid proceeded to try to swim into the current which was pretty much impossible. I tried to point down current, but he kept trying to swim into the current. I pointed up and he shook his head no. He was breathing so hard it looked like he had a free flow. I just grabbed onto something and held on while he tried to swim. No matter how many times I pointed down current he just shook his head.

After 10 minutes he was out of air and we surfaced. The other divers and boat were 1/4 - 1/2 mile (maybe more) down current. They came to get us and he got on the boat. I still had almost 3000 PSI so I had them take me to the area of the other divers and I did my solo dive. All I could think of was how lucky I was that he ran out of air so soon or they never would have seen us when we surfaced. When I got on the boat they were still giving the kid a hard time.

I make close to 200 dives a year for fossils and most are solo dives. On trips, I do not mind teaming up with an inexperienced diver. I am usually there to take it easy, and I do not find reef dives all that exciting so I do not mind watching out for another diver. What I can not stand is diving with a diver with an attititude no matter how experienced they are.

 

[likelite]

So used to dives-that-end-well that they tend to overlook potential risks ?

I think it's this option. I just booked a couple dives through a cruise line on Grand Cayman...posted this already in another thread, but they were ready to send me down with a rental regulator and no secondary air source.

I was there alone, as nobody else in my family is a diver...I'm just not using rental gear with no second without anyone else around I know and trust. It was obviously a cattle-boat place...I wasn't comfortable, at all, and figured I wouldn't enjoy myself. I've got 100+ logged dives and know I can take care of myself, but I decided to bail on both dives. Figured I'd rather lose my $150 than have to pay hospital bills for a near-drowning.

 

[minikinminx]

A thought from a newbie and solo traveller...

Unfortunately it appears that most people come already paired up. In a rather short time I have met many great people who are willing to cut their time a bit short and still have fun. Perhaps it is slightly different since we are in areas that they have dove many times before, but their time and effort is still greatly appreciated.

I hope to never become a horror story (and promise to never, ever forget my fins in the car again ), but if you do catch us newbies getting out of line, although it is not your job, nor your duty, sometimes making one aware of their shortcomings can be most helpful. If only to prove to yourself that it is stupidity, not ignorance.

 

[cummings66]

OK, I'll respond in an old thread, not the first time and probably not the last either.

I'm not sure I follow your thought process or to whom you're addressing it, but if your buddy does something wrong or dangerous I'd submit it is your duty to correct the situation before it claims a life. That life can be your own...

If a diver does not know something then it's ignorance on their part, far better than being stupid. You can correct ignorance by knowledge. We're all ignorant of something and hopefully we'll learn when our shortcomings are pointed out.

 

[oceandjinn]

Here's a loopy one.What happens if you do a course and you are seriously pissed with the instructors untogetherness.Eg did my course with my wife and trust her as a buddy most of the time but during our nav training my wife didnt get to do the exercise and in the cycle distance check dumbo lost the tape. We studied before hand and can actually nav underwater but we probably are going to redo this at another location and finish all the adventure dives in the AOWD course padi book but damn ive had some strange instructors

 

[BarryNL]

Does this sound like you? Have you ever found yourself being teamed up with some stranger on a dive boat that upon knowing his background, you refused to dive with him? Or did it reluctantly?
Not knocking anyone...I've only got 29 dives myself and don't fall into either catagory...

Well, put it like this. If I was on a boat in the tropics about to make a reef dive to 10m with no currents I'd happily buddy up with someone with 29 dives. If the boat was on the North Sea and we were making a decompression dive to 30m with moderate currents and 2m visibility I would refuse any buddy without 100+ dives and tec training.