Insta buddies & Photographer buddies

[DiverLS]

I've seen a lot of bashing of insta buddies and photographer buddies

I confess that I am an insta buddy. I travel alone and on many boat trips to the Channel islands, I have to find a buddy. I've been diving for 20 years, steadily, and have been told I have good skills. I don't brag on boats, I don't need to. I do try to get a buddy because I think there are more hazzards diving off a boat 50 miles out.

I was on the Peace Boat, Capt. Fidel at the wheel, and he pointed out a buddy for me, a round fellow who was in the area on business. I thought whopee, but I'd babysit. Boy was I wrong. He wanted to dive with a "local" to show him the things. Since I'm a photographer and have researched what I took pictures of, that part seemed fun. His skills were superb. On the second day he even found a hermicinda neudibranch. He just didn't see that the entire reef was covered with them.

I also think bashing a photographer as an insta buddie is also a little harsh. On another trip on the Peace Boat I met a diver from Seattle. He had a new, at that time, DSLR camera. I knew all the time where he was. So when I found an octopus in a hole, I finned over to him and brought him back to the octopus. He stayed a little closer to me after that.

And as a photographer, I jumped off a boat with two other ladies that I knew. We all had cameras. They told us before we left that we would never come back at the same time. When the first of us signaled 1K air left, I led us back to the anchor line. We were anchored at the top of a georgeous reef. So as each of us ran out of air, we made our way up the anchor line. I was the last on board and they started kidding me. That's when the first lady to surface came over and informed me that she told them what we were doing. It was the talk over dinner that 3 photographers did a 45 minute dive and didn't loose each other.

So, I'd like to hear about some good insta buddies or photographer buddies that you have had the joy of diving with.

 

[String]

When im taking photos as the main purpose of the dive i'd rather be solo. Less stress.

 

[KeysCuda]

When im taking photos as the main purpose of the dive i'd rather be solo. Less stress.

+1, absolutely.

We divers who travel or get on boats by ourselves tend to get a lot of insta-buddies. Certainly, I was perfectly happy with the vast majority of them. I applaud their skills and would never bash them.

It's just that we tell stories about the ones who weren't particularly skilled.
Heck, some of them may be telling stories on us.

The ones I remember best generally look good in a wetsuit, or wet T-shirt.
Or proved to be willing and adept subjects when I start taking pix.

 

[Sas]

Well so far all of my buddies have been ones assigned to me on the day of diving! And all of them have been good. I dived with one photographer and HATED it but that wasn't really his fault. I just didn't want to wait for five minutes while he took 100 pictures of a crab So we had different aims when diving really so after that I try to find buddies with the same diving aims as me.

Mostly my buddies are in the same diving club as me but I went out on the boat on my own one day and I could see a bunch of people thinking 'uh oh' when the boat captain asked who'd be my buddy and "btw she can only go to 18m". All the divers had planned to do deep dives that day! But yea, one really nice guy volunteered and gave me some good tips

My favourite buddy though I met last weekend on a drift course - he's just the most helpful person I have dived with, loves diving like me in whatever conditions (I don't care about 0 viz I like being in the water but most people aren't like that), and fun to talk to. So we are planning to go diving together in the future.

 

[spectrum]

I also think bashing a photographer as an insta buddie is also a little harsh.

Generalities are always dangerous. It comes down to establishing objectives of the dive. By definition a photographer will be to some extent consumed with taking pictures. If your objective is a tour deforce covering a lot of area then you will be at odds. If you are content to spot for critters of interest and dive as a team you can slow down and look for details and have a perfectly nice dive. I have some photographer buddies where this is the case and I'll shadow them anytime.

As for insta buddies I have made many dives with newbies and board members visiting Maine. A little pre-dive communication goes a long ways and it is surprising what you can learn when diving with folks taught elsewhere.

Now if you really want some fun jump in with a hunter gatherer!

Pete

 

[wreckchick]

Now let's not start bashing the hunters either!

I've done hunting dives with 1-4 people and we've not lost each other. It just takes a certain amount of awareness so that if one person is zeroed in on a fish or pulling bugs out of a hole everyone else keeps an eye out but it can be done if everyone is on the same 'stay together' page.

Rachel

 

[seaducer]

I don't know if it is so much bashing. I mean, you know one thing when buddied up with someone you don't know. That is you don't know them and as such can't count on them, even though they may be fine divers. You are a fool to trust your life to the unknown.

Photographers tend to get target fixation and lose track of others.

All the insta-buddies I have dived with have been adequate at worst, and some darn fine divers at best. Most important though, they have all been fun people to spend time with.

Photogs? I dive with a bad one everytime I go...

 

[Diver Dennis]

I admit to being a bad buddy because I dive with my camera, always. That's why I dive solo a lot...

 

[drbill]

I find it nearly impossible to buddy up when I'm shooting. I do almost all my diving solo unless one of my regular buddies is available. I take the buddy relationship very seriously, so when I'm diving with someone whose skills I don't know, my mind constantly focuses on them rather than my work. This basically makes it near impossible to locate good subjects and spend any time filming them from multiple camera angles.

This past weekend I was asked to buddy up with a very nice woman who had only recently been certified. Her weighting was off (despite being spot on relative to the usual recommendations for her weight and wetsuit). I spend much of my time grabbing her legs and pulling her down as she rose to the surface. Towards the end of the dive I found a species I rarely get a chance to film so I surfaced with her, made sure she was OK and the boat saw her, and returned to film my critter.

For most people I am a terrible buddy because I am a photographer and most don't have the patience to sit still and watch. However, I always enjoy sharing the dive experiences of all our divers when we're back on the boat. I get great pleasure from assisting other divers to learn what it was they saw and something of its natural history.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My first trip to Bonaire Cheng and I buddied up with an insta-buddy for the very first dive. She was a young woman from Switzerland who had travelled there by herself and was looking around for someone to dive with. She and Cheng struck up a conversation and Cheng said she could dive with us. She told us she hadn't dived in a while, so we decided to do the house reef first ... keep it nice and simple.

She turned out to be an absolutely lovely diver, a great buddy, and fun person to be around ... and we ended up doing most of our dives together for the rest of the week.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)