Is Team Diving Safe?

[Firewalker]

Team diving has been one of the corner stones of diving instruction since the beginning of organized sport diving. Team diving has been said to be the safest way to dive. But is it?
There have always been problems with this concept. Because every ones definition of what a team is, is different. If you look at a scuba text the definition of team diving go like this “The practice of never diving alone. You always have someone to assist you, if necessary, and with whom to share experiences”.
But, will that team member really be there if you need them? . When was the last time you and your other team member or members discussed gas management, limits on the dive, team members responsibilities , team members compatibility, team members equipment configuration, and a “what if” plan. These are all things that a team member needs to know about. But, from what I have seen over the years, there are very few that even do site checks or pre-dive equipment checks before they dive.
In fact, to be buddied up with someone that you have never met, and have no idea about there skill level, can be very dangerous to your health. RULE #1 has been around for a long time “don’t dive with a stroke”. There are many cases where you maybe better off diving solo or sitting out a dive, then diving with some the divers you could be buddied up with.
Is team diving safer? I think the answer is yes and no. It can be safer, but in many cases it makes no difference or is hazardous. I have seen many great team divers over the years. But they are the exception to the rule, most dive teams are very loose, and are clueless to each others abilities. If there was an emergency they could just as easy get you killed, as save you.
The key to this is, that divers as individuals have to be self sufficient (the other team member is a back up, but should never be depended on).
The other key is that you and your team members need to sit down and talk about the team. Maybe even go out practice team skills. This would make a real team and not what pasted off as team diving today.

Firewalker

 

[ShakaZulu]

Wow, this post is going to envoke a million responses. YES team diving is safer, the question is safer than what? Just the mere fact of redundency makes it safer. Following a dive plan with you buddies makes it safer, so much you can do to enhance the safety of the dive. If you don't follow your instruction/procedures and think, the entire concept goes out the window........sounds like a DIR post.

 

[Don Burke]

Team diving has been one of the corner stones of diving instruction since the beginning of organized sport diving. Team diving has been said to be the safest way to dive. But is it?

Team diving is. Crowd diving is not.

There have always been problems with this concept. Because every ones definition of what a team is, is different. If you look at a scuba text the definition of team diving go like this “The practice of never diving alone. You always have someone to assist you, if necessary, and with whom to share experiences”.

I would be very interested in seeing the SCUBA text I can find something like this in. I will make the leap of faith that is has a title.

But, will that team member really be there if you need them? . When was the last time you and your other team member or members discussed gas management, limits on the dive, team members responsibilities , team members compatibility, team members equipment configuration, and a “what if” plan.

I do this quite often.

These are all things that a team member needs to know about. But, from what I have seen over the years, there are very few that even do site checks or pre-dive equipment checks before they dive.

That is part of the difference between team diving and crowd diving or SOB diving.

In fact, to be buddied up with someone that you have never met, and have no idea about there skill level, can be very dangerous to your health.

If the dive plan reflects the experience of the members and the familiarity between the members, it will not be unsafe. Diving to 200 feet with someone you just met is not team diving.

RULE #1 has been around for a long time “don’t dive with a stroke”. There are many cases where you maybe better off diving solo or sitting out a dive, then diving with some the divers you could be buddied up with.

Some divers are accidents looking for a location. That has little to do with team diving.

Is team diving safer? I think the answer is yes and no. It can be safer, but in many cases it makes no difference or is hazardous. I have seen many great team divers over the years. But they are the exception to the rule, most dive teams are very loose, and are clueless to each others abilities. If there was an emergency they could just as easy get you killed, as save you.

Now we are back to the difference between team diving and crowd diving.

 

[H2Andy]

keep in mind that Costeau and his "team" instituted mandatory "buddy" diving
only after one of them (I believe it was Didi) ran into trouble INSIDE A WRECK.

henceforth, all dives were conducted in pairs.

personally, i think overhead (cave or wreck) is not the place to solo.

but is open water the place to insist on buddy diving, a concept that arose out
of problems specific to overhead?

my view: in open water, better alone than with a bad buddy.

part ii: a good buddy is better than solo

part iii: but that doesn't make solo necessarily bad, just not
as good as with a good buddy

this is all about open water. overhead is a different can of worms

 

[yknot]

RULE #1 has been around for a long time “don’t dive with a stroke”. If there was an emergency they could just as easy get you killed, as save you.

Firewalker

I'm suprised that someone with enough experience to spot a "stroke" at first glance (don't expect much more than that when they pair you up on the boat) also believes that a "stroke" could get you killed. Do you have some examples or facts to back this up or did you hear this elsewhere and accept it as gospel?

 

[cornfed]

The other key is that you and your team members need to sit down and talk about the team. Maybe even go out practice team skills. This would make a real team and not what pasted off as team diving today.

This fits my definition of team and is in fact what I do. I don't consider diving with someone you just meet or were assigned on a boat to be "team diving".

So yes... I think team diving is much safer then diving alone or quasi-alone.

 

[JDostal]

Depends on the team. Would I rather dive solo than with the inexperienced guy with rental gear that dives once a year that I may have to buddy up with? Yes. He doesn't know how to help someone. He doesn't practice emergency procedures.

Would I rather dive solo than with my fiance, a cave/rescue trained diver, who i practice ooa, s-drills, lost mask, leading/following in zero viz on a line, etc with on a regular basis? Not a chance. We dive as a team, together. Bubble checks, gas planning, emergency practice. When a situation arises, we will both know how the other will react and it is a safe, controlled and practiced reaction.

 

[MikeFerrara]

but is open water the place to insist on buddy diving, a concept that arose out
of problems specific to overhead?

I think it carried over from swimming where the rule was always to not swim alone.

 

[H2Andy]

I think it carried over from swimming where the rule was always to not swim alone.

not to the Costeau team. They were doing single dives almost
as soon as they had "reassured" themselves the aqualung
worked.

in fact, the first three or four chapters of Silent World are full
of solo diving.

it was only when one of them (I think Didi) got trapped in a
wreck that they instituted the buddy rule.

i am guessing that the rule was passed along with the body
of "how to dive" principles which everyone copied because
that's how the Cousteau team did it.

another, less satisfying answer (to me) is that the YMCA had
a "never swim alone" program going in the 1950's, just as the
dive instructor agencies were getting going.
(Bob Halstead's article: http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/aquacorps/survive/nobuddy.htm)

this is not satisfying to me because it does not explain the
rule's hold in Europe as well (the YMCA, as far as i know,
restricted its activites to the US and maybe Canada).

certainly, in the US, the YMCA was "it" when it came
to training. in 1954 Frank Scalli wrote the scuba instruction program for the YMCA. He also introduced scuba instruction to colleges and universities and teached the first classes at Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the U.S. Military Academy and the U.S. Naval Academy.
essentially, what Scalli wrote becomes gospel in America,
as follows:

in 1955 a test scuba course was directed by Bernard E. Empleton, using the outline prepared by Scalli for the YMCA, the Red Cross, and the National Academy of Sciences. Then, in 1959, the YMCA developed the first course of instruction, and certified the first scuba diving instructors. It was the first nationally organized course in the field. In 1960, NAUI, a "for profit" organization, developed a course similar to the YMCA outline, and soon others, such as PADI (1966) followed. they were all following YMCA, essentially, so whatever the YMCA taught, NAUI and PADI borrowed.

by the early 1960's, the "never dive alone" theme was certainly well entrenched. In the 1963 "Snorkel and Deep Diving," author Owen Lee recommends: "Never dive alone! Whether you be beginner or expert, snorkeler or Aqualunger, you should never enter the water without a reliable buddy by your side."
(http://www.gomanzanillo.com/features/scuba-50 years/)

certainly this explains the US adopting "never dive alone" (what the YMCA taught was copied by everybody else), but how about Europe? how do you explain that "no solo" spread EVERYWHERE that scuba spread? possibly because the rule spread WITH SCUBA, as Custeau licensed his aqualung, a teaching curriculum went with it. those early divers then passed on the "rules" and went on to become the first instructors and founders of diving agencies... and the "rule" became institutionalized.

at a minimum, when setting out curriculum, the Costeau
team's practices must have carried a lot of weight in the early days, when no one
but them had any real experience with the aqualung, and since their practice was
to "buddy dive," the industry adopted "buddy diving."

not knowing that buddy diving for the Cousteau team had originated due to an incident IN OVERHEAD (a wreck).

 

[Kim]

I think it carried over from swimming where the rule was always to not swim alone.

I've seen this comment about swimming a few times now. Out of interest, where did it come from - is it an American attitude? In the UK in the late 60's, early 70's, I never heard of such a rule - and I was a qualified lifeguard. I'm not saying that I disagree with the idea - I'm just wondering where and when it occured. When I was swimming myself in those days I would often swim a couple of kilometers by myself, I don't think that many people would have managed to swim that far with me!

edit: H2Andy added to his reply which answers my main question! I would still have had problems to find partners to follow this rule however.