It happened to me...

[Mo2vation]

First of all, let me open with a little background.

* I'm a DIR guy, and my principal diving buddy is too.

* He and I have probably 50 or more dives together (maybe less, it probably just seems like I can't shake the guy...)

* I'm wacky coo coo nuts about being a good buddy, exhibiting good buddy skills, and practicing aware, safe diving.

* I'm a newbie underwater photographer. Experienced diver (whatever that really means) but newbie with a cam down there.

* Shore diving sucks (on a good day.) The rest of the time its just bad.


The Story

On a recent So Cal dive trip, several of us from the board got together to hit one of the local shore diving spots. Seeing as I shore dive about once every 4 or 5 years (legitimate shore dives... the dive park at Catalina with its escalator entry doesn't count) I said sure. I like these people, how bad can it really be?

OK - so the dive's not the thing. It was about a 3 on Ken's dive-o-meter. No surf (yippie) and viz not so good by my spoiled Channel Island standards, and with the bad viz came the added bonus that there was really nothing to see anyway.

So I'm diving with my buddy, hanging out where I do in our formation (Ocean side - left side in this case as we went out) and stickling closer than usual for the bad viz.

We're frog kicking along, he points to something, I take a pic, I see something, shake his fin and let him know I'm taking a pic, etc. We reach the turn pressure, we turn and head back.

He's trying to point out a rockfish - it rises off the bottom and I essentially run into it. So I get composed and snap a pic. I vent some gas to get into better position, I shoot another pic, go to clip the cam - miss, re-clip, look up and I'm alone.

I can't believe it. Me and my dive buddy are separated. We're in, like 36 feet of water, a few hundred yards off the shore. Its a calm day. Viz is poor, I have a solid compass heading to get back to, I have like 1950 in the can - so I'm not worried.... I'm just P.O.ed that I lost the guy.

So I rise off the bottom a few feet, and start slowly spinning with my HID light shooting into the murk - figuring that he's probably looking for me, and may see the light. After about 30 seconds of going all Lighthouse, I rise up another 4 or 5 feet and do the same. After over a full minute, I do a safe horizontal ascent, arm first out of the water for a moment, then I come up.

About a minute later I see on the ocean side (not the shore side) of me a SMB pop up, and I know its my buddy. He's about 15 - 20 yards from me. Up comes the SMB, shortly thereafter, he pops up. I call to him, he doesn't hear me. He calls to me, I call back, we hook up, its all good.

My points are these:

* Viz was bad (not Pipedope bad) but it was poor enough that even as I stayed in my spot where we were separated, at a few different depths, we still missed each other.

* It takes a moment to get separated. One or two kicks is all it took. When we spoke later, he shared that he saw me vent the BC to get a better angle on the fish. From the time I vented until the time I looked up for him (while clipping the cam) was no more than 3 - 5 seconds. It wasn't like 10 - 30 seconds... it was a blink. In that viz, once he got a body's length away he was gone.

* The pre-dive plan worked. We knew viz wasn't going to be good - and we had consensus of the plan: If separated, stay put for a minute or so, then make a safe ascent and re-connect.

In retrospect, I should have made eye contact to assure we were together (better: to assure he knew) I was going to take one more pic. We usually dive the Channel Islands with much better viz - and we both know that I'm the shooter, and I'm usually in back of the formation - so if I stop to shoot, I get his attention (for a complex shot) or I simply shoot and catch up (he's very mellow underwater - so a couple of good kicks and I'm back in formation.)

I should have modified my standard dive & shoot routine to be sure he knew I was going to linger longer over the stupid rockfish pic (which really didn't turn out too good, anyway...)

Everything is cool, but it was a wake up call to my buddy skills. And confirmation that solid communication and consensus before (talk about this stuff) paid off.

Ken

PS: we had about a 150 - 200 yard surface swim back to shore after we hooked up. Did I mention beach diving blows?

 

[cobaltbabe]

Very glad your alright. It's kinda scary no matter how experienced you are. Luckily it has never happened to me, but I am still pretty green.

 

[kelpmermaid]

I've had this happen in thick kelp. Get distracted by something for a moment (is that an abalone or just a rock?), and "buddy" has disappeared into the forest.

That's why it's important to have a Plan B, which was part of our original training (hopefully.)

 

[OneBrightGator]

Good story Ken, sounds like your plan worked.

If you're shooting pics how come you don't lead? (your buddy would know when you stopped) or dive side-by-side? (easier to signal what you're doing)

Ben

 

[Mo2vation]

Good story Ken, sounds like your plan worked.

If you're shooting pics how come you don't lead? (your buddy would know when you stopped) or dive side-by-side? (easier to signal what you're doing)

Ben

Great question. Usually he leads because I have the 10W HID. Its just easier to stay connected when I have light communication going on, and its easier to do that when I'm in back.

In the usual formation, I'm over ocean-side fin tip. I stayed on ocean-side shoulder on this dive (essentially side by side - as close as frog kicking allows ) but you're right.

In the bad viz the light communication was essentially nil - even with the HID pencil laser. When I'm shooting, I need to make it clearer to the guy that I'm stopping - either by leading or my tactile communication.

K

 

[TCDiver1]

Serious photographers make lousy buddies.

A couple rules our group lives by when it comes to photography and buddy rules.

1.) Both buddies doing serious photography/videography on the same dive typically doesn't work without serious prior planning.

2.) The buddy who isn't the photographer must be the one that primarily keeps track of the photographer.

Thats not to say the photographer can blow his buddy off but if he is searching for shots, he ain't keeping track of his buddy like he should. Thats just the way it works if your serious about your photography from my experience.

 

[Arnaud]

Anyone wants to buy a really nice camera?

 

[SDAnderson]

:browsmile:
Photographers aren't capable of being buddies - they're too easily distracted. Let's face it, most divers only barely qualify as buddies and photographers rarely even try. You don't dive with a photographer, you babysit them.


Kudos to you for trying to be a good buddy but it may well be an impossible task. Good planning (including making alterations to your "normal" routine) will help but in the end I think you'll find that you're going to have to adjust to being an SOB.

 

[VTernovski]

Hey Arnaud, and I was going to bring my camera this Saturday.... but, I'll just keep on photographing you, how's that?

Ken, will you come this Sat to join us?

on a serious note, I've come to the conclusion that a "non-photographer" diver "watches out" for a photographer buddy. The team play is a bit reversed to 70/30% rather than 50/50%. ..not to say that the photographer pays any less attention to his buddy, but that the non-photographer buddy takes a more careful approach to always have his buddy in sight with the assumtion that the photographer will usually be taking pause for a few seconds to take a picture.

-VT

 

[chrpai]

I find it cheaper to watch after my buddy and ask for doubles ( prints )