maybe im clueless?

[NICKSLICK]

Hey guys... been here for a bit, and have been reading lots of post here... very interesting stuff.

Anyway, one thing I have noticed alot is that the discussions here are alot about the equipment, the safety, the classes that people take... and so on.

I go diving quite a bit, mostly at Catalina Island and locally, and have two different buddies I dive with. We mostly take my boat out there, and are usually hunting, lobster or calico bass, depending on the seasons.

Well, to the point of my post, most of the time my buddies and I rarely discuss planned bottom times, or general dive plans, or set rules, or for that matter even stay together. I guess the idea of a three band spear gun within six feet of us, puts space between... also fish generally run when they see one of us comming, none the less two. Once we are in the water, we stay in the same area, but rarely in the standard buddy configuration. We follow the DSO strategy (Diving Same Ocean). We no longer have any issues with bueoyancy or air consumption... and we always seem to surface at just about the same, right behind the boat usually about 45mins after we go down, depending on depth.

Mostly, when we dive, we are doing just that DIVING... and what our discussions focus on is the contents of the dive.

We all run fairly beaten gear, but well maintained and in good operating condition, and carry a completely redundant backup system such as spare air. None of us have whistles, or safety sausages, or horns, or mirrors, or any of that stuff. We never go below 100ft and generally dive at around 50 or so...

Anyway, after reading the post here, Im beggining to think maybe what we have been doing is unsafe? Maybe we are being to lax...

Anybody else out there just diving?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Although many won't admit it, I think most of us are just diving much of the time. Most of the dives I make are on wrecks in mid-channel with buddies. In these instances, we are team diving. If it is a planned decompression dive, we have our deco plan written on Wetnotes and descend/ascend together. If I'm at Catalina or Palos Verdes we are not as concerned with safety. Buddy seperations are not scary unexpected occurances. Even if we are together, when one of us thumbs a dive the other diver is allowed to choose whether to continue the dive. Other times we barely see each other during a dive, and other times I am completely solo. Most of my buddies dive doubles with isolation manifolds and stage bottles for deco. For the shallow dives we could always surface if needed.

 

[DandyDon]

What's old hat to you is still pretty excotic to me, I guess.

Trying to think of a similar idea. In our younger days, it was nothing for my brother and I to saddle a couple horses and ride hard thru thorned mesquite brush, jumping gullies, stopping to killer rattlers for sport, chasing cattle that thought they were wild buffalo, never worried about something going wrong - damned lucky nothing did. Bluffed our way thru all sorts dangers. We would wear leather gloves, but never a helment. If you'd never ridden a horse thru the badlands after wild cattle, though, and a riding professional was going to give you a course, after paying for liability insurance, he'd suggest much safer approaches. Some would be silly, but - some would be good ideas.

It wouldn't hurt you guys to spend $25 each on a sausage and storm whistle, would it...?

cheers! don

 

[captain]

Nickslick, thats pretty much the way I have dived for the past 35 years. I do a lot of spearfishing so its pretty much same ocean buddy. I like to be streamlined and never have used an octo or pony bottle or any of the other junk. My newest regulator is 25 years old but well maintained by me. I just don't care to feel like a christmass tree with a bunch of ornaments hanging on me.

Captain

 

[Gary D.]

Nickslick, thats pretty much the way I have dived for the past 35 years. I do a lot of spearfishing so its pretty much same ocean buddy. I like to be streamlined and never have used an octo or pony bottle or any of the other junk. My newest regulator is 25 years old but well maintained by me. I just don't care to feel like a christmass tree with a bunch of ornaments hanging on me.

Captain

I just don't know how we have survived for so long!!

Gary D.

 

[d33ps1x]

I just don't know how we have survived for so long!!

Gary D.

I wonder that about most things I do for fun!

 

[Snowbear]

Anybody else out there just diving?

Depends on the dive and who I'm diving with. Often the pre-dive is just - lets go check out xxxx and a turn pressure. Every once in a while a goal or purpose is discussed, but usually it's pretty generic. If I'm diving with a buddy, I try to keep it that way. If not, I know from the outset that I'm on my own.
Tech or otherwise challenging dives are obviously a different story.

 

[Mako Mark]

Nick, dont let anyone tell you what you are doing is wrong, but do take notice of the general feeling you get from the board.

If you hardly ever see your buddy during the dive, then you are breaking one of the standard safe diving practices.
I have attached the file (I hope) have a look at it and judge for yourself what you are doing.

I reccommend that you get yourself a safety sausage and a whistle, you may not have needed them yet, but better safe than sorry huh.

One final bit of advice, there is no such thing as a stupid question, you can get some VERY good advice from this board.

 

[GQMedic]

Guilty as charged! *cough*

 

[JustAddWater]

For me, it also depends on the dive. While lobster diving or spearing it is pretty much a same ocean buddy system. More challenging dives will have more thorough plans, and are adhered to more strictly. I too don't carry many gadgets. Much of my gear is 4 to 10 years old, but in good condition.