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JasonH20

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Location
Redmond, WA USA
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As you might already know from my other posts, I will be joing the scuba ranks shortly. I don't know anyone who actively dives so unless I just want to be a dive shop groupie, I'll have to meet some new divers to be my buddy. I'm excited to meet some new people, and a couple of fellow ScubaBoard members have already offered to take me out over in the Orca Bait forum.

My question is what do you do to "check out" a new buddy? In class, we kind of glossed over that you should review hand signals, OOA plan, lost buddy plan, dive plan, operation of buddy's equipment, anything else? How detailed do you get with a first time buddy? Do you actually practice a OOA drill on your first dive to make sure your both on the same page? Any other specific things you talk about or practice before starting the dive?

I imagine after time you grow to trust your new buddy. It's just going to be a bit scary the first few times I go out as a newbie with someone I don't really know.

Anybody have any good stories about when you were a newbie and got buddy'd up with a loser? :)

Cheers!
Jason
 
JasonH20:
As you might already know from my other posts, I will be joing the scuba ranks shortly. I don't know anyone who actively dives so unless I just want to be a dive shop groupie, I'll have to meet some new divers to be my buddy. I'm excited to meet some new people, and a couple of fellow ScubaBoard members have already offered to take me out over in the Orca Bait forum.

My question is what do you do to "check out" a new buddy? In class, we kind of glossed over that you should review hand signals, OOA plan, lost buddy plan, dive plan, operation of buddy's equipment, anything else? How detailed do you get with a first time buddy? Do you actually practice a OOA drill on your first dive to make sure your both on the same page? Any other specific things you talk about or practice before starting the dive?

I imagine after time you grow to trust your new buddy. It's just going to be a bit scary the first few times I go out as a newbie with someone I don't really know.

Anybody have any good stories about when you were a newbie and got buddy'd up with a loser? :)

Cheers!
Jason

Always go over hand signals, OOA, lost buddy, *dive plan (make sure they understand and stick to it) and, each other's equipment and location of weights and, entry and exit route. You will always be diving with someone new till you have made a few DB's that you dive with on a routine basis. Till then, you will get quite proficient on your skills by going over them each time you dive.
 
i find talking to potential buddy about diving, to get a rough idea of how he/ she / they, go about they're diving
some people swim fast, some swim slowly, some like to look at what ever macro stuff is to be seen, some like to say out in the blue
i find it's a matter of finding a buddy that goes along with how ever you are in the water
me i like to take my time, no hard swimming, i like to look for the macro stuff out there, i'm not so keen on staying out in the blue, it might sound a bit odd, i also find for me a good buddy is someone who has to see thing up close, he/ she will be wanting to swim slowly and keep close to what ever they are wanting to look at
i've dived with buddies that are the opposite i find they miss out on lots, some are off like a torpedo as soon as they hit the water
i dived with a buddy pair in australia, without talking to them or the divemaster before the dive, we were just put together and said you are diving with these two
but as soon as we hit the water they were off, i was left on my own
not a good way to dive




 
Jason, it sounds like you've got a good idea of the things to address. I would only add that the most important thing to look for once you are underwater is that your new buddy is actively working to stay together as a buddy team. You both have to work at this and even among more experienced divers it's not as common as one would think or expect.
 
Make sure that on your buddy check, you also know your buddy's releases, and agree on right hand or left hand release, and both stick to the same.

Oh, and also ask them about their air consumption, and octo.
 
Jason,

Here is what we do when we dive with someone new and to a large degree even with regular buddies.

A. Discuss what tank and what kind of gas each person is using. What PSI they have in their tank. I like to find out what the new person has for experience here.

B. Make a basic dive plan. Max depth, turn pressure, if the diver is new I'll ask them to tell me when they are at 2000, 1500, 1000 and 500 psi, where we are going to go, what we might look for etc... This is also a good time to talk about buddy skills and hand or light signals.

c. Check out each persons gear before getting in the water. Make sure you know if they have an octo, air 2 or long hose. Make sure everything is hooked up correctly.

D. In the water do a bubble check of regs, valves, and inflators.

E. I always like to do an abbreviated S drill - OOA on the surface before the dive. Since I use a long hose, I go over that with buddies that don't. Doing this just before we go under is perfect time for this.

F. Dive our plan and have fun. If diving with someone new I'll keep tabs on their air consumption. Diving with my regular buddies I can pretty accurately guess where they are at during the dive. Occasionally we will spring an OOA scenario on each other just to remain sharp. Some dives we will agree that we will finish the dive by doing one or more skills. Some dives are strictly skill dives.

Last bit of advice is to dive with more experienced divers. You can learn loads by watching, emulating and asking questions. You are well on your way to becoming an excellent diver. You have the right attitude and I look forward to diving with you.
 
gcbryan:
Jason, it sounds like you've got a good idea of the things to address. I would only add that the most important thing to look for once you are underwater is that your new buddy is actively working to stay together as a buddy team. You both have to work at this and even among more experienced divers it's not as common as one would think or expect.

Well put gcbryan.

Yes, I agree. The buoyancy will come with time. Other skills will come with time, but the most important part of diving is being an alert buddy. Anyone that I dive with, I like having them be apart of my visual scenery. I like knowing where they are at all times, and I like having them know where I am. The last thing you want to do is to have a buddy disappear on you.
 
Tech Admin:
Testing... ignore me

How could we, after you got the board running again? ;)

On topic - you might find it helpful to dive your first few post cert dives with experienced divers. It might help you relax a bit and chances are they will be better equipped to deal with any problems (Sweeping statement I know, but for the most part true).

My first post cert, without instructor dive, was with a guy I knew but hadn't dived with before. I was a bit nervous and he knew it. So he really helped me relax when I turned to check he was ok and he was pretending to be attacked by seaweed. It made me laugh and it made me stop worrying - he knew I was nervous and wanted to help.

Since then he has become my buddy of choice, and I feel happy to trust him with my life.

Go with your gut. You wouldn't go in a car with someone if you weren't confident of their driving. Same goes with diving.

Be safe, have fun and let us know how it goes!

Nauticalbutnice :fruit:

Sorry for length...it's been a while since I could post ;)
 
JasonH20:
As you might already know from my other posts, I will be joing the scuba ranks shortly. I don't know anyone who actively dives so unless I just want to be a dive shop groupie, I'll have to meet some new divers to be my buddy. I'm excited to meet some new people, and a couple of fellow ScubaBoard members have already offered to take me out over in the Orca Bait forum.

Lucky you! I became a DS groupie out of necessity :frown:. Basically I could not find any dive buddies. Here there are no dive clubs, no postings for searching buddies and nothing symilar (just a promise from a DS to open a club next year :frown: )

Anybody have any good stories about when you were a newbie and got buddy'd up with a loser? :)

Cheers!
Jason

Yeah ... my first dive out of school (I was the looser :banghead:- mainly due to lack of expereince).

We had decided to go to 10m (that's aproxymately where the others thought the bottom was); My only experience had been at max depth of 9 m - or symilar.

The dive was at 16 meters (and in the coldest water I had been to till then); To add to that, we swam on the surface for about 100-150m;

To put it simply, my breating rate went beserk, so by the time I expected to have 120bar in my tank (20 minutes into the dive) I saw I had almost 50;

I signaled my buddy 'up', and started ascending; when we had arived at 5m he signaled me to make a safety stop; By that time I was with my eyes on the SPG, with abut 20-something bars in my tank. I just signaled a big 'NO' with my head, pointed to the SPG and continued climbing (ofcourse he came after me);


It took me about about a week to understand all that I did wrong. (Initially I thought there was something wrong with my rig - I couldn't conceive consuming my air that fast).

All-in-all it was a good experience (taught me a lot).
 

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