on_two_wheels
Contributor
Okay...so maybe "no more" is exaggerating but definitely more selective.
My two friends and I get hooked up with a guy on a boat. My two friends are both female and spoke to him asking if he was diving alone. He said he was but prefers having a buddy. So they invited him to join us. As it always does, experience came up. He claimed about 200 dives. My 69 dives was second most amongst the 4 of us. Now the diving begins.
Dive one, not bad except insta-buddy frequently strayed from the group. Pre-dive we suggested he take primary nav responsibilities since he had most experience. Of course, I did my own nav which was a good thing because he took NO control of what we were doing underwater. No "go this way" or "check air" etc. No communication except when he was asked something.
Dive two was more of the same except, as he was trailing the other three, he saw one of the boat crew freediving. Knowing that the crew member was probably close to the boat, he ended his dive without telling anyone. We backtracked for about a minute, did our stop and surfaced to find him climbing the ladder. We had an average of 900 psi remaining....lots of time at the 30 fsw we were at. Instead, we ended the dive because we had to find out "buddy."
Last dive....more of the same. Simply wandered off one time and I had to swim fast to catch him and turn him around. Hate using extra air for that stuff. Not that hard to stay with the group.
On all three dives it was common to find him kicking me or coming up directly below and getting face full of his bubbles. Annoying as hell. Also common to all 3 was the dog paddling. If he's on here, reads this and recognizes these three dives, great!! Know your limits and acknowledge them. People will often assume a diver with that many dives will have skills commensurate to the dives. If you know you're still lacking, admit it. There would have been a lot more pre-dive communication that way. Lesson learned.
Edit: As an individual, his skills were admirable. Drysuit diver with good buoyancy. It was the communication, situational awareness and group dynamic I thought were seriously lacking.
My two friends and I get hooked up with a guy on a boat. My two friends are both female and spoke to him asking if he was diving alone. He said he was but prefers having a buddy. So they invited him to join us. As it always does, experience came up. He claimed about 200 dives. My 69 dives was second most amongst the 4 of us. Now the diving begins.
Dive one, not bad except insta-buddy frequently strayed from the group. Pre-dive we suggested he take primary nav responsibilities since he had most experience. Of course, I did my own nav which was a good thing because he took NO control of what we were doing underwater. No "go this way" or "check air" etc. No communication except when he was asked something.
Dive two was more of the same except, as he was trailing the other three, he saw one of the boat crew freediving. Knowing that the crew member was probably close to the boat, he ended his dive without telling anyone. We backtracked for about a minute, did our stop and surfaced to find him climbing the ladder. We had an average of 900 psi remaining....lots of time at the 30 fsw we were at. Instead, we ended the dive because we had to find out "buddy."
Last dive....more of the same. Simply wandered off one time and I had to swim fast to catch him and turn him around. Hate using extra air for that stuff. Not that hard to stay with the group.
On all three dives it was common to find him kicking me or coming up directly below and getting face full of his bubbles. Annoying as hell. Also common to all 3 was the dog paddling. If he's on here, reads this and recognizes these three dives, great!! Know your limits and acknowledge them. People will often assume a diver with that many dives will have skills commensurate to the dives. If you know you're still lacking, admit it. There would have been a lot more pre-dive communication that way. Lesson learned.
Edit: As an individual, his skills were admirable. Drysuit diver with good buoyancy. It was the communication, situational awareness and group dynamic I thought were seriously lacking.