People embarrassed to do pre dive buddy check?

[graham_s]

I've been diving since the early 90s.
I always buddy check.
Diving with friends, that I've dived with a hundred times? Buddy check.
Diving with an instabudy I've just met on holiday? Buddy check.
The life you save may be your own.
It doesn't take long, and I can't count the amount of times that either I or my buddy have caught something that had been overlooked or missed.

 

[Marie13]

I've been diving since the early 90s.
I always buddy check.
Diving with friends, that I've dived with a hundred times? Buddy check.
Diving with an instabudy I've just met on holiday? Buddy check.
The life you save may be your own.
It doesn't take long, and I can't count the amount of times that either I or my buddy have caught something that had been overlooked or missed.

So are you going to force an instabuddy to do a check if they don’t want to?

 

[sea_ledford]

So are you going to force an instabuddy to do a check if they don’t want to?

Is refusing to do a buddy check a thing? I can see not doing it out of complacency, but being asked, then refusing? I'd be opting out of that buddy! Although as a instructor and long history as a dive guide, instabuddies aren't usually a problem for me... they are all instabuddies!

 

[Fishdip]

So are you going to force an instabuddy to do a check if they don’t want to?

You can always refuse to dive with them.

 

[Jeff_O]

You can always refuse to dive with them.

That immediately came to mind for a very special reason. The first two instabuddies were where I did additional check. Like plan the dive and dive the plan. One swam very fast and never actually got it after a couple of times apologies, meant nothing anymore. The other had on a night dive not used a compass correctly, swam fast, and didn't dive the plan. The boat dragged ankor and put out a probably 200ft current line. Could have not been really so bad, but when dive buddy swam underwater at the wrong angle and I felt somewhat responsible. This was even though I kept indication wrong, go this way underwater signing. Ah when he ran out of air and surfaced I followed. It was about 500 feet away from the boat in high current and choppy seas. The swim would be such that reaching the current line was not happening. The boat let out more line and we got back. It was not a buddy from our dive class trip. Maybe that is significant. The first one was from the class. So since I have much never thought to have a instabuddy practically ever again. My buddy I think asking of, to repeat the dive plan that either I or buddy gave, just to check that we are on the same page. If the person won't repeat the plan, I feel I would find another.

 

[drrich2]

The gist I get in this thread has to do with a dichotomy; either the divers do a formal buddy check, or they don't. There are shades of gray. As a solo diver, I'm accustomed to doing self-checks. If I'm diving with someone seasoned I don't feel the need to go over their setup to check if they did it competently. But if we are formally dive buddies, then I do want to know whether you use a standard octopus or Air2 redundant air system, and whether you use integrated weights or a weight belt. And if someone wanted me to check them over, that's no problem - I see if your tank's sagging too low, your low pressure inflator's not connected, etc...

Similarly, if I'm your gas supply redundancy, or you might feel obliged to assist me if I become impaired from a medical event or whatever, I figure you might like to know I'm using an octopus and integrated weights.

My point is, even people who don't go over each other with a step-by-step acronym-based check may still do something. Just how much is adequate is probably another controversy.

 

[graham_s]

So are you going to force an instabuddy to do a check if they don’t want to?

If someone is so disinterested in basic safety to do basic pre-entry checks, and gear familiarization, I don't want to dive with them.

 

[RobPNW]

You say in the title "embarrassed" to do buddy checks. Sounds more like laziness, arrogance, ignorance or a combination of those.

 

[RobPNW]

You're complicating things by telling them "5 minutes to NDL" when it wasn't discussed pre-dive. If you need to shallow up, give them the "ascend" signal (palm up, moving up), possibly followed by a depth or "a little".

That said, I have seen MANY recreational divers use "tap the watch" for "remaining air". My suspicion is that it's related to another common convention where people signal thousands (of psi) on their arm and hundreds as normal.

I was taught to tap on the SPG for gas remaining or signal on the arm, and tap on the computer for NDL. Of course with AI watch computers, that makes things ambiguous. Is there an official standard or do you just decide before the dive?

 

[Nick_Radov]

I was taught to tap on the SPG for gas remaining or signal on the arm, and tap on the computer for NDL. Of course with AI watch computers, that makes things ambiguous. Is there an official standard or do you just decide before the dive?

There should be no need to ask or answer gas remaining during a dive. Gas planning including minimum pressure and turn pressure is part of the pre-dive briefing. Each diver in the team is responsible for monitoring their own gas. The first one to hit turn pressure gives the "turn around" signal and the first one to hit minimum pressure gives the "thumb up" signal. You don't need to complicate things by explaining why you're turning or ending the dive.