People embarrassed to do pre dive buddy check?

[Scott G. Bonser]

Been diving 30+ years and have had my share of instabuddies. For me part of my pre dive check is trying not to get myself hooked up with a bad buddy. If they are using rental gear and seem like they don't know what they are doing its a sure bet there are going to be problems. I have rarely ever seen equipment failures but have seen my share of failures with the divers themselves. I'll never forget years ago I was in Largo on the Spiegel and got hooked up with a German guy who barely spoke English. He was the classic example of an inexperienced diver who should not have been on a deep dive regardless of his cert level. We got down to the ship and after 10 minutes he was out of air and in a panic...had to end the dive and bring him back with my octo. Of course before the dive he was real cocky which is always a red flag. DM made him sit out the next dive and of course he had an attitude about it. There are just some people that its best to avoid...IF you can. We both checked out our equipment pre-dive but again that rarely is the problem. If I sense for obvious reasons the diver is inexperienced I will just check their equipment myself....I'll just politely say everything in good order?...while going over things myself. If done politely most don't care if you do it.

Good point, RGD. …one experience I haven’t had, however good advice. sometimes you never know. …Radars Up…

…my worst, I reckon were ‘local’ spearfishers off St. Pete, Clearwater in ‘78. I wanted offshore dive and fresh fish. …I got ( maybe drunk ) locals lining themselves up along a ‘canyon’ …get this on both sides like an execution squad waiting for the fish to swim through. My partner and I moved away from congested group as I was shooting mid-size rear grip Mares pneumo and he a 2-band Voit. Once the sound of long wooden rubber powered guns started, we stayed vigilant for the questionable hoard of locals shooting at anything swimming through the canyon. And distanced ourselves down-canyon. I left the water on 1/3 tank as did my impromptu partner. I brought a nice size grouper and a snapper up. He had 2 really nice grouper. I did not go back down, as my partner agreed….an accident waiting to happen. I lodged my concern for others safety. Cap’n kinda shrugged it off and said these folks are like that. I complained to my original training facility as they were part-sponsors of this charter. They followed through with the compliant. I never booked another charter with this outfit again. They’re no longer taking charters out after ‘85.

what really clinched the decision not to go out again was when one of the locals, removing his gear and stowing his gun asked another,” Did you see that fish I shot out from under you ???“…..too d#<@&%n close for me, friends.

…also locals so familiar w/each others gear…I didn’t notice any kind of ‘buddy check’

giantfroginthepool
Scott G. Bonser, PADI DM since 84