Dive a set group of people for the most part so we all know each others gear, so the only real time we would do a formal buddy check is if some new gear is added. But we always remind each other gas, spg and bc before submerging (we mainly beach dive). Have done more formal buddy checks when diving with insta / new buddies and have never had any of them look at me oddly. But as others have said already, once my buddy has checked me over Ill double check again before entering the water, I have also found my gas turned off by accident... Lefty lucy, righty tighty, no idea how people get confused seeing if a tank is open or not
People embarrassed to do pre dive buddy check?
- Thread starter Alurpal
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There’s a whole difference between a buddy whilst on a holiday dive trip, as to diving with a club member as a buddy. The first is generally someone you enter and leave the water with, the other is someone you enjoy the dive with. On holiday I normally pay to have my own guide, I go too slow for group diving. Guides learn 2 things straight off: 1. There will be a buddy check before we hit the water, 2. They will go at my pace.
If I’m breathing Nitrox and paired with an insta-buddy on air and we’re planning a dive to depths where the different gases will matter, I wouldn’t coordinate signals for NDL. I would respectfully ask for a different buddy, one who won’t shorten my dive.
to the op.....
i applaud the fact that you are taking this seriously. i also think your choice of title for this post is good one. "embarrassment" is a very powerful emotion. people have actually died because they are too embarrassed to go to the hospital for example when they have symptoms of a heart attack.
as divers (and especially as male divers) we don't need anyones help. we are more than capable of doing things ourselves. and agreeing to do something as silly as a pre dive briefing or a quick bubble check is for weak people who don't know how to really dive. (can you hear the sarcasm?)
you really have three choices when diving with someone. you either decide you are ok with them skipping steps you believe to be important (what happens after that is now on you), you dive with someone else, or you dive solo. it really is that simple. make the choice. don't just go along with the herd.
people seem to loose site of the fact that if your buddy misses a key step in the gear assembly, or does not understand the dive plan / gas plan, or basic communication, that it can put you in harms way as well. it is not just about them. thats why we call them a "buddy". you are supposed to work together whichs helps reduce the chance of something being missed. thats the whole point.
if we are all so self sufficient then we should all just dive solo (which is perfectly fine in some cases if done properly). just be honest with the diver you may get buddied with and let them know you are not interested in being a buddy.
i had a "buddy" that i was paired with in cozumel once. she was someone i never met. she lived on the island and apparently had a bunch of experience. once we hit the water, she took off and i never saw her again until i was back on the boat. nice.
that said, you cannot put a gun to someones head and force them to do it the way you feel it should be done. thats when you need to decide whether you are comfortable diving with them or not.
i will add a comment about a topic brought up a number of times in this thread. that is about checking to ensure the gas supply is on before taking the plunge.
i too have had dive guides / boat crew turn off my valve. i prefer to handle all my own gear and discourage anyone from actually touching my equip. pointing something out that looks incorrect is just fine but pls keep your hands off.
i teach my students that the final thing they do before entering the water (after doing all the other standard checks) is to look at their pressure gauge, take two breaths, and watch the needle. it should indicate full pressure and should not move. if it drops to zero or close to it, the tank is off. if it drops slightly when taking a breath, the valve may be only partially open or faulty. i have seen more than one diver on a boat jump in and come gasping to the surface because they have no gas.
i have never had a problem diving with people i know. i assume because we are more comfortable than we would be with a stanger. most of the resistance seems to come from people i don't know. this can either be from embarrassment and / or ego, they were trained differently, they just don't know any better, or are simply complacent and lazy.
it only takes a minute to look over your buddies gear (they may not even realize you are doing it), check that both of you have proven your gas is on, and even do a simple bubble check at the surface. there simply is no reason not to do it.
i have seen people jump in with no mask, no fins, (one guy had no mask or fins) no gas on, bc inflate not connected, drysuit not connected (i seem to do this more than i should lol), bc hose behind them, mask skirt over their hood, octo hose wrapped around another hose, octo not secured and stuck behind them, etc etc.
i even jumped in once and had not secured my tank band. haha go figure. we also had a buddy that was ready to jump in and noticed a slight hissing sound before he did. after a gentle wiggle of his hoses to see if one was loose and leaking, one hose blew right off. it came apart. had we not noticed, that would have been a serious problem on the wreck at 110 feet.
i hear the same thing over and over......"i have been diving 50 years and nothing bad ever happened to me". well good for you. you may have never discussed a dive plan. never made a gas plan. never had an equip failure. never had a panic attack. never got separated. never delt with an out of gas situation etc etc. and the answer is still the same. it is never a problem, until it is. those of us that have either experienced some of these, or seen it happen first hand, may have a different perspective.
i applaud the fact that you are taking this seriously. i also think your choice of title for this post is good one. "embarrassment" is a very powerful emotion. people have actually died because they are too embarrassed to go to the hospital for example when they have symptoms of a heart attack.
as divers (and especially as male divers) we don't need anyones help. we are more than capable of doing things ourselves. and agreeing to do something as silly as a pre dive briefing or a quick bubble check is for weak people who don't know how to really dive. (can you hear the sarcasm?)
you really have three choices when diving with someone. you either decide you are ok with them skipping steps you believe to be important (what happens after that is now on you), you dive with someone else, or you dive solo. it really is that simple. make the choice. don't just go along with the herd.
people seem to loose site of the fact that if your buddy misses a key step in the gear assembly, or does not understand the dive plan / gas plan, or basic communication, that it can put you in harms way as well. it is not just about them. thats why we call them a "buddy". you are supposed to work together whichs helps reduce the chance of something being missed. thats the whole point.
if we are all so self sufficient then we should all just dive solo (which is perfectly fine in some cases if done properly). just be honest with the diver you may get buddied with and let them know you are not interested in being a buddy.
i had a "buddy" that i was paired with in cozumel once. she was someone i never met. she lived on the island and apparently had a bunch of experience. once we hit the water, she took off and i never saw her again until i was back on the boat. nice.
that said, you cannot put a gun to someones head and force them to do it the way you feel it should be done. thats when you need to decide whether you are comfortable diving with them or not.
i will add a comment about a topic brought up a number of times in this thread. that is about checking to ensure the gas supply is on before taking the plunge.
i too have had dive guides / boat crew turn off my valve. i prefer to handle all my own gear and discourage anyone from actually touching my equip. pointing something out that looks incorrect is just fine but pls keep your hands off.
i teach my students that the final thing they do before entering the water (after doing all the other standard checks) is to look at their pressure gauge, take two breaths, and watch the needle. it should indicate full pressure and should not move. if it drops to zero or close to it, the tank is off. if it drops slightly when taking a breath, the valve may be only partially open or faulty. i have seen more than one diver on a boat jump in and come gasping to the surface because they have no gas.
i have never had a problem diving with people i know. i assume because we are more comfortable than we would be with a stanger. most of the resistance seems to come from people i don't know. this can either be from embarrassment and / or ego, they were trained differently, they just don't know any better, or are simply complacent and lazy.
it only takes a minute to look over your buddies gear (they may not even realize you are doing it), check that both of you have proven your gas is on, and even do a simple bubble check at the surface. there simply is no reason not to do it.
i have seen people jump in with no mask, no fins, (one guy had no mask or fins) no gas on, bc inflate not connected, drysuit not connected (i seem to do this more than i should lol), bc hose behind them, mask skirt over their hood, octo hose wrapped around another hose, octo not secured and stuck behind them, etc etc.
i even jumped in once and had not secured my tank band. haha go figure. we also had a buddy that was ready to jump in and noticed a slight hissing sound before he did. after a gentle wiggle of his hoses to see if one was loose and leaking, one hose blew right off. it came apart. had we not noticed, that would have been a serious problem on the wreck at 110 feet.
i hear the same thing over and over......"i have been diving 50 years and nothing bad ever happened to me". well good for you. you may have never discussed a dive plan. never made a gas plan. never had an equip failure. never had a panic attack. never got separated. never delt with an out of gas situation etc etc. and the answer is still the same. it is never a problem, until it is. those of us that have either experienced some of these, or seen it happen first hand, may have a different perspective.
newmanl
Contributor
First, we go over the dive plan. Some are short and quick, others can sometimes be more involved.
Then we do a 'head to toe' gear check. One person leads the check, calling out the items to check and the others in turn return a confirmation for each item - checking their own gear. We have long hoses on the primary second stage, so we also do a dry s-drill (deploy the long hose to ensure it isn't trapped under something else like a drysuit inflator hose). Then we all confirm gas, and pressure. Takes 2-3 minutes. Then we leave the parking lot for the beach. We all get into the water together. Then we do bubble checks (make sure nothing is leaking) and another s-drill (standing in chest-deep water), flow check the back-up reg bungeed around our necks underwater, turn on primary lights, and turn on dive computers.
Review the dive plan one more time.
We do that for every single dive - a 40' paddle in the bay, or a 200'+ dive on the wall. Anyone not willing to participate, never gets another invite. Over the years, we've caught a few things forgotten, and had one potential life-threatening incident (in less than 5' of water) involving a buddy we don't regularly dive with because he was "not a rule follower".
As for signalling impending deco - with one hand, we use a lifted pinky finger (pointing up) with the rest tucked in, then give the time to deco, then give a 'shuffle forward' motion (thumb up, fingers splayed and down rocked forward mostly). Everyone knows what it all means.
We also debrief the dive(s) - what worked, what didn't. With my current buddies, its the most enjoyable diving I've done in over 40 years of being certified.
Then we do a 'head to toe' gear check. One person leads the check, calling out the items to check and the others in turn return a confirmation for each item - checking their own gear. We have long hoses on the primary second stage, so we also do a dry s-drill (deploy the long hose to ensure it isn't trapped under something else like a drysuit inflator hose). Then we all confirm gas, and pressure. Takes 2-3 minutes. Then we leave the parking lot for the beach. We all get into the water together. Then we do bubble checks (make sure nothing is leaking) and another s-drill (standing in chest-deep water), flow check the back-up reg bungeed around our necks underwater, turn on primary lights, and turn on dive computers.
Review the dive plan one more time.
We do that for every single dive - a 40' paddle in the bay, or a 200'+ dive on the wall. Anyone not willing to participate, never gets another invite. Over the years, we've caught a few things forgotten, and had one potential life-threatening incident (in less than 5' of water) involving a buddy we don't regularly dive with because he was "not a rule follower".
As for signalling impending deco - with one hand, we use a lifted pinky finger (pointing up) with the rest tucked in, then give the time to deco, then give a 'shuffle forward' motion (thumb up, fingers splayed and down rocked forward mostly). Everyone knows what it all means.
We also debrief the dive(s) - what worked, what didn't. With my current buddies, its the most enjoyable diving I've done in over 40 years of being certified.
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