predive checklist

[Jim Lapenta]

Able to touch each other's outstretched arm in great vis. In low vis as close as necessary including elbow to elbow. In zero vis I'd rather dive solo.

If I don't know who my buddy is until I actually hit the water the dive is officially a clusterf**k and I'm diving solo. This is an indication of very poor planning and you either decide to be self sufficient or not dive. No in between for me. If the DM decides to make it a group dive I'm not diving his plan. I'll dive my own.

DM's should never be relied on to plan your dive. You do that yourself with the buddy you already have. If you haven't found one on the way out don't dive if you are not ok to go it alone.

Part of the planning process is to find out ahead of time if there will be other single divers. Then find out who they are as soon as you get on the boat. Then ask them if they want a buddy and be honest about your skill level and experience. Someone is liable to be ok diving with you. When that happens you two plan your dive.

Herd diving is a great way to get lost, hurt, or worse. It also is a clear demonstration of irresponsibility on the entire herd's part. And that of the operation. I stay away from people and ops like that.

 

[TSandM]

Diving with complete strangers offers some challenges, and you are thinking exactly the right way by trying to develop a good plan for doing it. We have a lot of stories here on SB where people have had bad experiences with "instabuddies", and most of them would have been fine (or at least much better) if the right questions had been asked and answered before getting in the water. It really IS important to know how your buddy's gear does the important things -- how do you inflate and deflate it, how does it fasten, and how are weights stowed and released. It's important to be on the same page about how deep you are going to go, how long you intend to dive, and who gets to make that call. What are you going to do if you get separated? How much of your air are you going to use, and how are you going to plan the dive to make sure that's ALL you use?

And along the lines of the next question, how are you going to arrange yourselves underwater? A lot of people like to dive single file, which is great for the guy in the back, because he can see everything, but not so good for the guy in the front, who has to look back all the time to make sure he hasn't lost his buddy. Swimming side by side is a much easier way to keep track of one another, but isn't so good if you are swimming along a wall or the hull of a ship. Thinking about this stuff ahead of time saves a lot of aggravation in the water.

How far away from one another should you dive? The minimum is close enough to be able to see one another, and the maximum is how far you're willing to swim for gas. Even in the very best viz, I don't like being much more than ten feet or so away from my buddy. That gives everybody plenty of room to kick and turn without bumping one another, but keeps you close enough so that current won't be likely to push you apart, and you can stay in communication about what you are seeing, too.

 

[fengz]

How far can you swim with no gas?

Well, the reason for my question was because I was usually a bit slow during decent, and thus can be far behind my buddy. I sometimes had to swim hard to catch up.

I remember once we did a group dive (7 people), and we slowly split up at the bottom (70ft) because of the low viz and the fact that everyone was swimming at different speeds. I was able to stay close to the DM for the most part. One guy surfaced early due to weight issues. Before ascending, the DM put me and another person as buddies while he went back to search for the rest of the group. Just as the DM swam away, my buddy was OOA. Lucky we were pretty close, and were able to surface together on my air, so everyone was OK. However, I was just wondering what would happen if we were one of the people who got separated.

It is one thing to know the concept of buddy diving, but quite another to put it into practice because of the variations in diver's training and mentality. Maybe the best solution is to learn how to solo, and be self-reliant?

 

[eponym]

Well, the reason for my question was because I was usually a bit slow during decent, and thus can be far behind my buddy. I sometimes had to swim hard to catch up.

Bad buddy. Slowest on descent/ascent sets the pace, buddies stay together.

It is one thing to know the concept of buddy diving, but quite another to put it into practice because of the variations in diver's training and mentality.

Yes. It often doesn't come naturally, often takes work.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

It is one thing to know the concept of buddy diving, but quite another to put it into practice because of the variations in diver's training and mentality. Maybe the best solution is to learn how to solo, and be self-reliant?

There are a lot of variations in diver training and mentality.
If you are diving with an inattentive insta-buddy , it may mean that you are the one that will determine if you stay together.

Just make it a point to always maintain buddy proximity, even if they are not.

It is frustrating, when you feel that you are the only one that is working to stay together. Hopefully over time, you will have some regular dive buddies that you can dive with. It's easier to work on this with regular buddies.
Diving with strangers is frustrating, for the reasons you pointed out.

Just have it in your head that you are the one that will be keeping that proximity. Not ideal, but with insta-buddies that's the way it is.

On Solo Diving, I will add this:

You can't just suddenly decide, right before exiting the boat that you are going to dive solo that day. You would need to be geared up for that.

Solo diving is a whole other element. You mentioned it, so I will add that you should be looking at a Solo Diver course before you consider that.

I have taken a Solo Diver course, and I have dove solo.........but, I am of the opinion that you would benefit greatly from diving with regular dive buddies, and gaining experience together. Then you can work together on all of the team elements together, and enjoy diving.
Solo diving requires experience, training, equipment, mind set, etc. It is NOT some sort of simple solution to frustrations with insta-buddies.

The thing about diving, and why I love it so much....it keeps getting better. Just keep adding layers of experience.

Cheers,
Mitch

 

[TSandM]

You can go two ways on the buddy question. You can conclude that you're better off just operating as a solo diver, or you can decide to develop better buddy skills, and look for better dive buddies.

Your story about descent is one where the pre-dive checklist would come in handy -- First off, make sure you have a buddy, and you aren't just diving as a herd. Second, tell your buddy that you often have ear problems, and you will want to descend a bit more slowly, and ask that that person stay with you. If they aren't willing to, or can't, you need a different buddy. The problem with the second story is that you didn't HAVE a buddy, so there was no one with whom you had been trading gas pressures during the dive, so you could know when it was time to end the dive and ascend.

There's a concept called the "incident pit", where the idea is that accidents are kind of like ant lions' lairs. At the beginning the funnel's pretty wide and not very steep -- you can take one step in and probably turn around and get out. But each step you take puts you on a steeper slope, and closer to being eaten at the bottom. Starting a dive without a designated buddy and without a dive plan, and without any pre-dive communication about descent and buddy strategies, puts you a couple of steps into the funnel. Executing the dive without any communication about gas supply, and being randomly assigned a buddy late in the dive, puts you another couple of steps in. Luckily, you had the final skill of sharing gas (and enough gas to do it) that kept you from the ant lion's jaws. But there's a good saying that "A superior diver uses his superior judgment to avoid having to use his superior skills,' and there is a huge amount of truth to that. When you DO find yourself salvaging a really bad situation, the best way to make that situation truly useful is to sit down afterwards and try to figure out how you could have avoided it in the first place.

 

[elmer fudd]

Thank you all for the great tips. I don't think I can recall it perfectly every time, so I will put it into writing and stuck in my log.

Going through one's own gear is fairly straightforward, but it could be a bit intimidating to try to go through a buddy who you didn't know well/just met. When you dive with a bunch of strangers, you may not know who will be your buddy until right before entering the water. Or the DM may decide to do a group dive, and it suddenly feels like everyone is your buddy, and no one is your buddy at the same time.

Another question: what is a max safe distance between buddies?

Thanks.

It's not the distance half so much as it is the awareness of your buddy. You've got to always know where he is and vice versa. You can cover a lot of distance on a single breath, but if you don't know where your buddy is you're screwed.

I find it's actually much easier to dive with one buddy than with two. With one buddy, I just stay nearby and periodically glance to make sure he's where I think he is. With two buddies it's very easy to misplace the third.

 

[Lee Taylor]

My mentality prior to a dive:

Mask.............. check
Fins............... check
Scuba Unit...... check
Air on............. check

see ya later gator

 

[billt4sf]

Well, the reason for my question was because I was usually a bit slow during decent, and thus can be far behind my buddy. I sometimes had to swim hard to catch up......It is one thing to know the concept of buddy diving, but quite another to put it into practice because of the variations in diver's training and mentality. Maybe the best solution is to learn how to solo, and be self-reliant?

No. For a guy with 25 - 49 dives, you should learn how to be a good buddy. (I say this from my vast experience of 50+ dives ).

Seriously, a few months ago I came to ScubaBoard with nearly the same sorts of questions. I learned from these people (the people besides me that are answering your post) how important buddy diving can be, and how to do it properly. THANK YOU SCUBABOARD !!!

One of my big gripes is that in the OW classes, and in most tropical dive boats with DMs, they don't teach you and encourage you to be a good buddy -- just the opposite. Most DMs that I have been with are "follow me" -- which clearly does not work well if people have different speeds of descent as you pointed out. So one has to learn how to be a good buddy on one's own.

Good luck. You've come to the right place.

- Bill

 

[Bigd2722]

yes!!