I recently was in Bonaire to spend a week of vacation. While there I found the diving to be excellent. I had a variety of dive partners while there as I had traveled by myself. I'm accustomed to this as I like traveling and can't always find a dive buddy with the same schedule.
I learned a valuable lesson while there. Take time to ask a new dive buddy about his/her diving skills.
I was on my 10th dive. I was paired with a man from Europe. Nationality isn't important but he spoke very good English. I noticed he had a video cam with him and assumed he was a seasoned diver. I was very wrong. We got in the water and I was ready after getting my camera from the boat crew. He acquired his video camera and I waited for him to descend. I was given to OK signal from him for this. I waited several minutes at 3 meters only to find he didn't have enough weight for the dive with his camera. The divemaster retrieved a couple of pounds of weight and the he attempted several times to descend. Again he had trouble, but it was valid trouble, his ears wouldn't clear. So finally he was able to descend, and the dive plan was to follow the reef line straight until we had to surface. The boat would pick each set of divers up. As we started out he was videoing immediately and I was somewhat distracted by his not taking the time to check everything out as one usually does when reaching desired depth. This was just and observation at the time and I really didn't read into it.
We proceed down the reef and suddenly he pointed his camera 90 degrees away from me and started going that way without making sure I knew, and he keep going! I went after him and signaled he was to follow the predefined route; he gave me the OK sig. It wasn't 2 minutes later that I looked at him and he was going the opposite direction. I went back got him and signaled he was to go the way we planned. At this point the divemaster was watching all of this and came over. The divemaster took the video camera from him. He didn't argue (kind of hard to do 15 meters lol) so we then continued our dive. He was fine and followed me to the letter. Great I thought, that was short lived. The divemaster gave the camera back to him. Then it started all over until we the divemaster and I grabbed his tank and escorted him in the direction we wanted him to go. I waved off the divemaster and keep a hold of him, making sure he knew I was now in charge of his direction. I noticed something else, he keep his knees bent while trying to propel himself. He was going nowhere fast so he got a free ride from me as I one handed clicked off some pictures of my own. I didn't get but a hand full of pictures that dive. I was intent of making sure he didn't get into trouble and watched him like a hawk even taking note on his air consumption as I noticed he wasnt doing very often.
At the end of the dive was the scariest part, he went up past the safety stop and I motioned to him to come back down, this happen several times too, he eventually did come back to me at 26 feet. I grabbed the front of his BC strap and made him stay with me and he again didn't argue with me...lol Ok so now where at 26 feet and I notice my dive computer is saying 14 feet, hmmmmm problem, but I was prepared cause I noticed an anomaly in my first dive profile and got a backup computer from the dive shop. That proved to be a wise move. That is a whole story by itself.
After the 3 minute safety stop we both surfaced to find the boat and I signaled to the boat captain we were ready for pickup. I looked at him and found he had obviously ruptured some capillaries in his nasal passage due to the bloody nose he had.
When we got on the boat and situated we, the divemaster and I asked the man how many dives he had under his belt, he replied 5. We recommended he forget the camera for a long while and do some shallow diving with some experienced divers. I also recommended the proper way to kick his fins, with legs fully extended.
The bottom line is I will ask my dive buddies from now on about their experience level and inform the divemaster before I'm put into a situation I don't care to be in. I was fine looking out after him and was quite comfortable but the fact remains I made a mistake. I didn't have a good conversation with a dive buddy before entering the water.
Lesson learned!!!
I learned a valuable lesson while there. Take time to ask a new dive buddy about his/her diving skills.
I was on my 10th dive. I was paired with a man from Europe. Nationality isn't important but he spoke very good English. I noticed he had a video cam with him and assumed he was a seasoned diver. I was very wrong. We got in the water and I was ready after getting my camera from the boat crew. He acquired his video camera and I waited for him to descend. I was given to OK signal from him for this. I waited several minutes at 3 meters only to find he didn't have enough weight for the dive with his camera. The divemaster retrieved a couple of pounds of weight and the he attempted several times to descend. Again he had trouble, but it was valid trouble, his ears wouldn't clear. So finally he was able to descend, and the dive plan was to follow the reef line straight until we had to surface. The boat would pick each set of divers up. As we started out he was videoing immediately and I was somewhat distracted by his not taking the time to check everything out as one usually does when reaching desired depth. This was just and observation at the time and I really didn't read into it.
We proceed down the reef and suddenly he pointed his camera 90 degrees away from me and started going that way without making sure I knew, and he keep going! I went after him and signaled he was to follow the predefined route; he gave me the OK sig. It wasn't 2 minutes later that I looked at him and he was going the opposite direction. I went back got him and signaled he was to go the way we planned. At this point the divemaster was watching all of this and came over. The divemaster took the video camera from him. He didn't argue (kind of hard to do 15 meters lol) so we then continued our dive. He was fine and followed me to the letter. Great I thought, that was short lived. The divemaster gave the camera back to him. Then it started all over until we the divemaster and I grabbed his tank and escorted him in the direction we wanted him to go. I waved off the divemaster and keep a hold of him, making sure he knew I was now in charge of his direction. I noticed something else, he keep his knees bent while trying to propel himself. He was going nowhere fast so he got a free ride from me as I one handed clicked off some pictures of my own. I didn't get but a hand full of pictures that dive. I was intent of making sure he didn't get into trouble and watched him like a hawk even taking note on his air consumption as I noticed he wasnt doing very often.
At the end of the dive was the scariest part, he went up past the safety stop and I motioned to him to come back down, this happen several times too, he eventually did come back to me at 26 feet. I grabbed the front of his BC strap and made him stay with me and he again didn't argue with me...lol Ok so now where at 26 feet and I notice my dive computer is saying 14 feet, hmmmmm problem, but I was prepared cause I noticed an anomaly in my first dive profile and got a backup computer from the dive shop. That proved to be a wise move. That is a whole story by itself.
After the 3 minute safety stop we both surfaced to find the boat and I signaled to the boat captain we were ready for pickup. I looked at him and found he had obviously ruptured some capillaries in his nasal passage due to the bloody nose he had.
When we got on the boat and situated we, the divemaster and I asked the man how many dives he had under his belt, he replied 5. We recommended he forget the camera for a long while and do some shallow diving with some experienced divers. I also recommended the proper way to kick his fins, with legs fully extended.
The bottom line is I will ask my dive buddies from now on about their experience level and inform the divemaster before I'm put into a situation I don't care to be in. I was fine looking out after him and was quite comfortable but the fact remains I made a mistake. I didn't have a good conversation with a dive buddy before entering the water.
Lesson learned!!!
