Recreational Dive Poll - Buddy checks

[scubadada]

Me and the wife do a buddy check. It is a quick one and takes 30 second total and is done without words.
I inflate my bcd She inflates hers
She dumps I dump.
3 breaths off regs while checking gauge
3 breaths off alternate
Quick visual look 180 check tank and good to go.

I know her gear has 4 squeezes and a rip and I know how her weights work and she knows mine is either 3 squeeze and a rip or just use the knife on my webbing dependent on gear.
If I am diving with someone I have never dived with before I will go through air sharing and releases and where I have my spairs mask and reels/spools/smbs/knifes

My wife and I...

 

[BDSC]

Pretty much everyone I dive with is someone I know so I know their experience level. Other than asking if your air is on, and I don't always do that, I can't remember the last time I did any sort of buddy check.

 

[billt4sf]

OP here. We were spending a lot of time and energy trying to organize a plan to get out of Bali with a volcano pounding away not too far from us, so I haven't been able to get back to this.

I don't think I have EVER seen someone do a formal buddy-check in a RECREATIONAL setting. (Those of you who voted that they see buddy-checks in TECHNICAL settings, please go back and change your vote!)

So if no one does it, the "powers that be" should recognize the ACTUAL REALITY of recreational diving and refrain from teaching new divers to do something that (we all know) they will never do. Come up with something else.

<descends off of soap-box>

Have a good one.

- Bill

 

[Neptune Scuba Diving]

We just arrived back in Bali from one of our Raja Ampat liveaboards... good topic because we had the surprise there to see one of our German guests doing a proper buddy check with one of our Chinese guests before each and every dive they did together.

There you go, we're still up and running with the good old fashioned buddy check.

 

[Steve_C]

Maybe the buddy check is not always done but going through a buddy check is a lot like training for a self check and learning to do a self-check is important. I tell my students that what your learn from mistakes is what the mistakes will be next time. So I have learned what I will goof up on and have learned not only what my check is but what my final before I step in the water is. In my case, I have learned that if there is a last minute buddy aquisition, which happens somewhat frequently to me, that I will switch to DM mode, chat with new buddy, etc etc. and that is when I forget to do something. That final check by myself is when I catch those. Then there is the just before I step off the boat check. Breath on req looking at gauge and puff of air to the BCD and make sure fins are on firmly.

 

[Steve_C]

On the boat I dive most often, I think that most divers are not even aware of it but the captain often puts his hand on the tank valve to steady the diver as they move onto the step off platform. I have noted that he also checks that the air is on full usually without their even knowing it.

 

[billt4sf]

On the boat I dive most often, I think that most divers are not even aware of it but the captain often puts his hand on the tank valve to steady the diver as they move onto the step off platform. I have noted that he also checks that the air is on full usually without their even knowing it.

Exactly. And good for him, because many divers would jump without their air on because they don't do the breathe 3 times test as a matter of course.

- Bill

 

[boulderjohn]

OP here. We were spending a lot of time and energy trying to organize a plan to get out of Bali with a volcano pounding away not too far from us, so I haven't been able to get back to this.

I don't think I have EVER seen someone do a formal buddy-check in a RECREATIONAL setting. (Those of you who voted that they see buddy-checks in TECHNICAL settings, please go back and change your vote!)

So if no one does it, the "powers that be" should recognize the ACTUAL REALITY of recreational diving and refrain from teaching new divers to do something that (we all know) they will never do. Come up with something else.

<descends off of soap-box>

Have a good one.

- Bill

There are two words in buddy check. Buddy and check. A lot of people will do the check for themselves silently. You will have no way of knowing if they are doing it.

 

[drrich2]

So if no one does it, the "powers that be" should recognize the ACTUAL REALITY of recreational diving and refrain from teaching new divers to do something that (we all know) they will never do. Come up with something else.

There's obvious logic to that proposal, but here's a (speculative) counter viewpoint. What if many (? most) fresh OW graduates do (mostly) proper buddy checks their 1st few to several dives outside formal coursework? It seems that's a window in their diving where they'd be most likely to omit or mishandle something, and it teaches them to give someone a deliberate going-over for preparedness. Even (maybe especially) if they then transfer that to self-checks.

You could argue for teaching self-checks alone in OW, of course, but people are expected to do that anyway, and having to formally engage (& perhaps be answerable to, a little bit) a buddy diver might reinforce the lessons.

Short version: It might help people do better advancing through their first few dives, even if it doesn't endure as the formal practice it seems billed as.

Richard.

 

[Neilwood]

I vary a bit depending where I am and who I am diving with.

If at home with a buddy I know, we both do a quick visual check of each other (knowing that we have breath checked our regs). Nothing will really be said and I doubt anyone would think we were doing a check.

If I am away on a trip with someone I haven't dived with I will do the full BWRAF check (especially as I dive BP&W and they tend to be jacket type BCD so they need to know the releases) at least for a couple of dives after which it might revert to a visual check depending on the buddy.