SDI specialty training for solo diver
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Today, Buddy Breathing aften means using someone's alternate 2nd stage, i.e. breathing from your buddy's spare reg. Traditionally, it meant two divers sharing one reg, passing it back and forth.
Best to clarify what you mean when you say "buddy breathing."
Best to clarify what you mean when you say "buddy breathing."
FishWatcher747
Contributor
I understand back in the distant past when one would dive without an octopus that true old school buddy breathing training was important as an emergency procedure.
But the training itself never made any sense.
Sensible training would have been a diver would be underwater, take a breath off their regulator, take it out of your mouth, count to a certain number say 10, put it back in your mouth, breath, take it out of your mouth, count to a certain number, and repeat the sequence for whatever time is needed to simulate an ascent or while ascending from a particular depth.
Then your buddy would do the same thing.
That way if anything went wrong the buddy could help or there would only be one accident or death.
The first rule of the Safety course is don't make 2 casualties.
But the training itself never made any sense.
Sensible training would have been a diver would be underwater, take a breath off their regulator, take it out of your mouth, count to a certain number say 10, put it back in your mouth, breath, take it out of your mouth, count to a certain number, and repeat the sequence for whatever time is needed to simulate an ascent or while ascending from a particular depth.
Then your buddy would do the same thing.
That way if anything went wrong the buddy could help or there would only be one accident or death.
The first rule of the Safety course is don't make 2 casualties.
@FishWatcher747,
Training is really no big deal. In my open water course we first simulated things by passing a snorkel back and forth. Mask, sans mask. And then we moved to using regulators. Double-hose regulator, single-hose regulator. Signal ("low on air", "out of air", "need to buddy breathe"), and then buddy breathe. Traverse lengths of the pool while buddy breathing. Scuba exchanges while buddy breathing. Buddy breathing while "stuff" is happening. Etc.
My (eldest) daughter took essentially the same univ course last year, about 35 years after I took it. Same approach. Except her course didn't work with double-hose regulators.
When I introduced my daughters to scuba, in my parents' back yard swimming pool, when my my eldest was still in elementary school, one of the first skills I taught them, after regulator recovery, was buddy breathing. When I purchased my DH regulator about eight years ago, I taught them to buddy breathe using it.
Absolutely no big deal. And this skill gives divers one more option.
No downside so far as I can see.
rx7diver
First, I have to agree with @rx7diver, the training was not difficult at all. You were usually doing it in a pool, with someone watching you and your buddy, therefore another safety person if needed.
For me, the reason to do it in pairs was getting used to having someone right in your face while ascending. We were diving a standard length hose, and you’re passing it back and forth with arms locked. For some in my class, that was the difficult part.
Erik
Another reason is so that a diver is very familiar with being U/W on scuba and (perhaps very suddenly) not having a regulator in his/her mouth.
rx7diver
FishWatcher747
Contributor
About a half century ago, Dr. Glen Engstrom, a college professor and one-time head of NAUI, conducted a study of buddy breathing and the training required for it. He concluded that it would take an average of 17 successful training experiences for a buddy team to be confident that they could do it in a real OOA incident. They would then have to practice regularly to maintain the skill. Note that was a buddy team--not two random people who have not trained the skill together.
I have done buddy breathing exercises myself, but there is a big difference between doing an exercise in a pool and doing it in real life at depth with a panicked OOA diver who has little to no experience in that skill. In the only case I know of in recent years (about a decade or so ago), a woman renting gear in Florida was given a regulator set that did not have an alternate, and when another diver in her group went OOA, she tried to help him via buddy breathing. They both drowned.
Since I have an alternate air with me on all dives, I cannot imagine why I would ever need to buddy breathe in a real situation, but if I were ever forced to do so with a typically panicked OOA diver, I would ditch my scuba unit, give it to him or her, and do a CESA to the surface.
I have done buddy breathing exercises myself, but there is a big difference between doing an exercise in a pool and doing it in real life at depth with a panicked OOA diver who has little to no experience in that skill. In the only case I know of in recent years (about a decade or so ago), a woman renting gear in Florida was given a regulator set that did not have an alternate, and when another diver in her group went OOA, she tried to help him via buddy breathing. They both drowned.
Since I have an alternate air with me on all dives, I cannot imagine why I would ever need to buddy breathe in a real situation, but if I were ever forced to do so with a typically panicked OOA diver, I would ditch my scuba unit, give it to him or her, and do a CESA to the surface.
Ha! Believe me, by the end of the semester-long course I (and, later, my daughter) took, we had done many more than "an average of 17 successful [buddy breathing] training experiences"! And that was even before the week-long open water checkout session!!
But, again, I see no downsides to being trained in the skill of buddy breathing--you know, in order to have another safety option in one's toolbox.
rx7diver
I've been SOLO diving for the past 40 years, but recently (this past year) made the decision to go ahead with the certification.. Although I have previously been vocal on this board about my opinion that a "certification" is not needed, I've changed my tune and glad that I took the course...
Quick recap:
A good buddy of mine and our wives recently took a 10 day trip to Bonaire this May (to celebrate our 68th birthdays upcoming in June) and my buddy and I decided to go ahead with the SDI certification. We used Bryan Crafts at the TDS center located onsite at Captain Don's. Excellent instructor.
Prior to arriving Bonaire we completed and passed all of the knowledge based work and also completed and submitted all paperwork, medical forms, liability waivers. etc.... The process could not have been any more easy to navigate. We simply contacted Bryan back in February, signed up for the course, pre-scheduled our open water day (s) and he emailed us the log-in code for the academics as well as any forms that needed to be downloaded, completed, then uploaded.....including our headshot photos for the cert cards. We asked ahead of time if the OW work could be completed in one day and the response was "maybe....... it will depend on our evaluation of your ability to master the required skills. We'll be doing a minimum of 2 dives."
My buddy and I are both back-mount pony divers. I have both a 13 and a 19cf. I brought the 13cf with me then trans-filled it once in Bonaire....
We met Bryan on May 5 at Capt Dons and spent much of the morning going over the academics, calculations, pre-planning, etc.....then took lunch and prepped for the OW work. After the required 200 yard surface swim we did a quick descent to 60ft for evaluation of all general skills, buoyancy, gas consumption, etc.....then we ascended to 30 ft and spent the next 45 minutes on the required SDI Solo skills.... such as switching to alt gas source, swapping to spare mask, remove and replace fins, replace broken fin strap, access to multiple cutting devices, deployment of DSMB's, signaling devices, etc, etc.... My buddy and I dive with both a DSMB and a SMB. Bryan brought no less than 6 additional DSMB's clipped to his harness and had us deploy all of ours and all of his on this first dive. All skills were performed neutrally buoyant at horizontal hover.
Then back to the class to debrief, discuss and plan the next dive. At this point Bryan stated that he felt that we were both competent and asked our permission to "ghost" us on the next dive. We asked what that meant and he basically stated that he would &%#^ with us during the dive to check reactions... We said sure. Even though we had the basic advantage of knowing what what was was coming, it was still "interesting" to have someone sneak in behind you at 60ft, turn off your primary gas, pull your mask off and take off a fin, etc.
After the 2nd dive we met back in the shop to discuss / debrief. He congratulated us and then actually had the machine right there to print and issue the plastic cert cards. I thought that was a nice bonus and it was unexpected...
All in all, a worthwhile course and I highly recommend Bryan at the TDS center at Capt Dons on Bonaire.
Quick recap:
A good buddy of mine and our wives recently took a 10 day trip to Bonaire this May (to celebrate our 68th birthdays upcoming in June) and my buddy and I decided to go ahead with the SDI certification. We used Bryan Crafts at the TDS center located onsite at Captain Don's. Excellent instructor.
Prior to arriving Bonaire we completed and passed all of the knowledge based work and also completed and submitted all paperwork, medical forms, liability waivers. etc.... The process could not have been any more easy to navigate. We simply contacted Bryan back in February, signed up for the course, pre-scheduled our open water day (s) and he emailed us the log-in code for the academics as well as any forms that needed to be downloaded, completed, then uploaded.....including our headshot photos for the cert cards. We asked ahead of time if the OW work could be completed in one day and the response was "maybe....... it will depend on our evaluation of your ability to master the required skills. We'll be doing a minimum of 2 dives."
My buddy and I are both back-mount pony divers. I have both a 13 and a 19cf. I brought the 13cf with me then trans-filled it once in Bonaire....
We met Bryan on May 5 at Capt Dons and spent much of the morning going over the academics, calculations, pre-planning, etc.....then took lunch and prepped for the OW work. After the required 200 yard surface swim we did a quick descent to 60ft for evaluation of all general skills, buoyancy, gas consumption, etc.....then we ascended to 30 ft and spent the next 45 minutes on the required SDI Solo skills.... such as switching to alt gas source, swapping to spare mask, remove and replace fins, replace broken fin strap, access to multiple cutting devices, deployment of DSMB's, signaling devices, etc, etc.... My buddy and I dive with both a DSMB and a SMB. Bryan brought no less than 6 additional DSMB's clipped to his harness and had us deploy all of ours and all of his on this first dive. All skills were performed neutrally buoyant at horizontal hover.
Then back to the class to debrief, discuss and plan the next dive. At this point Bryan stated that he felt that we were both competent and asked our permission to "ghost" us on the next dive. We asked what that meant and he basically stated that he would &%#^ with us during the dive to check reactions... We said sure. Even though we had the basic advantage of knowing what what was was coming, it was still "interesting" to have someone sneak in behind you at 60ft, turn off your primary gas, pull your mask off and take off a fin, etc.
After the 2nd dive we met back in the shop to discuss / debrief. He congratulated us and then actually had the machine right there to print and issue the plastic cert cards. I thought that was a nice bonus and it was unexpected...
All in all, a worthwhile course and I highly recommend Bryan at the TDS center at Capt Dons on Bonaire.
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