Solo diver vs Self-Reliant diver

[Searcaigh]

Yeah you can go on their charter and just swim off by yourself. And you won't ever go on their charter again.

They're pretty anal around here about the buddy system. They say it's due to their insurance requirement but I suspect it's probably more about the bad publicity of being the dive shop on the news that had a diver drown. I can't blame them for that. Nobody wants to be the boat who calls the Coast Guard to tell them you're bringing a dead diver back to the dock.

Well it sounds like they have pretty solid reasons for their rules.

 

[MB NZ]

Y

Yeah you can go on their charter and just swim off by yourself. And you won't ever go on their charter again.

They're pretty anal around here about the buddy system. They say it's due to their insurance requirement but I suspect it's probably more about the bad publicity of being the dive shop on the news that had a diver drown. I can't blame them for that. Nobody wants to be the boat who calls the Coast Guard to tell them you're bringing a dead diver back to the dock.

The assumption is that buddy diving is safer. This isn't always true. The one and only time I've got in to serious trouble, I could have got myself out of trouble if it wasn't for my buddy. It was my wife, so there's no way I was leaving her, but we won a helicopter ride.

 

[sod kamus]

The assumption is that buddy diving is safer. This isn't always true. The one and only time I've got in to serious trouble, I could have got myself out of trouble if it wasn't for my buddy. It was my wife, so there's no way I was leaving her, but we won a helicopter ride.

I agree. I'm of the opinion that when I'm "buddy diving" I have added liability. I have to look after myself AND someone else.

Unfortunately most dive shops and charter boats don't often agree with folks like us and the worst is when you get assigned an insta-buddy and it's some cat who graduated OW class last week and is on his first actual dive. I've dived with "certified" divers who have never dived in the ocean before. They did their "dip dives" in 20 feet of water at the quarry. Now here they are, 40 miles offshore, in 120 feet of water for the first time in their life, and I'm supposed to rely on them to save me? I've been banned from one dive shops charters because I told the cap'n, "I ain't your baby sitter. That's YOUR customer, not mine."

Glad you came out of it OK.

 

[sod kamus]

Well it sounds like they have pretty solid reasons for their rules.

Their boat, their rules.

 

[happy-diver]

and thank god for their rules and their boats and their choice of their customers or not

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

Their boat, their rules.

My life, my rules!

 

[sod kamus]

My life, my rules!

I hear you, Brother. Problem is that reply doesn't get you on their boat. LOL

I got my own boat, my own gear, do my own visual inspections, only thing I don't have is my own compressor, so I generally don't have to play their games except for the "my compressor, my rules" game.