Stay with your, follow your buddy, but.... till where?

[andrei_c]

Hi, everybody!

During the scuba classes, not mather which agency, we are tought to respect and follow the buddy system. We have to stay close to our buddies in order to be able to help each other if somethin wrong will happend. And I agree with that. But sometimes.... Just want to share with you a short story and have your comments on that.
In one of my dive trip I've been buddy with a guy from the dive boat - the sort of "instant buddy" (you know I'm talking about). The dive plan was to dive at a max 30 meters, spent around of 10 minutes there and start a slow ascent along a nice wall. We were a group of 12 divers. Well, as soon as we start our descent, I noticed my buddy is exactly the "instand buddy" type: he didn't look or check me not even once etc. I stayed with him despite all this till we reached the 30 meters. The rest of the group enjoyed the views offered by the reef, except my guy. He continued to descend. I followed him and at 35 meters I grabbed his arm (I had to swimm hard to do that!) and signaled to ascend to the group. My buddy made an evasive sign and continued to descend. After two second of astonishment I followed him. Whwn we reached 40 meters I tried again to show him we need to go up. I tapped my computer I tried to show him we are much deeper than we are supposed to be. The result? He waved his hand, pointed a finger at me and signaled to go up and... he get down. I thought he was narc and follow him in an attempt to bring him up. But he swimm fast to the buttom. I stopped following him when my computer showed 45 meters. I looked up, hopping to to see our guide. The group was out of sight. I was confused, not knowing what to do. Fortunately, after two minutes, my buddy start an ascent. I followed him, up this time. We reached 20 meters - a little bit to fast for my taste - and the guy didn't give any sign of slowing down. At 15 meters I grabbed his leg and signaled to slow down. He showed me his SPG - far beelow the safe line. I gave him my octopus and tried to convince him to make a slow ascent to the safety stop. To be honest, I was convinced we will be forced to short up our safety stop because my tank was not in a good shape either. Fortunately again, when we reached 6 meters the group showed up and they support us so we were able to have the requested long safety stop. The funny part is that back on the boat, my "perfect" buddy start shouted at me, saying I destroyed his dive.
So, comming back to my question: how far should somebody stay with the buddy system?

 

[LowDrag]

That's not good, that makes me even happier that I dive with my wife primarily. Personally, I think I would have let him go and returned to the group to find the DM. Everything I have been taught is that you are responsible for yourself first, insta buddy second in a situation like that.

 

[redacted]

With an insta-buddy, I might have stopped at 30 and watched him. If I had run him down at 35 and he opted to keep going, I would have waved good-bye. I would have kept an eye on him if for no other reason than to report his last known location.

 

[CamC]

Did you talk on the boat beforehand? Discuss protocols, signals, that sort of thing? Buddying starts long before you ever get in the water. The system isn't perfect, but it takes two to tango.

Either way, I wouldn't have followed him further than 35m, let alone to 45m. He risked your life. And he had the audacity to shout at you back on the boat? I hope you showed him the little-documented use of the scuba cylinder as a suppository!

 

[Keith.M]

Wow. The guy ends up on your octo and then yells at you?

Was there a second dive? If so, hopefully not with the same guy as a "buddy"

 

[hroark2112]

The first rule of rescue is "Don't become a victim yourself!"

Once an insta-buddy waves me off once, he's on his own. Unless it's my wife, then I'm going to kick her ass until she's back to where she needs to be.

No insta-buddy is worth getting bent or dead for when he's being an idiot.

 

[lamarpaulski]

You did more than most people would. It takes two to tango and buddy dive.

 

[boulderjohn]

It's a really touchy situation. What follows is my interpretation based on your description.

From what I read, you agreed on a specific dive plan, and he violated the depth limit immediately and again after repeated efforts by you to show him he was making an error. IMO, no one is that narced, especially at that depth. He had made a conscious decision to dive to a specific depth for personal reasons. He was probably trying to set a personal best for depth. Lots of people do that. If you read the Cozumel forum, you will find that a lot of people consider that nearly routine.

The main thing these divers need to do is not tell the plan to the insta-buddy, because the insta-buddy will not go along with it. They may need to evade a DM, or they may not. Again, if you read the Cozumel forum, you will find people who declare that some DMs will let their regular customers do that. They will give the dive plan to the group knowing that one of them is going to zip down to some forbidden depth and then zip back up, much as you describe. Keep the customer happy!

If I believed I was in that situation (and I have come close), I would not follow once I figured out what was going on. I would do my best to keep an eye on him while keeping track of the rest of the group. I would do whatever was reasonable to help, but I would no longer consider him to be in a normal buddy situation with me. If I were close enough, I would go to the DM and give the buddy sign (index fingers together) and point to where he was. (I actually did that on a dive in Cozumel when my buddy went swimming off on his own.) After the dive, I would make sure we were never buddied again.

 

[Freewillow]

You insabuddy was an idiot and you were a fool to follow him down to 45m. You were both lucky. :cool2: One warning should have been enough. Then wave at him and go indicate the DM where your idiot was :blinking:

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Agree with all the others. Once he violated the plan and ignored your thumb to go up, he's on his own. Take note of his last position, rejoin the group, and/or end your own dive and let the boat captain know. When he yelled at you on the boat? Give him the middle finger and walk away.