The Difference a good Dive buddy makes

[kidspot]

Just as an opener, this is NOT intended to start a debate on the merits/problems associated with solo diving etc.. (just a little disclaimer - )

Well I just completed my 10th dive (in other words - I'm really new at all this). Yesterday I did two dives with a new friend who works at the LDS where I get my air, up till now all my dives have been with guys who have the same/less experience as I do. What really surprised me was how much my air consumption went down yesterday during those two dives. I have been keeping very careful records of my gas consumption and while they started out at .94/min for my first training dive, my SAC kind of steadied out around .65-.75 for the last 5 dives before yesterday (my lowest was .63) I noticed yesterday that I was a lot more relaxed, because I wasn't continuously looking around for where my buddy was, this guy stayed right within my peripheral vision. So the end result . . . my SAC went down to .54 yesterday with a high of .59 on the second dive because we did a fast swim back to shore (just because we could . . . lots of air left) I know that experience will help a lot too, but I was amazed at how much more relaxed I was.

Note: Not that my other buddies are bad . . . they are just as inexperienced as I am and I try to take this to heart as the kind of buddy I want to be for them.

Tim

 

[ScubaFreak]

Thats great that you've discovered a vital part of a buddy team. Being close enough to each other to be able to rely on each other if the situation calls for it.
Much cooler diving with someone when u can see them eh?

Keep it up

 

[Snowbear]

Note: Not that my other buddies are bad . . . they are just as inexperienced as I am and I try to take this to heart as the kind of buddy I want to be for them.

Pretty cool Tim!

Amazing how having a good buddy makes you want to strive to be a good buddy, huh?

 

[DementialFaith]

Hm...... all my dives so far are with at least one instructor or ppl w/ over 200 logged dives........ guess I'm really spoiled. Always turning down people with very few dives....

 

[Uncle Pug]

I never turn down people with just a few dives and some of the crappiest buddies I've ever had had a lot of dives and must have practiced perfecting poor buddy skills on every one of them they were so good at being a crappy buddy.

Kidspot... glad you had that experience! Cool, huh?

BTW: Make it your goal to be a good buddy.

 

[CharleyT]

Good dive buddies are the best!

I was lucky enough to get buddied up during our classroom session for Open Water in August. Sharon and I now dive with each other as often as possible (we just finished Advanced last weekend). She is as good a diving buddy as you could want, and it really makes me want to be a better buddy. Normally we stay within arm’s reach of each other, but thankfully to date have not run into any problems. Nothing wrong with being prepared though.

My SAC is still high (mid 20s), but I’m working on it).


Charley

 

[TX101]

I've never really had a chance to solo dive properly, however I've been told by people that do solo dive that their SAC goes down because they are not worrying about a buddy. (mine goes up, because I worry about getting snagged on monofilament)

 

[Charlie99]

Hm...... all my dives so far are with at least one instructor or ppl w/ over 200 logged dives........ guess I'm really spoiled. Always turning down people with very few dives....

Aren't you glad that they didn't turn down you when you were inexperienced?

Since I often travel solo to resort areas, I have dived with lots of different buddies.

The quality of buddies doesn't depend much on experience level.

The quality of a buddy seems to be more related to general attitude and their overall "got it togetherness". The same personality you see on the boat is going to be there underwater.

The quality of a random buddy is also highly dependent upon how much effort we put into getting us on the same wavelength before the dive starts.

If you keep running into "bad buddies", you should look hard and critically at your own predive skills. My random boat buddies got much better once I became more clear on expectations about things like buddy-to-buddy distance and relative positioning, signalling of general changes in direction of movement, turn times and pressures, etc.

 

[Laser]

New divers also tend to want to swim around at high speed, so he may have slowed you down a bit as well which is a good thing.

 

[kidspot]

New divers also tend to want to swim around at high speed, so he may have slowed you down a bit as well which is a good thing.

He definitely did that - It was great. For all of my cert dives my "buddy" slowed me down a bit too . . . by catching rides on my tank valve - he was a 13 yr. old who thought catching a ride by holding onto my tank valve was the way to go - and he was having fun "playing in the bubbles" not trying to say he couldn't have fun, I was just always worried about "where did he get off to now" - I really need to work on my pre-dive buddy awareness skills too - "let's stay this far away, in this general position . . . etc..", not meaning a robotic style dive, just a mutual understanding of objectives.

Thanks for all the encouragement to "be" a good buddy myself - it's a high priority in my book.

Tim