The Diver's Personal Responsibilities

[g1138]

I think personal responsibilities of a diver are to be able to plan their dive as if they we're diving solo, but relegating their redundancy in their buddy rather than equipment. This would mean knowing your dive plan, air plan, plan of navigation, hazards etc.
In addition they should have a plan of buddy separation and even basic buddy rescue; getting an unconscious buddy to the surface without putting anymore danger into themselves.

As for the DM's responsibility, ideally that person should be a safety line in case of an inexperienced mistake, but should not be relied upon. The DM should give their experienced input on the dive site and dive plan, but ultimately it falls upon the divers to create their plan, dive their plan, and the DM is there to correct any inexperience mistakes, because he/she is the experienced person on that site. Ideally at least, it sometimes doesn't come out that way.

 

[BluewaterSail]

So far, I agree with what everybody has posted in this thread. Thanks all for sharing your views. I guess the type of guy who likes to just jump in the water without much forethought is not the kind of diver to be hanging out here.

 

[TMHeimer]

Of course in the "old" days (say the 60s) advanced training was not available and many of us divers did things based on little real experience or knowledge. Solo diving and even deep diving were often involved. I am only certified to rescue level but have 50+ years of diving experience. I done things things well "beyond my training" if I had a specific reason to do so. I'm no thrill seeker. However I did many deep (180-200 fsw) dives on air solo when I needed to film critters down there. I did them solo because I didn't want responsibility for someone else or to put them into a position of responsibility for me. The boat crew was informed that if I were diving deep and something happened, they were NOT to attempt a rescue. My family was informed that the boat operator and crew were not to be held liable should anything happen. I took full responsibility.

Based on my personal experience I have a 17X greater risk of a problem occurring when diving with a buddy. Of course most of those incidents when buddying up were due to diving with a buddy I was unfamiliar with. The incidents while diving solo involved equipment failure, and I learned from them and have addressed ways to compensate should such failure occur again.

I love diving with some of my regular buddies (and with a few irregular ones as well). It is great to share the experience. In such situations I acknowledge my responsibility toward them (especially when diving with my son).

Very well put. Dive solo and be responsible for yourself, or dive with a buddy and be both responsible for yourself and able to assist the buddy. My diving is very simple and straight forward--the most complicated it gets is a charter trip involving 2 deep dives in a day. I feel comfortable and prepared for each dive. If my diving were ever to get more complex I would get the training and begin diving those dives with someone experienced doing so.