The solo diving movement, a good idea?

[DaleC]

the best thing about the buddy system is that there is always someone around to second guess your decisions and help prevent mistakes. The worst thing about the solo diving system is that there isn't.

I agree that this could be true in some cases. For myself, it hasn't always proven to be the case but I take full ownership for being part of a less than functional team.

Occasionally I find buddies that I sync quite well with. Most notably nerdy types who are very into what they do but not in a boastful way. I think we appreciate and support each others passions. We are usually focused but somewhat easy about what we do, which makes each of us feel valued but when all is said and done we do what we say we will do. Sometimes they support my vintage or fish study pursuits, sometimes I support their photography.

Otherwise I prefer to dive alone because I can conduct my dives the way I want to conduct my dives. I can say I trust my own judgement to a high degree and dislike diving with others who's action cause me to subjugate it.

 

[CamG]

My instructor taught all of his students to be good buddies and if they weren't they did not get a c-card.
Solo diving is not BASIC diving but Advanced or Tech. which comes with advanced training and accepted risks.
It is not a good idea to Solo dive with out the proper training , experience, and awareness.
I dive Solo sometimes because of necessity and some for sanity.

We were taught from AOW on to self rescue / self reliance with your buddy as a last resort.
This was our way of ensuring self reliance / awareness grew as our skill sets grew.
We dove in teams 2 or 3 rarely more and never in deep or adverse conditions.
This was the beginning of the path that lead me to the desire to Tech dive.
We would dive with anyone on simple OW dives or train OW / AOW divers but when we dove for ourselves we planned and dove in the self reliance mode with team back up last resort.

CamG

 

[DaleC]

I'm just saying that the reason insta-buddies have such atrocious buddy skills is that our training system does a terrible job at teaching buddy skills.

I don't agree. There isn't much to being a good buddy that isn't taught in the basic OW course. Not skills, but behavior. I was taught to keep my buddy close, confer with each other, do buddy checks, not to separate etc... but those behaviors are ignored. If the behavior were maintained the skills would be easy to improve.

What the dir movement has been very successful at is enforcing a culture of responsibility within its membership post education. There is a high degree of peer pressure exerted to behave as taught. A good thing.

There is no such culture in other mainstream agencies that I am aware of. Once you pay your money and get your card it's the wild wild west. The only controls come from LDS's and charter OP's who make up their own rules like lords of their own fiefdoms.

it's not lack of education. It's lack of follow through.

 

[TMHeimer]

DaleC, Agree completely. Rule #1 in my book is always keep close to your buddy. BOTH buddies do that. A little OCD here never hurt. I have buddied with those who rarely check where I was. And with those who were right there always. It's simple enough, you'd think. A buddy who's not in a position to assist is worse than useless. You don't have that responsibility diving solo. Again, the pros and cons of each.

 

[TSandM]

I think it's both lack of education, and a different mindset.

How many people get taught what the restrictions in field of view are with a mask? How many people are aware that, if they are behind and above their buddy, they can see the buddy, but the buddy can't see them? How many people are made aware of the fact that, if you turn away from your buddy, your fins turn TOWARD him, and may kick him or even remove his mask? How many OW students are given any kind of tool to know how they should apportion their attention -- like the mantra I was given, "What's my depth? Where's my buddy? Look at the fish . . . " How many people are aware that you are sometimes better off in reduced viz or darkness, because your lights are more visible than you are, and that in clear, sunlit water, you need to be MORE vigilant, not less?

And regarding mindset, how many divers have any idea of conceiving a dive as a team exercise . . . We're going to go look for X for Joe to photograph; we're going to to Y wreck and Adam is going to shoot video and the other two of us will model. We're going to go out to the second reef at Ulua and see how many porcelain crabs we can find. We're taking Jane to the Honey Bear to see the octopus on eggs. If everybody who is diving has the same idea in mind, everybody will have no problem staying together, staying in communication, and following the plan. I think all too often, there just isn't any concept of what the dive is about. As a DM who helped train me said on one of the few fun dives we did together, when he was asked what the goals of the dive were, "Go down, swim around, look at stuff." And in fact, many dives can be described that way, just as many football games can be described as throwing the ball a few times and running around a lot. With just a bit more structure on the dive concept, some parameters form kind of organically, which give all the divers a bit of framework that holds chaos at bay.

 

[Kharon]

I'm just saying that the reason insta-buddies have such atrocious buddy skills is that our training system does a terrible job at teaching buddy skills.

I wholeheartedly agree - BUT - I don't get paid to, nor do I want to remedy that. It would be wonderful of me to train and babysit on every dive. I am NOT going to do that. It's isn't my role, it isn't my responsibility. Moreover, I'm not trained to instruct and there is nothing to say my idea of proper buddy skills is correct. The remedy for this is longer, more extensive OW instruction and more stringent tests of OW skills before certification. Of course this requires more time and effort from instructors ≡ less money so I don't see this changing.

---------- Post added August 24th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ----------

I don't agree. There isn't much to being a good buddy that isn't taught in the basic OW course. Not skills, but behavior. I was taught to keep my buddy close, confer with each other, do buddy checks, not to separate etc... but those behaviors are ignored.

Unfortunately your view of what makes a good buddy is way too simplistic. Being there is necessary, sure, but being able to identify the problem and knowing exactly what the solution is and being able to provide that solution are the crux. Those skills are NOT taught or required at a sufficient level. I had a very good SDI instructional team. I was not ready to be a good buddy when I got my card.

 

[TSandM]

I think what is taught varies. I think it would be a very BAD open water class, if the student finished it without having gotten the idea that you dive with a buddy and you should stay together, and you should do a buddy check before the dive, and check on one another's gas status during the dive. But I think it is almost universal that people get very little information or training in HOW to achieve these things . . . how to, as my dear friend HBDiveGirl says, "dive to stay found". We try very hard to give our students some basic ideas, to point out that masks limit peripheral vision and how diver positioining affects staying in contact, and how lights can be used. But a new diver is often primarily focused on survival and staying somewhere between the bottom and the surface (which for some of us is a major challenge) and doesn't have a lot of bandwidth to spend on precise diver positioning (and often doesn't have the skills to position herself precisely, either).

No one HAS to mentor. No one HAS to dive with a buddy, which point has been made multiple times in this thread. But I would not be the diver I am (or possibly a diver at all) had NWGratefulDiver not been willing to "babysit". I have found it quite rewarding to help mentor other divers, and helping people with buddy skills isn't hard. It isn't rocket science, after all; stay where you can be seen, don't get tunnel vision (mantra "What's my depth? Where's my buddy? Look at the fish . . . "), stick to the dive plan.

Being a good buddy can be learned and it CAN be taught. Being part of a smoothly functioning dive team takes a little more training and more work. But it's all achievable, and deciding to dive solo ought to be a choice that someone makes because he or she WANTS to be alone, not a choice that is made to avoid bad dive buddies.

 

[tracydr]

I think it's both lack of education, and a different mindset.

How many people get taught what the restrictions in field of view are with a mask? How many people are aware that, if they are behind and above their buddy, they can see the buddy, but the buddy can't see them? How many people are made aware of the fact that, if you turn away from your buddy, your fins turn TOWARD him, and may kick him or even remove his mask? How many OW students are given any kind of tool to know how they should apportion their attention -- like the mantra I was given, "What's my depth? Where's my buddy? Look at the fish . . . " How many people are aware that you are sometimes better off in reduced viz or darkness, because your lights are more visible than you are, and that in clear, sunlit water, you need to be MORE vigilant, not less?

And regarding mindset, how many divers have any idea of conceiving a dive as a team exercise . . . We're going to go look for X for Joe to photograph; we're going to to Y wreck and Adam is going to shoot video and the other two of us will model. We're going to go out to the second reef at Ulua and see how many porcelain crabs we can find. We're taking Jane to the Honey Bear to see the octopus on eggs. If everybody who is diving has the same idea in mind, everybody will have no problem staying together, staying in communication, and following the plan. I think all too often, there just isn't any concept of what the dive is about. As a DM who helped train me said on one of the few fun dives we did together, when he was asked what the goals of the dive were, "Go down, swim around, look at stuff." And in fact, many dives can be described that way, just as many football games can be described as throwing the ball a few times and running around a lot. With just a bit more structure on the dive concept, some parameters form kind of organically, which give all the divers a bit of framework that holds chaos at bay.

Exactly what I was talking about. Not just "stay close to your buddy and check each other's gas, do equipment checks together before you jump in" but a full-on approach to where exactly one should be located to make sure you can see your buddy and the buddy can see you, how not to kick your buddy in the face,etc. These skills are not part of a regular OW class. How hard would it be to add these team building skills to OW? Probably not hard but the agencies would have to get involved with curriculum changes, because even the instructors don't know this stuff. Instructors in OW classes often don't even position themselves very well to see the class, opting for in front leading,which is a terrible position.
Positioning is one of the key differences that I noticed diving with GUE divers, they were simply never out of sight or reach and this decreased stress level on a low-vis dive tremendously.

 

[DaleC]

...
Unfortunately your view of what makes a good buddy is way too simplistic. Being there is necessary, sure, but being able to identify the problem and knowing exactly what the solution is and being able to provide that solution are the crux. Those skills are NOT taught or required at a sufficient level. I had a very good SDI instructional team. I was not ready to be a good buddy when I got my card.

I think my understanding of being a competent buddy is pretty spot on and echoes much of what Lynne wrote here:

How many people get taught what the restrictions in field of view are with a mask... if they are behind and above their buddy, they can see the buddy, but the buddy can't see them... if you turn away from your buddy, your fins turn TOWARD him, and may kick him or even remove his mask... "What's my depth? Where's my buddy? Look at the fish ... that you are sometimes better off in reduced viz or darkness, because your lights are more visible than you are, and that in clear, sunlit water, you need to be MORE vigilant, not less... conceiving a dive as a team exercise ... If everybody who is diving has the same idea in mind, everybody will have no problem staying together, staying in communication, and following the plan... just a bit more structure on the dive concept give all the divers a bit of framework that holds chaos at bay.

My point was that if you have the mindset, the skills can fall into place; either from formal education or trial and error. I have never taken xxx training but am aware of all of the skills and considerations discussed. It's not rocket surgery and xxx doesn't own the patent.

Being a good buddy is simple if you start from the premise of being available to that buddy at any time during the dive. From there you simply analyze what you do and how it impacts that objective and seek solutions when needed. Does xxx do a better job than most at this - yes. Does it not occur anywhere outside xxx - no.

I would agree that my OW course was terrible for teaching those skills; it was follow the leader stuff all the way, but it did teach the general principles involved. Post OW I may not have had all the skills, but if I believed in the principles, I should be able to acquire them. In fact, I did.

And to be fair, most rec divers never train beyond OW and should only be doing simple daytime dives to 60' (according to the training). Not at night or in low vis conditions. It's not fair to compare that to what might result from taking a course like fundies. Try primer or essentials with no post cert onus on maintaining what one was taught.


I don't want to argue agencies tit for tat. xxx does do a good job of teaching skills but I maintain that their real success lies in the follow through of most of their members, most of the time, long past certification.

---------- Post added August 24th, 2013 at 11:27 AM ----------

...deciding to dive solo ought to be a choice that someone makes because he or she WANTS to be alone, not a choice that is made to avoid bad dive buddies.

I would say I decided to solo/be self reliant so I would not be at the mercy of bad dive buddies. Good dive buddies are a pleasure but Ii can't always tell who they will be ahead of time without seriously diminishing the potential buddy pool to my known cliche (which in a club/novice setting can be a somewhat selfish behavior).

There's always that new/unknown diver who says they want to dive. Will they be a good buddy ? I may offer to dive with them but I will be damned if I am going to make my survival dependent on their actions in any way.

 

[TSandM]

I don't want to argue agencies tit for tat. xxx does do a good job of teaching skills but I maintain that their real success lies in the follow through of most of their members, most of the time, long past certification.

TOTALLY agree!

I may offer to dive with them but I will be damned if I am going to make my survival dependent on their actions in any way.

Agree with this as well. When I dive with people who are entirely new to me and whose bonafides are unknown, I keep the dive simple and manage my own redundancy, either with doubles or with a third team member.