Veteran Divers paired with Newbies

[claymore]

My perspective on buddying up with a new diver like many have said is dependent on the situation. If I have been DMing on a particular day or gone up for weekend of fun dives and a new diver wants to do do a nice simple shallow fun dive when I am not working that's fine. I know that I will be a baby sitter and and and that's fine because I signed on for it. I also know that I may end up with an inexperienced diver on some of our fun dives and that is my option.

If I have paid for a charter or if I have traveled long distances, warm water or wrecks, I generally do not want to be a baby sitter, I just want to enjoy my dive.

 

[Centrals]

When I was a beginner diver I always buddied with the DM or someone with similar experience and limited the max depth to 18m.
I am more experienced now, no problem to dive with anyone as long as I do not have to look after them. Still remember the incidence when I have to demonstrate to an AOW diver how to clear mask properly!

 

[AfterDark]

I haven’t had much experience with this situation. The 2 trips I’ve taken to NC had me diving with new divers each time. Fortunately they were both NE divers with one year of diving experience in New England. The 1st time the newbie got rattled by the clarity of the water and scrubbed the dive. The water was too clear! I did the dive solo with 17 other divers in the water. This was the 1st time I dove with this outfit and was surprised when the owner/captain consented to my continuing the dive without a buddy. The rest of the dives that week my new buddy were fine and I hardly knew he was around.

The 2nd trip went even better with a different “yearling” this time. All things considered I have no issues with new divers. In some ways they are better to deal with than an experienced diver. They are usually more open to suggestions and input than someone with years of diving under their weight belt.

You are doing the right thing by letting everyone know your status and diving with good DM’s can only make you a better diver. Dive a lot, read a lot, and ask a lot of questions, someday you’ll be one of the experienced knowledgeable divers on the boat and your questions on this subject will all be answered

 

[Steve_C]

Agree it depends on the dive. I do some travel diving where I do not know anybody on the boat. Even in NC I will go on a charter and not know anybody ahead of time. If it is just a dive (like a coral reef at modest depths) I will take whatever buddy they give me. If however, the dive is special to me, like a kelp dive, I will hire a private DM ahead of time so that we can do a full dive and it will be my dive. I really do not like to be lead along in a group if it is avoidable. I will note the prices vary. If they work for the boat charter company then it can be as low as $40 + tip or there abouts. If it is a boat charter and the DM works for someone else or themself it can be more. In one case I had to buy half a boat charter for the DM (they could use the instructor rate). Also if on business I usually like to avoid car rental and that sometimes includes pickup and take to get equipment. Even locally if I think the dive is more challenging like an offshore ledge which runs deeper I will make sure I have a buddy or arrange a DM.

 

[Neilwood]

I am obviously a fairly new diver (still below 20 dives) but so far all my experiences have been favourable with more experienced divers. So long as I am up front about my experience (should that be lack of), they are fine with keeping an eye out and finishing a dive a bit early due to consumption (I am starting to get pretty close to the more experienced guys on that front). I should say though that this is all on shore dives with typical UK vis (sub3m on a bad day to 10-15m on a very good day) near to my locality so no "must see" type dives.

 

[Diver0001]

On the one dive trip I have been on (Hawaii) and the 2 trips I have planned in the future, each time I have spoken with the person in charge and reiterated that I am a newbie and only want to be paired with the divemaster.

.

If you do that, you're better off to hire a DM to be your buddy than to ask the operator to organize it. The operator will do their best to accommodate you but the DM has a whole group to keep eyes on and he/she will be too distracted to act optimally as a buddy.... not to mention that they're going to scuttle off in the event of a diver having a problem, possibly leaving you alone.

You're better off asking the operator to pair you with an experienced buddy.

That said, about pairing with inexperienced divers. When I'm just diving with a group then I never mind being paired with anyone, including rank beginners. Some people a snobbish about it or feel that they should be left alone without the limitations of a buddy who is still learning because they paid for it..... other people are not so. On any given day it's just going to be the luck of the draw.

R..

 

[Wookie]

I know I'm late to the party, and I didn't read the entire thread, so pardon me if I repeat what someone else has said, but in tens of thousands of instabuddy pairs, I never once had someone complain to me about their buddy. Now, we would see and understand that some pairs were not a match made in heaven, and work to rearrange buddies, but as has been stated, some folks love to pass along their knowledge without being an instructor. Sometimes that knowledge is valuable, sometimes it needs to be taken with a grain of salt, but I never once had someone come to me or the deckhand and ask for a buddy reassignment.

 

[oya]

There have been some great posts here and I hope they have helped set the OP's mind a bit at ease!

One point I haven't noticed made, though:
Divers at every level should certainly seek out more experienced buddies to learn from. I've got several thousand dives at pretty challenging levels... but to this day nothing delights me more than being the least experienced person in a team so I can try to learn and grow from those with more experience! For that reason it is certainly valuable to hire a private DM when in doubt and/or to be up-front with insta-buddies for many of the reasons made above.

HOWEVER

There is also enormous value in divers being buddied together in peer teams.

Two divers with about the same experience and skill level, even two people with only OW certifications and 10 dives under their belts, are going to learn just as much from one another as either would independently under the "supervision" of a more experienced buddy. What's more, I would say that in many circumstances, someone can learn MORE from a peer than they could from a DM or an Instructor, or someone they view as an authority figure. When two people manage to work through a challenge together over 20 minutes it is going to be more memorable and usually more fun that when some bit of information is simply explained in 30 seconds (to, likely, be forgotten).

How many of the old-timers here have had to swim back to the boat or to shore back in the day with their equally inexperienced buddy? Or had a cam band come loose underwater between the two of you? Or had to try to figure out which of these two mooring lines goes back up to your boat?

So, the point I'd make to the OP... don't worry so much.

Yes, I've gotten grumpy when I've been randomly buddied up with someone with only a few dives. Because I was on vacation and I wanted to be left alone... but I put on my big-boy pants and tried to make the best of it to help a newer person into our world as a safer and happier diver. And I probably grouched about it a little bit later, but I became an instructor specifically because I really enjoy helping people get better at this game. If some other dive-vets can't do that... well, screw them.

 

[MelasLithos]

As a new diver too, I have to say that I always had extremely good experiences with the veteran divers, to the point of often being "adopted" by them and explicitely taken under their wings. Maybe I was just lucky to meet extremely nice people on the boats, but what I think helped with that was:

- a good air consumption (and relaxed attitude in the water). It looks like I am quite naturally blessed with it. I never really understood all the "not having enough air" talks until recently when I was told that no, it is not usual to come up with that much air, especially not for a "new" diver, and yes, usually, those would empty their tanks before reaching NDL. I guess it's always easier when you will not limit other people.
- a good attitude and willingness to learn. Be upfront about your level, and stay open to every thing they can say. I'd say if I have a fault, is asking far too much questions. I hope that in this case, curiosity will not kill the cat, but instead, help it survive longer under water! (Spending far too much time on ScubaBoard learning from everyone here does wonders too ^^)

I'd like to sum this up as "be the one that they can bring up, not the one that will drag them down". And I believe that is true for everything in life. People love to help you improve if you are willing to listen. And it looks like they love being your first ^^ First one to show you a crazy animal, first one to take you on a night dive or onto a wreck, first one to let you spear a lionfish, etc.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I just got back in the water after several months of layoff. My dive shop was running a fun dive at a local beach so I decided to show up and get wet. There was a hand full of people there and two guys in particular were gearing up for a dive. I explained that I was getting into the water for the first time after full hip replacement surgery and asked if I could tag along. Well it turned out that one of the guys was doing his 5th and 6th dive, and the other guy was not much further than that. They asked me how much experience I had, and I told them I had about 150 dives at this one site alone and knew it very well. So I ended up leading these guys around and showing them the site. One of them used air like a hoover because he was on his BC the whole time inflating and dumping. I didn't mind diving with these guys at all, it was fun. All I was doing was a re-acclimation dive so I didn't have a task or agenda to follow. And it was nice to have someone there to help me with my fins on the beach coming out. We exchanged numbers for future dives and I hope to mentor these guys a little bit in the future.
I was blown away with how little the dive shops really teach them about basics and how much gear they still sell them. In that respect not much has changed. At first the two divers were all about telling me how much they know trying to assert themselves, which is natural. At the end they had questions and were all ears as I made a few suggestions on their techniques and how to improve a few things. We had some great gear discussions also.

We've all been there, all of us were rank amateurs and noobs at one time. I don't hold it against them in any way. What does piss me off though is when they do silly things but then are too arrogant to take helpful advice even after they ask for it. But these guys didn't do that and I'd dive with them again no problem.