Smell of alcohol from somebody assembling their gear and getting kitted up
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The idea of an instabuddy sets off alarm bells. We generally charter our own boat and when that's not possible I'll dive alone. If diving with a new diver for the first time I usually vet them ahead of time and attempt to make an easy shore dive locally before we get on a boat together.
Nothing. I'm extra cautious with anyone I don't know... unless/until they give me a reason to believe otherwise, I start with the assumption they have no idea what they're doing.
Smell of alcohol from somebody assembling their gear and getting kitted up
weight belt on the wrong way ding ding. Oh your weight belt should be right hand release - I'm left handed, ding ding ding ding ding.
*usually good divers but not always good buddies.
ive seen this in at least one SSI book (stress & rescue) where the divers weight belt should be worn to facilitate a strong hand release rather than right hand release. 20% (% of leftys) of SSI divers may be doing it wrong.
When the Captain of the diveboat I frequently go on asks me as a favor to buddy-up with a diver who's never been on the dive site before, s/he only having a single tank AL80 and with no dive light --on the HMCS Yukon wreck in San Diego, 11deg C water temp with 6m viz at 21m. (Oh well, there went my original 40min bow-to-stern penetration traverse plan at ave 27m depth with O2 deco for 8min).