What to do with an inexperienced instabuddy?

[gypsyjim]

I am coming very close to deciding that I will not dive with anyone who is diving with a GoPro. Period.
Some of the rudest, most oblivious self centered diving I have witnessed recently has been by divers focused on capturing the entire reef through their Go Pro, and racing all over the place, shoving their camera into every nook and cranny, and intruding on any marine life that other divers are trying to watch or photograph.

A newer diver with only a handful of dives should not in my opinion be carrying any camera at all. Chasing around behind a video camera, trying to film everything on the dive is way too much task loading for a new diver, still trying to master the sport. There is no way that such a new diver can be monitoring their buoyancy, their gas supply, their depth, or their buddy, while they are so focused on "capturing everything".

IF I did that first dive, the SI would definitely have involved a discussion of exactly what happened on dive #1, and how we could have communicated/dived better as a team, along with a suggestion that the camera stay on the boat, before I would agree to do dive #2.
I would speak with the captain/DM and inform them that I was not comfortable diving with this diver, and I was either diving with another diver, going solo, or sitting out the next dive, before I would enter the water a second time with someone I felt unsafe diving with.

I do actually enjoy diving with new divers, IF I feel that they are willing to listen, and are focusing in being safe under water. I never do a second dive with anyone who I feel has dived unsafely, unless I am certain that they have realized what they did, and they really show that they are interested in becoming a better diver.

 

[patrickusaf08]

I see a lot of good points on here. Being a new diver my self I try to always monitor my self and keep and eye on my buddy. I like to stay no further then 10 feet away in case there is an emergency either of us is close at hand. I think it is important to always go over your pre dive brief so both parties understand what is going to happen. I look at it a lot like a flight briefing. During the brief we discuss call signs and everything we are going to do. If you are both go in understanding if you point to your hand out flat means check your air and then mark thousands on your arm and hundreds by holding up the finger number that is an example of an easy way to communicate. Some times I think people look at me being a new diver that they don't want to go because I will just go off on my own or not do any things like check my air or ask what my buddies air is at. I try and always do a little briefing with my dive buddy who almost normally has more dives then myself and try to use the hand signals they are most comfortable with. I also love when diving with a person and they ask you how much air you have and you give them the proper signal and they don't believe you and swim up and check your computer any way and its what you gave them. Some people must think because someone doesn't have that many dives they are a air hog but some people just use less air.

 

[kr2y5]

Our second dive was on a wall to 30m, which dropped away to about 80m.

Given her performance on the first dive: lack of awareness, bad buoyancy skills, I think she did not belong on a 30m wall dive that drops off to 80m...

Had I decided not to go on the second dive, the only person who would have missed it was me!

...but then you already knew that .

Before the dive, I told her to keep a close eye on her depth and air, ...

You made a few implicit assumptions: (a) she was paying attention, (b) you both agree on what keeping a "close eye" means in practice, (c) she is willing and able to follow the plan...

 

[Redshift]

Last Saturday I was paired up for a couple of boat dives with an instabuddy who had just completed Advanced Open Water. She had only done 12 dives and I met her on the way out to the dive site. I'm not the world's most advanced diver, but I'd consider myself to be reasonably experienced in a variety of conditions - cold(ish), currents, poor vis etc.

What's your certification level? Could she have seen you more like an equal and resented your taking charge? As others have said, sometimes you went straight to tell her what to do instead of planning the dive together.

Our first dive was on the wreck of a submarine at 26m. She wasn't wreck qualified so we decided just to hang out on the outside of the wreck and cruise up and down it.

What kind of a submarine is that where divers can go inside?!

She didn't communicate with me at all during the dive and I didn't see her check her gauges (depth or SPG) once during the whole dive (I kept an eye on her pressure by checking the SPG myself).

I think here you should have done it differently. If you wanted to know her air and were afraid she wasn't paying attention to it, you should have asked, not gone to check her gauge. That would be more polite and force communication.

I tried to help her but she became inverted, trying to swim back down and all she had was a shoulder dump/LP inflator, so she couldn't dump any air. Eventually she admitted defeat and floated to the surface. I decided to skip my safety stop (possibly not a great idea?!) and ascend slowly to the surface to make sure she was ok.

What kind of BCD only has a shoulder dump? Never seen those...
It's a safety stop, not mandatory, but always a good idea to do. If you were so close to the surface you could probably see her there and then decide to continue or not on your stop.

When I was at 100 bar and about 29m, I signalled her to start ascending, slowly, to a higher point on the wall. She nodded and then descended to about 33m, ignoring me completely. I followed her and told her to ascend, to which she nodded again, before completely ignoring me again and staying where she was. I was on nitrox and nowhere near my NDL but I was concerned that she might be nudging hers (on air), so I forcefully told her to ascend. This time she got the point and followed me to about 20m. At this point, I checked her SPG and discovered that she was at 70bar. I was pretty unhappy.

She could have been narc'd... Again, you could have asked her about her NDL. And having 70 bar at 20 m is no reason to be "pretty unhappy". Plenty of air!

We started making our way to the bottom of the shot line, at about 15m, at which point, she got caught by the (quite mild) current. I stayed with her and started to get out the SMB. As I shot it, she decided to swim away, back towards the shotline. This freaked me out as I now had an SMB in tow and couldn't follow her easily. She just swam off and when she was about 15m away, I lost sight of her. I was working quite hard to follow her, so I knew I was chomping through my remaining air but when she disappeared, I basically had to give up, ascend, do my safety stop and cross my fingers that she was ok. I'm not going to lie - I was freaking out. I knew she was low on air and inexperienced and I was afraid that if she didn't run out of gas, she'd ascend too quickly and hurt herself. Eventually I ascended and the boat came and picked me up. She was sitting on board like nothing had happened.

It can be scary for a diver with little experience to go up without a shotline. She should have told you about that in advance. But since you were first at the shot and the current was mild why not to go up there?
I understand how you must have felt. But she was the one going away. As some people have pointed out, a buddy has a duty of care and rules about buddy separation do say to search for a minute and ascend. Although, where was her duty of care when she abandoned you with an SMB already up?

I resisted the temptation to shout at her, but gave her a bit of a stern talking to about staying with her buddy and keeping a closer eye on her depth/air but she just explained that she'd got worried when she was drifting in the current, knew I'd be fine by myself (luckily I was!) and so decided to swim back to the shot.

Debriefing in these cases is very important. How was the debrief after the first dive?
I tried to focus more on how things could have been done differently, as others had already commented on her behaviour, which was quite bad. I don't know if I would have dived with her on the second dive either...

 

[Ricky B]

Being a buddy does not constitute entering into a suicide pact!

I would make it clear to an insta-buddy that if he or she leaves me to do something dangerous, I am not going to follow. Hence I am not following the buddy to 120 feet or skipping a safety stop.

As for legalities, I would not worry about it, particularly if you have made it clear that you won't follow a buddy who courts danger. The likelihood of one buddy being liable for another buddy's negligence is remote (far more remote than your risk of incurring liability simply driving to work in a car), but even if it were to happen, it's better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

To avoid being buddied up with an incompetent diver, I have paid the extra fee to go with a DM. That was not a solution for the OP it appears, but where possible, it is a solution.

Were I to be buddied up with an insta-buddy, I would ask the buddy to agree with me on the dive plan and the signals, which would include agreement that a query as to air supply requires a mandatory response of (1) his/her air supply level and (2) a query as to my air supply. This is suggested by Alex Brylske in his book, The Complete Diver. The mandatory reply query makes it more clear that it's not solely that I am responsible for my buddy but that my buddy is also responsible for me.

The comments about not being buddied up with a newbie diver with a camera are astute, and I will keep that idea in mind for the future.

 

[Hickdive]

This is where a hand-held taser is useful for reinforcing learning points when back on the boat.

 

[Freewillow]

To be honest, I think the most basic Open Water course gives a full break-down of how to dive with a new buddy of unknown competency. Follow basic procedures... simple as that.

For more detail, I wrote an article on this: How To Dive With Insta-Buddies

Very interesting read and site. I added your's in my dive favorite. Thanks

 

[bowlofpetunias]

In general you have some great advice here. I will try not to repeat what has already been said as I agree with most all of it.

In the past I have been known to refuse a buddy pairing imposed by the boat operator. Discussion and observation about how they handled their gear made me feel I did not want to buddy with them. I paid for my dive and I felt I had the right to enjoy it w/o accepting an unsafe buddy. I chose to dive as a part of a group of three. Not the ideal but better than the other option!

I enjoy diving with newer divers sometimes but only on "safe" dives I believe they are safe doing. If I had done the first dive no way I would have done the second to that depth with her!

How do the newer divers get experience? In reasonable increments! Take it slowand get comfortable with easier dives before they consider 30M Wall dives with possible current and even deeper bottoms if they get narc'ed (which may have been the case).

I happen to know that you have some awesome peir dives in Melbourne. I really should get back there to dive some of them again. That would be my suggestion for this person. Get involved in a dive group and do heaps of shallow, safe shore dives and then start thinking of boat dives and so on later...

In general I think you did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

RICKY B I love your comment..

Being a buddy does not constitute entering into a suicide pact!

Jim Honest I will leave my GoPro behind.... or will it be ok if I have it clipped off to my shoulder? I really do want to dive with you again

 

[gypsyjim]

In general you have some great advice here. I will try not to repeat what has already been said as I agree with most all of it.

In the past I have been known to refuse a buddy pairing imposed by the boat operator. Discussion and observation about how they handled their gear made me feel I did not want to buddy with them. I paid for my dive and I felt I had the right to enjoy it w/o accepting an unsafe buddy. I chose to dive as a part of a group of three. Not the ideal but better than the other option!

I enjoy diving with newer divers sometimes but only on "safe" dives I believe they are safe doing. If I had done the first dive no way I would have done the second to that depth with her!

How do the newer divers get experience? In reasonable increments! Take it slowand get comfortable with easier dives before they consider 30M Wall dives with possible current and even deeper bottoms if they get narc'ed (which may have been the case).

I happen to know that you have some awesome peir dives in Melbourne. I really should get back there to dive some of them again. That would be my suggestion for this person. Get involved in a dive group and do heaps of shallow, safe shore dives and then start thinking of boat dives and so on later...

In general I think you did a pretty good job under the circumstances.

RICKY B I love your comment..

Jim Honest I will leave my GoPro behind.... or will it be ok if I have it clipped off to my shoulder? I really do want to dive with you again

Having dived with you and your camera I wouldn't hesitate!

I have a hunch that my anti Go Pro stance is based on a lot of newer divers buying them, long before they have mastered basic skills and diving etiquette

 

[Rich Keller]

I dive with insta-buddies and new divers all the time but I always make the first dive shallow so I can see if they are good in the water. I do not take into consideration how many certifications they have or how experienced they say they are, none of that matters if they are not good in the water. I also get more directly involved with them then I would normally by stopping from time to time to check their air, observe their overall condition and how comfortable they are in the water. I would end a dive and take them up with me before I would just cut someone loose because of how they were diving.