Who to Trust your Life with????

[Derwoo126123]

As a new member to scuba board and fairly young diver i found many questions answered, in addition, to serval different points of view. Getting to the point, after having been diving for two years now i find my self wanting to venture away from the lack of variety and cold tepatures that missouri diving offers and travel to mexico or somewhere as close as illinois, just something to change things up. However, with friends begining to move away that i used to dive with and not much by the way the of keepers at the local dive shops, where do i find a buddy who is as excited about diving as me and shares the same level of enthusiasm? The reason i ask is in the future i would like move on to more difficult and possibly more technical diving, and would like to be able to find someone who i can recieve feedback from, dive with, learn from, and ect? Any ideas or words of advice?

 

[DaleC]

I don't know about your neck of the woods but I also had a tough time finding buddies when I first started. The guy I did OW with promptly stopped diving right after. I tried using existing buddy lists at the LDS for a while with little success. Eventually I took the bull by the horns and became quite active in creating and promoting buddy lists. Now I enjoy being in the center of several as well as participating in two clubs. My advice would be don't be a passive diver/buddy. Jump into the center and just stick out your hand. My experience has been that there are plenty of new divers in the same boat and most seasoned divers welcome new people in the sport. Just be honest about your experience and don't act like an dope.

Anyways, good luck.

 

[M_Bipartitus]

Welcome to Scubaboard.

You may find some potential buddies in your local sub-forum:

Mid-West Muck Divers - ScubaBoard

 

[tstormdiver]

The ideas expressed above are very good. You might even inquire as to whether there is a local diving clubs around. That's where I've met up with many people. I've opened up several doors through this site, a local club site, social networking sites, classes, my LDS,.......

 

[fnfalman]

First of all, I trust my life to myself. Secondly, like others said, cruise the subforum that is applicable to your area and see if you can locate a buddy.

 

[Splash-X]

As M_Bipartitus stated, using the forum for divers in your area may help you find some buddies.

As others have said, check in to scuba clubs in your area.

Believe it or not, another great place to meet potential buddies is to take additional classes. The shop that I use has a "specialty of the month" where there is a different class each month to meet the demand of the customers (deep, wreck, night, etc etc). While gaining additional skills and learning more about diving you'll be in a classroom with several other divers who you can exchange information with you build up a list of buddies.

I myself was luck to have my wife as a buddy from day one but since we've become dive leaders we don't do a ton of diving together. Through the classes we've taken and the other divers we've met while on diving trips (both local and exotic) we have a pretty good "core" of buddies to choose from.

One of the best things a local dive shop can offer is organized outings on a regular basis to help you stay active in diving and that will in turn allow you to meet more divers in your region. We usually have a "pot luck" lunch which turns out great because we get to mingle and talk with each other before and after the dives.

Best of luck to you in your search for diving buddies!

 

[dwhthediver]

Hit me up if you want to dive Mermet Springs, love that little quarry!

 

[TMHeimer]

I think I am at the point that I trust myself first. I only dive solo to 30 feet, but I treat all the other deeper dives as if I were alone. Keep in mind of course that there are all kinds of buddies--Especially if you are by yourself on a charter looking for one. Sometimes a buddy can be more of a hazzard than a help to you. I even had an instructor (not mine at the time) who up and left me deep. But almost always an Instructor or DM is a great choice.

 

[Derwoo126123]

Thanks for all the recommendations, i still have many classes i would like to take in the near future. Though it's an obviouse way to meet divers, the thought of finding other divers through furthering ones education is a great idea and will probably also more likely target the "better dive buddy" being as they are furthering there dive knowledge.

Thanks dwhthediver, i dove this at Mermet springs this summer... Great dive people, awesome scenery, and good facility. I will definitely keep that in mind for further trips to there.