Why don't "club trip divers" use buddy teams?

[Rred]

Am I the only one who was taught "YOU are the divemaster. YOU make all the choices." Including the one to have a buddy, or not. Apparently none of the people on those club dives have CHOSEN to have a buddy, and that pretty much means they have CHOSEN to dive alone in the crowd.

Why lay that off on the boat operator or the club? Divers are supposed to make those decisions for themselves.

 

[svs]

In many situations I actually prefer dives organized as a group with one diveguide/divemaster. I try not to lose sight of this person since it is him/her why most likely will be capable to provide assistance, determine direction, speed, knows most interesting places on a dive etc. Alternatively I would have to monitor 2 people divemaster and a buddy and make extra decisions e.g when insta buddy decides to become adventurous and swim its own way, run out of air etc.

 

[NAM001]

Am I the only one who was taught "YOU are the divemaster. YOU make all the choices." Including the one to have a buddy, or not. Apparently none of the people on those club dives have CHOSEN to have a buddy, and that pretty much means they have CHOSEN to dive alone in the crowd.

Why lay that off on the boat operator or the club? Divers are supposed to make those decisions for themselves.

Not necessarily. so many divers on thee locations are vacationers. I can speak first hand for this. Where i live er have nothing but lakes that are say 30 ft deep. the hazzards are few and the realized need for a buddy does not exist. You run low on air and you head up 25 ft and swim to shore and strip down for an air fill. So many do not really appreciate the dangers involved in ocean diving. As result they conduct themselves the same if at home in 30 ft of water with no current and no boating allowed. Add this to the generall attitude of its someone elses responsibiity to keep me safe and the over pushing of dive rules that are again like the airline rules of a water landing and use of the cushion. Its a no one listens no one cares and all the talk is a hoop the boat has to go through to cover them selves, which it is. I took my wife out on her first ocean dive last summer in grand caymen and coz. She was amazed by the environment but was also heavily impacted by how hard it was ti fight a current if she needed to and the helplessness of being positioned over the deep side of a wall. She talked to me a lot about the experience and things taken for granted in the home lake waters. We spent 2 years in the local lakes preparing for an ocean dive. Although she thought she was prepared for the first plunge in salt water, she had a lot of what if's that she never thought of before. In coz my weights were lost and i could dive tha last dive. she went down alone and joined with the other couple and made a 3some. right or wrong is up for debate, however she went down not single but made herself a 3rd wheel for the other couple. NOw that er are home again she stays much closer than before.

 

[NAM001]

Am I the only one who was taught "YOU are the divemaster. YOU make all the choices." Including the one to have a buddy, or not. Apparently none of the people on those club dives have CHOSEN to have a buddy, and that pretty much means they have CHOSEN to dive alone in the crowd.

Why lay that off on the boat operator or the club? Divers are supposed to make those decisions for themselves.

It depends where you are , if yo are in a taxi state,,, the boat is not responsible while you are in the water. If you are nnot in a taxi state the shop has a diver in the water with you. if you go to say mexico the law requires a divemaster in the water with you. quite often with groups you have 2 or 3 dive masters in the water . one leading and the others controlling the rear and sides, most traveler divers dont know they are there, they look like the vacationer divers at the rear of the pack, but they are with the boat. A lot of times a group has no designated buddys because they are with in short range of someone to render assistance when needed. Its a pack thing. Which by the way is why i like being solo capable and not diving with OW's at depth with unknown history. Lots of stupid actions happen. You can tell a lot of who are the veterans based on their behavior onboard.

 

[TheFife]

Personally I prefer that dive facilitators (boat operators, dive masters, equipment suppliers) leave it to the divers to determine what works best for them. Diving has some risk associated with it. However, the risk is nearly entirely to the individual undertaking the dive. So...

Why do third parties try to force me to dive with a buddy?

• Liability
• Nanny state mentality

Neither of these motives resonate with me, the individual undertaking the dive. The need to absolve a third party of liability is not something I care about (except insofar as they withhold their services from me for failing to comply with their rules.). Likewise, facilitating the busy bodies who want to tell me how to live my life, isn't something I want to do.

There should only be one reason a person dives with a buddy, and that is because the individual prefers to dive with a buddy. What goes into that preference could be a variety of things; desire for companionship, lack of confidence to dive without assistance, specific goals that require another individual, etc. I expect most people don't have these legitimate reasons for using the buddy system. That means that one of the 2 bullets above is influencing their decision. Because of that, most people just go through the motions to satisfy the liability concerns, and avoid the evangelizing of the buddy system faithful.