Why I won't dive with you.

[dherbman]

You know herb, I would dive with buddies if I had them too. Well, in a group at least. I would have a new buddy almost everyday if I didn't solo right now. It's fun to dive with friends and I'm certainly not knocking having a regular buddy to dive with.

I know exactly what you mean, Dennis. There's a lot of frustration associated with a new buddy and it takes time to develop as a team. I think DIR provides a means by which the insta buddy becomes the insta team, where everyone is on the same page out of the gate.

 

[Dan Dan the Scuba Man]

it seems to me that everyone hates loud mouth "super" divers, personaly i dont mind them as long as they pay attention and dive the plan.. reason being, they would rather breathe then talk underwater.. i dont like divers that dont know what there doing underwater because they ruin the visibility and the dive most of the time. i have three buddies i dive with all the time.. we all got very comfortable and can dive each others gear.. we always get our bearings, check PSI, depth and dive time just to make sure everything is ok.. it just makes the dive so much more enjoyable..

 

[Rick Inman]

Last weekend, Claudette and I did a 95 minute dive in the Dive Park in Catalina. I mean, c'mon. NINETY-FIVE minutes. I remember pushing her out of the way, jogging my near-empty 130 and me up the steps, stripping as I'm running across the parking lot and bursting through the restroom door like my friggen hair was on fire....

Seriously, I think this was the main reason I took a hit (not dope ) within NDLs. I had to pee so bad after the dive that I went scrambling full bore up the hill and marched across the long parking lot to the head as fast as I could. Yes, there was the dehydration and the hot shower soon after, but that hard sudden exercise right after my 3rd dive in 24 hours couldn't have been good.

Now I have the PV, and life is good. I go with the flow and enjoy a few minutes of floating and relaxing on the surface after every dive.

Get the PV (of course, you actually have to install and use the thing to enjoy the benefits ).

 

[Ber Rabbit]

So the ancillary question becomes how do I find/train/create the kind of buddy that I want to dive with? That answer is easy for DIR divers and research types, but what about everyone else (most of the divers in the world).

The more I think about it the more I can see the need for a "buddy diving" or (even better, as Bob would have it) a "team diving" specialy course that would address this problem.

Do you think that we could work up a consensus, non-agency specific standard here that any instructor could use for their own specialty course?

I have my OW students be responsible for their buddy from day 1 on scuba. I start by expecting them to monitor each other's air pressure and let me know when one of them reaches 1000psi. I or any other staff member can come up to them at any time and ask what their buddy's air pressure is and they have to be able to tell us within 250psi without looking after we ask. They are expected to do all skills and exercises within arms reach of each other. I've found that assigning them the responsibility for their well-being as well as their buddy's well-being early in the class helps produce divers who aren't looking to me for every little thing.
Ber :lilbunny:

 

[Darnold9999]

Bob

It would surprise me to meet someone who actually thought that solo diving was safer than buddy diving, I would think that your buddy would have to be a complete screwup for that to be the case, but I suppose it happens.

 

[jbichsel]

"Originally Posted by dherbman
Since I really don't wish to remain clueless, tell me how you would evacuate a guy weighing in at 400 from a site that requires a 60 yard traverse up a steep, rock and boulder strewn "trail" to reach a vehicle."

Hmmm....

One piece at a time?

Yeah, 400 lbs is close to elk size. We quarter those.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Bob

It would surprise me to meet someone who actually thought that solo diving was safer than buddy diving, I would think that your buddy would have to be a complete screwup for that to be the case, but I suppose it happens.

In the Solo forum many divers have stated that they actually do consider solo diving safer than buddy diving.

In some cases, I think they have a valid point ... but it really does depend on the cirumstances ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Thalassamania]

Since we were talking about solo diving, and some comments about commercial tasks entered the arena, I’d like to share some notes that I got from Lee Somers, the retired Diving Safety Officer at the University of Michigan:

The true advantage of deep surface-supplied diving is that the supervisor and surface personnel can relieve the diver of many of the physical and mental tasks commonly associated with deep scuba diving. Task loading can induce a high level of diver stress. When tasks such as dive timing, gas management, gas switching, decompression stop depth/time management, etc. can be managed by someone on the surface the diver can operate more efficiently and at less personal risk.

A good supervisor can “read” the diver’s breathing pattern and voice to gain insight into the diver’s physical and mental status. I learned the true significance of managing a dive/diver from the surface from Dr. Joe McInnis by observing him at a dive control station. Two divers were deployed in a bell to 250 feet on a B-52 crash site in Lake Michigan. One diver remained in the bell to tend the umbilical while the other deployed to identify meaningful wreckage and rig it for lifting. The diver transmitted video images to U. S. Air Force personnel on the ship in order to identify wreckage to be retrieved. The diver’s breathing rate and strained voice suggested over-exertion, possibly to a dangerous level. Attempting to complete the laborious task before his time limit expired, the diver did not heed Joe’s order to stop and ventilate. In a calm voice Joe requested the diver to immediately return to the bell and ask the tender to haul him in. The dive team got the message and obeyed. By “reading the diver” and controlling the dive from the surface, a possibly bad outcome was thwarted.

I’m including Lee’s take on the hydbid system, which is a little off topic here, but I thought would be of interest:

The term, hybrid system, is used to define a diving system that embraces both scuba and surface-supplied technology. A system of this nature was developed by Innerspace Systems, a Gulf Coast commercial diving company, in the late 1960’s and successfully used for selected commercial diving tasks in the early 1970’s. The primary gas supply system is a closed-circuit scuba on the diver. Consequently, a very low volume of gas is used for any given dive. Consumables cost only a few dollars per dive. The makes the system very attractive. Gas is re-circulated though a helmet or mask. The diver is also supported from the surface by a small umbilical. The umbilical can provide an emergency gas supply from the surface to a demand regulator on the helmet or mask, voice communication, system monitoring, depth monitoring and hot water for a suit (as needed). Modern technology should be capable of developing monitoring electronics that can feed information such as PO2, cylinder gas pressures, carbon dioxide level, and depth to a surface console display. Properly designed and proven through rigorous testing, this system could be the missing link—a cost-effective, compact, portable diving system to more satisfactorily support a scientific diver at 300 fsw (92 msw).

 

[cowboyneal]

Believe me I've seen some pretty bad DIR divers too...would that be DIRB? Anyway...for me, that's definitely not the answer. I just stick with the people I've been diving with for many years and on a solo trip, I just tell the DM: I'm with you, and just do what you have to do otherwise...that usually works for them and then I don't have to worry about it...otherwise, I'm more like a solo than like anything else (although I make sure to hover around the pod...lol)...

 

[divermike1989]

I don't know if this one was mentioned (didn't read all 18 pages). Last weekend I ran into a OW diver that new all there was to now about gear, so I expected him to have reasonably good skills. THINK AGAIN. From the time the boat left the dock I knew I was wrong. The guy had to sit down and contort himself to put on his wetsuit (extremely overweight). For a freshwater dive and a 3 mil suit he needed 16 lbs!!!??? He couldn't put his gear on by himself. But when we got wet it started going bad. I was hovering just off the bottom in a prone position, not moving a muscle. Out of no where I can feel a rush of water the I get kicked in the head several times. He left after that then came back and kicked me again. Later after the dive I found out that he wanted to take AOW!!!

Long story short, I will never dive with someone who knows more about gear then they do about skills. Or a person that can't even put on their own gear. I mean I can understand a doubles rig or rebreathers or stages. But a single tank. My 8 year old cousin can carry that!!!