Would you leave your buddy?

[partridge]

There is an active thread in the accidents forum where a someone let his buddy surface alone. I thought a poll would be a good idea.
(Hope I can get this to work)

""Consider these questions and ask yourself. Would you allow your buddy to ascend alone allowing you to continue another 15 minutes of your dive or would you abort the dive?

1. The buddy has not indicated any health problems.
2. The buddy was a bit anxious on the surface but once under water communicated well and seemed calm.
3. The buddy was using air faster than you.
4. The buddy indicated that they were down to 1000 psi and wanted to surface from about 60 feet.
5. Visibility was at about 50 feet and the buddy indicated they were willing to surface alone.
6. There are others divers with whom you can finish your dive.

Continue the dive or abort?""

(deepdiverbc......hope you don't mind)

 

[svidlano]

There is an active thread in the accidents forum where a someone let his buddy surface alone. I thought a poll would be a good idea.
(Hope I can get this to work)
...

I've read the thread. I would stay with my buddy. But I'm not a DM with more divers underwater.

 

[partridge]

Yeah, I changed it a bit so it would be more applicable to all divers.

 

[svidlano]

I didn't vote because I believe I would leave my buddy in a situation where I'd have to choose whether to become a victim myself.

If there is nothing I could do or when helping means certain injury/death for the helper I believe that number of victims should be kept to a minimum

 

[Manogr]

I will NEVER let my buddy alone...No matter if I ascent alone or him/her! Even 5 minutes after the dive if my buddy is not feeling well I will go up with him... If I am not feeling well I demand to come up with me and not go down again without a buddy..otherwise I will never dive with him!

It is rediculous to leave your buddy...even for 10 minutes this is solo diving and require proper training (some people can not accept even that)...

Manogr

 

[partridge]

I didn't vote because I believe I would leave my buddy in a situation where I'd have to choose whether to become a victim myself.

If there is nothing I could do or when helping means certain injury/death for the helper I believe that number of victims should be kept to a minimum

Cmon, I think it is quite clear from the original post that there was no reason to assume anything was wrong during the dive and you would have another group to finish your dive with. The only person going solo is the buddy doing the ascent. AND he said he would.

 

[Kim]

I didn't vote because I believe I would leave my buddy in a situation where I'd have to choose whether to become a victim myself.

If there is nothing I could do or when helping means certain injury/death for the helper I believe that number of victims should be kept to a minimum

I tend to agree with this and therefore I can't vote. If my buddy wants to surface - I go too. If my buddy starts to behave in a way that I consider unsafe I'll try to get him/her to surface - if I really can't do anything and the situation becomes life threatening I can see a time where I remember I have a wife and two kids and leave it at that.

On one dive in Malaysia my wife's buddy ran low on air - she had more air left than me (quite a lot more!) so we swapped buddies and I took hers up. I consider that an acceptable practice. IMO if you are not solo diving then diving is a two man team thing (or sometimes more) and it's not about the individual - it's about the team. I also think that DM's responsible for groups are in a different situation - but if one of the group needs to surface then at the very least they should send someone with them.

 

[ninjamuzo]

I have jassigned people together as buddies for the continuation of a dive and I have personally surfaced but that is my choice. The times I have done this I have usually just been following along with another pair or some similar exercise.

In the situation you describe (especially at the depth) above I would ascend with them.

 

[Kim]

I'm also not completely sure which 'other' thread you are referring to - I might not have read it. My comments are simply based on this poll.
There is, however, another thread in the accidents about three divers and one needed to surface - she was very experienced - but still swam off in the wrong direction. Luckily the others stayed with her and they had a happy ending - if she'd been left on her own the outcome might have been very different.

 

[svidlano]

Cmon, I think it is quite clear from the original post that there was no reason to assume anything was wrong during the dive and you would have another group to finish your dive with. The only person going solo is the buddy doing the ascent. AND he said he would.

My buddy can call a dive anytime for any reason or for no reason at all. I'll surface with him.

But I can't say that I'll stick with my buddy "no matter what".