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Agreed.Diving as a group of eight. In Puget Sound. And no one realized she was missing . . .
I read this and I want to cry, and I want to hit somebody. Quite simply -- if you are diving as part of a large group, you are, to all intents and purposes, diving alone. No one has taken responsibility for knowing where you are. No one is YOUR buddy. You may not be able to get anyone's attention if you are in trouble, as this woman obviously couldn't.
At the risk of sounding an incredible zealot, I am SO glad I dive in a world where "team" is a central concept. The dive can go hang, if necessary, to make sure the team is okay. The commitment is REAL, and it is honored in the observance.
Please, especially you new divers . . . don't dive in groups. Always insist that one person step up and accept the role of being YOUR buddy. Make sure that person knows you are new, and you may bear watching.
No one should die diving, but by God, no one on earth should die alone in the water, unless they deliberately went there that way.
Agreed.
As a vacation diver I get to witness the start of a large number of group / cluster dives (we swim the other way...). From my casual observation formal buddy pairs are not the norm when group diving in this context. It appears to be a group led by a single dive Jedi. The flock of divers seem to defer to the Jedi. These are often dive club / dive shop trips.
Seems like "trust me" often over powers divebuddy training when new divers are taken out by a Jedi?
That's my point, people, by and large, are not taught that diving can be deadly, they are taught how safe it is, and they are not equipped with the skills, taught and trained to the level required to be useful in an emergency.