Just to address a few questions, posed earlier in the thread, from the perspective of diver training/buddy procedures/safe diving practices...
Maybe i should tie a string to him like he is a kite? This way i can reel him in when he begins drifting to the surface.
You can buy 'buddy lines' that aim to help prevent buddy separation. Many divers, including myself, feel that they are an 'equipment solution for a skills problem'. It's better to treat the causes, not the symptoms.
Good communication, appropriate spacing and effective situational awareness is that answer to the problem. If acted upon quickly, a simple 'steadying hand' is enough to prevent the start of a buoyant ascent. Being a good buddy means anticipating and responding to potential issues
as a preventative.
As the saying goes; "
a stitch in time, saves nine".
You can shape the outcome of a dive, from your input in the pre-dive stages. It's hard to rectify misunderstandings or incompatible approaches once the dive itself has commenced (as TS&M illustrated).
This is something experienced divers/mentors/dive pros manage day-in, day-out. Experience allows them to be
pro-active, rather than
reactive. It hardly becomes an issue at all...
Article:
How to Dive with Insta-Buddies
Maybe i should discuss proper weighting in detail before we descend?
Maybe you should... if that'd help prevent your buddy having weighting issues that, in-turn, effected the quality of your dive.
There's absolutely no reason why the issue of weighting should not be brought up within the general process of dive planning. Ascertain your buddies experience and qualification. If they are inexperienced, confirm their weighting...ask a few questions; how long since they last dived? any changes in equipment/environment since their last effective weight check? etc etc
PADI provide 'quick-fix'
guidelines to weighting requirements - that allow a reasonable prediction to be made, before getting in the water. Quickly run through that process... it'll be enough to ensure that over/under-weighting doesn't become a
major issue on the dive.
That can be followed up by a 30 second
in-water weight check, at the beginning of the dive. That technique is taught on OW courses and repeated o
n every OW training dive for a reason. The reason being... new divers are expected to take a while to figure out their weighting and get comfortable. It's taught, so that it can..it should... be done as a matter of course.
Neglect these steps, and don't be surprised if the quality of the dive is degraded due to buoyancy problems. If you (the buddy) are impatient, pressure buddies to rush... and/or don't bother to adhere to procedures that you were taught to use... then who is to blame for the result?
Again, experienced divers/mentors/dive pros do this day-in, day-out... to improve the quality and safety of dives (for themselves and customers).
Then hold on to his power inflator and deflate/inflate his BCD for him?
No. But perhaps allowing some more time and consideration for them would help. If they can tell that you are exasperated with them, because of the
entirely predictable issues they'll face when gaining initial equipment familiarity, then you only add to their stress and make the situation worse.
Dive pros encounter this day-in, day-out.. and it isn't a big issue. Establish good communication, ensure your own situational awareness and it is possible to anticipate these issues. When necessary, pause the dive, communicate with the buddy... let them take a moment to get their buoyancy stable, signal a reminder if needed... then, once things are sorted out, continue the dive.
Patience and empathy goes a long way... a karma has a nice pay-back, in respect of a better quality dive, having positively supported and assisted your buddy to get stable and settled at depth.
Impatience and frustration also has a karmic pay-back...
Blow air into his mask to equalize it? Signal him as to when he should equalize his ears?
Applying some logical descent procedures would certainly help. Buddy/Situational awareness on descent is the factor that prevents these problems. You cannot equalize for people; but you can monitor them, ensure a controlled descent and make it abundantly clear that "it's perfectly ok" for them to stop, get their equalization sorted before resuming descent.
There are some measures that you can adopt to formalize that descent process. The concept of 'S-Drills' and 'Bubble Checks' goes a long way towards ensuring a well-communicated, situationally aware and team/buddy-focused descent. ANDI include 3 mandatory 'stop checks' in their descent, even for recreational dives - it works very effectively.
Again.. pressuring and rushing your buddy (a symptom of frustration, impatience and weak empathy) only encourages them to descend faster than they are comfortable with. This means more likelihood of equalization issues (missed equalization/blocks) and further avoidable delays in the dive.
When it comes to descent, especially with novice divers,..
slower is faster.
Again... dive pros manage this day-in, day-out... the right approach, with some pro-active thinking.. makes it a minor issue.
Check his console for him?
1) You do pre-dive planning
and a pre-dive buddy check... so there's plenty of time to discuss hand signals, gauge checks etc.
2) Mutual checking and assurance of gas state is a fundamental buddy skill. Checking, and reminding to check, each others air should be a routine part of any dive.
Neglecting to 'shape' the proper conduct of the dive during pre-dive stages contributes to an awkward dive. Weak situational awareness adds to that. The Open Water course teaches these procedures and clearly states that mutual checks/communication of air state during a dive is an important component of the buddy system.
It's important to appreciate that newly qualified divers suffer from high task loading, having to devote a high percentage of their 'processing capacity' towards the basic mechanics of scuba equipment operation. The same issues with task loading occur whenever the diver adds more responsibilities to their workload; navigation, laying a guideline in a cave, taking photographs underwater...
A good buddy, with foresight and appreciation, can anticipate that reality and take more of the burden for situational awareness. That's universal, regardless of experience or level of diving conducted.
It's easy to be flippant and condescending about a diver losing situational awareness, until you realize that it's an issue that effects
all divers
every time they step up a level in diving demand and challenge.
Take a trip to the 'technical' and 'cave' forums for examples...
Tie rope to his fins so i can maneuver him like a puppet - so i can make sure he doesn't land on the reef or stir up silt?
Nope, but you can go slowly. Patience...empathy...understanding...sensitivity. Pause the dive when they get over-whelmed...encourage them to take the time to get relaxed and comfortable. Stay a reasonable depth above the reef/silt... based on their ability, not yours.
No- i'm pretty sure that is HIS job. He is a CERTIFIED diver. He is supposed to he competent on his own. You dive with a buddy for safety purposes. Not to have your hand held.
Let's not over-estimate the Open Water course. It is 4 dives...and a lot to be learned. No experienced diver would agree that any true competence can be ingrained in only 4 dives. The principle is that trainees are taught the skills, but realistically expected to ingrain and refine those techniques after qualification.
They do that quicker, and more effectively, with a empathetic and encouraging buddy...
The same is true every time a new level/challenge of diving is undertaken.
In terms of 'regular buddies'... the person you dismisstoday, could have turned out to be your best diving friend, if treated differently.
THAT is why I advised some self-analysis of approach to the issue...and THAT is an answer to the problem of not having access to 'good' dive buddies.
You reap what you sow.
Sadly, the more experience and training you get - the more difficulty you will encounter in finding a 'compatibly-skilled' buddy. If you disregard all those people below your 'standards', then the pool just gets smaller and smaller. The answer is to help people reach your standards - to support, guide and mentor them into becoming the dive buddy you want them to be.
I'll reiterate from my previous post - blaming insta-buddies is just an excuse by bad divers. Those with sufficient skill and knowledge deal with 'lesser skilled' buddies day-in, day-out... and make those dives safe and enjoyable. All it requires is some patience, empathy, sensitivity, to be proactive in approach, adhere to taught procedures and preempt foreseeable problems. Neglect to do that... and you'll have bad dive experiences... no matter who you dive with, or what you experience level is...
