Buddy Checks - do you do them?

[aku321]

I usually screw with my buddy's gear. Makes for a more interesting start of a dive. Although payback sucks!

 

[Sask Diver]

Being new to diving, I take comfort in doing the buddy check as it helps me familiarize my self with gear that is still quite new to me.
For those that say they don't do them, imagine being on an aircraft and the captain says: Ladies and gentalmen, we are running a bit late today so we are going to skip our pre flight checks and get this baby in the air. She's never let me down before.
As a new diver I look to people with more experiance to help reinforce the things I have learned, I think it will make me a more confident and safe diver

 

[DaleC]

Hmm be careful with that, I used to do that but my SPG will act normal beyond about half a turn on.

I suppose (don't know). For me having it either full on or full off does the trick. Looking at each SPG deals with several issues at the right time however so that's what I do. I could also say be careful letting someone else touch your valves during a final check unless you trust their judgement more than your own but anyways, see how our discussion has raised some issues to think about.

I don't make assumptions as to which group of divers is more cautious or not. I don't know them and I don't have all the facts. Some new divers are too buddy dependant and some are not, some experienced teams are lax and some are not. I don't think how their predive check looks to an outsider is a viable indicator either way. But here's a question to ponder:

Lynne mentioned deco in her predive check for a 15' lumpsucker dive. I personally wouldn't mention it. I know Lynne does because she subscribes to a phylosophy that says you do the same things regardless of the dive and I respect that. I subscribe to the phylosophy of being adaptive to the environment. Seeing as the only deco possible for a 15' dive is more time at 15' which one of us is right for mentioning it or not?

Some people may think I am arguing against buddy checks but I am not. I am raising certain questions in order to stimulate discussion as to why we do some of the things we do... and because I am tired of debating split fins and deep air (for a while anyways ).

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Lynne mentioned deco in her predive check for a 15' lumpsucker dive. I personally wouldn't mention it. I know Lynne does because she subscribes to a phylosophy that says you do the same things regardless of the dive and I respect that. I subscribe to the phylosophy of being adaptive to the environment. Seeing as the only deco possible for a 15' dive is more time at 15' which one of us is right for mentioning it or not?

Some people may think I am arguing against buddy checks but I am not. I am raising certain questions in order to stimulate discussion as to why we do some of the things we do... and because I am tired of debating split fins and deep air (for a while anyways ).

Dale, I didn't think you were arguing against buddy checks since you stated you were playing devil's advocate. I'm sure others caught that as well. Discussions in which someone does play such a role to promote thought are often some of the best on ScubaBoard.

Like Lynne, I tend to address "deco" in shallow dives. I had been diving for about 20 years as a solo diver (started my first solo scuba dives at age 15) and as a buddy and then teaching for 10 years as an instructor before I became involved in technical diving. The portal into that world was through GUE. At the time, GUE was using SADDDDD rather than GUE-EDGE as a planning memory tool. NSS-CDS also used SADDDD as part of their planning which was a bit more intricate. SADDDDD became such an easy habit that I can run through it in as little as 20 seconds.

What I discovered on the shallow fun dives is that deco gets addressed as, "None" or whatever our ascent or return plan will be simply out of force of habit. It does serve a purpose by making the team clear on what the total dive plan is going to be. For many of my students out of class and diving with me for fun, it usually becomes the time in the plan where they interject that they'd like to practice a skill such as deploying a DSMB. So, it really isn't overkill. It serves a step that will place everyone on the same page or opens the door for skill work.

Dive plans can be effective if crafted on the spot addressing what only needs to be addressed and they can be effective when an entire list of items is addressed with, "None," being the response to elements of the plan or equipment not carried.

In performing head to toe equipment checks, I have been absolutely surprised at the number of divers in class and on dives who will answer, "None!" when the leader asks, "Cutting tool?" That's the one thing about those huge frog stickers from the past, it was like knife envy to have a little one. Now, that knives are small, some people just don't think they are important.

I also like to mess with the minds of students and buddies. When I mention my wet notes, I get into detail on every item contained within such as, "Two pencils. One yellow and one green. One space pen - blue. One bolt snap with cave line loop - white line. Two black hair ties. One gray hair tie. One back-up necklace - black with pre-tied mouthpiece loop. One signal mirror. Three line arrows - white. Two cave cookies - white. One orange back-up cutting tool. Three black zip ties and a collapsible dive (air, nitrox or trimix) tables. Got that? Okay what do I have in my notes?"

 

[TSandM]

You may have scored some points. Maybe not right away. But, I think that would have given David something to chew on besides a toothpick.

Too funny. I love you, Trace!

But I have to admit that I would never catch you pushing the wrong buttons during the inflator check. I DO give my buddies credit for knowing which button is which

Dale, I tried to reckon back and remember what I said about deco on the 20 foot dive. I may well have omitted it, on the assumption that both of the other folks I was diving with (whose training and experience I knew) would also understand that it didn't really matter what we did as an ascent strategy from a dive with a 10 foot average depth. I'm not entirely cookie-cutter; there is room for adaptation and thought. I have definitely done dive plans in caves where deco WAS addressed for a dive at that depth, simply to say, "The whole dive is deco," to make sure we have left no issue unaddressed that might cause us problems during the dive.

The bottom line is that MY personal opinion is that overdoing the dive plan and buddy check is preferable to being cursory and dealing with issues underwater.

I do not believe that our procedures for checking builds any kind of sloppiness or carelessness into our teams. To the contrary -- it is embarrassing to be caught with anything not properly configured, so we carefully go over our own gear as we assemble it and don it, and shouldn't really find anything out of place by the time the final checklist is done as a team -- but going through the list all together makes sure the thing I've forgotten in my own procedure won't be missed by the other two brains.

 

[Thalassamania]

... but going through the list all together makes sure the thing I've forgotten in my own procedure won't be missed by the other two brains.

We have a saying (it started out at the title of one lecture): "Let's buddy brain!"

 

[orm]

who will answer, "None!" when the leader asks, "Cutting tool?" ... some people just don't think they are important.

Off the topic a bit, but I recent went diving over in the west of Mexico.

On our boat were a young couple.

They strapped these huge 10" Bowie knives to their legs and jumped in (without a buddy check I may add!) sank to the bottom because they were well overweighted and had no exposure suits on. Then spent most of the dive crawling around on the floor massively negatively buoyant.

They were back on the boat within 30 minutes into a 20m dive, thank god.

What on earth would they do with such a huge knife?

 

[orm]

I usually screw with my buddy's gear. Makes for a more interesting start of a dive. Although payback sucks!

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Isn't it obvious? In case of shark attack, you stab your buddy. Then you don't have to outswim the shark, just your buddy....

 

[Trace Malinowski]

Off the topic a bit, but I recent went diving over in the west of Mexico.

On our boat were a young couple.

They strapped these huge 10" Bowie knives to their legs and jumped in (without a buddy check I may add!) sank to the bottom because they were well overweighted and had no exposure suits on. Then spent most of the dive crawling around on the floor massively negatively buoyant.

They were back on the boat within 30 minutes into a 20m dive, thank god.

What on earth would they do with such a huge knife?

Not to hijack the thread and take it off topic, but this seems to be a good opportunity to discuss large diving knives. Large diving knives, such as the 12.5 inch-long Wenoka I have, were often called "diver's tools" because they were designed to serve multiple purposes. The knife I have has a point, but the same knife came with a blunt tip option for prying. When underwater hunting was more popular than it is today, the blade was a perfect place to engrave a ruler. My blade is 7.5 inches with hash marks and numbers measuring 6 inches and hash marks showing every 1/2 inch. This was helpful for such things as hunting abalone and making sure that you were taking legal game. The blade is for cutting while a saw is on top of the shank. The front top of my blade is forged to act as a screw driver. It has a hammer on the butt end. The wide flanged grip is designed to protect your hand from slipping when wearing gloves. Most old wet suit gloves did not have any grip material on the palms and fingers so that feature helped.

Other than the obvious tools built into a knife's design what you do with such a tool is as ingenious as the user.

There seems to be a sort of mockery toward these tools among divers today. While both technical and recreational divers prefer small, strategically-worn cutting tools, most of these tools do not have the well-rounded capability of yesterday's knives. Small knives reduce entanglement possibilities and are less bulky when traveling, but I cannot tell you how many times I've been doing work underwater and I wished I had my frog sticker.

I replaced the commercial buckled straps with surgical tubing and kept my snorkel on the back of my calf with my knife inside to reduce entanglements when diving from boats that required snorkels be worn.

While the knife looks like a weapon in reality it is a pretty smart set of tools.