Do you dive with a buddy? Always, Sometimes, hardly ever?

[Cherry]

I had to think long and hard about this one because while I never have dived alone( Im just next to being a virgin) the dives I have done have had my wife as my buddy and while I have felt very comfortable UW my wife has struggled alot. So generally I am doing the looking after and I accept that if something happens I most probably am going to have to resolve it by myself. Not the best situation for a beginner so I have taken to only dive with her only with an experienced other pair. In a perfect world I know we each should have experienced dive buddies buttt.....yeah marital bliss is worth a hell of alot

 

[Wreck Ranger]

I have read all your replies in this post and there are valid sides to both agruements. I don't dive solo and most likely never will. When I say that I mean that I will never be the only person in the water. If you consider going diving off a charter boat and happen to be the odd man out and you tag along with another couple alone then I do dive alone on a rare occcasion. If I am a DM or Instuctor and I am taking students, I don't consider that I am alone, yet they don't have experience to help if something did go wrong, I would have the responsiblity to teach and protect them. I understand what that side of the coin is but I don't think that you can say that you are alone.

I love to dive! I love to dive with my buddy who happens to be my Father.(Diversauras):scuba: :scuba:

Nathan

 

[MikeFerrara]

I have dived alone in the past. I used to even think I liked it. I am confident in my skills and equipmen t. However tho more experience I gain and the more I learn the more I dislike solo diving and argue against it. There admitedly are forms of diving that require solo or at least a drastic modification to what we think of as the buddy system such as no-mount and sidemount in sumps. This has caused a personal delema for me as I have the oportunity to participate in some original exploration where these techniques are required not only by me but my primarry dive bud my wife. Most divers won't ever have to make such a choice.

I am not against someone deciding to dive solo however the typical reasons divers give for solo diving seem really lame to me. This leads me to believe that much of the descision to solo originates with poor training in team diving. We preach the buddy system better than we teach it. As a rule the solo divers I seen were not exactly mosels of good technique. I have assisted/rescued several. Since poor technique figures so prominently in accident statistics I tend to think that if anyone should dive solo it isn't these divers. Buddy seperation and accidents seem to go hand in hand. I'm not saying being solo caused the problem but maybe the problem that caused the seperation was part of the snowball of events that led to the injury. In any case when the end comes these divers are alone and are unable to deal with the problems they have or at least perceive. Maybe a buddy could have helped even if they just interupted the snowball of events.

Many of the divers in favor of solo diving give me the impression that they just haven't seen enough yet.

I do believe that a person (even a diver) has the right to kill themself any way they choose. I just don't like the thought of them maybe making poor decisions because of poor information/training.

Diving deaths and injuries seem to hapen most often on easy dives. seldom is there a catastrofic event that does the diver in. Rather it is usually a series of minor problems that stack up
and often cause panick and self destruction.

Well, I guess I'll stop rambling.

 

[inletsurf]

I never dive with a buddy and this is why.

I dive offshore with a 68" triple banded spear gun in visibility that sometimes is 5-8 ft. I go down, grab as many freakin lobster as I can, and shoot as much fish as I can in the 22 minutes that my 80cf tank can give me at 90 ft.

To dive by the real buddy rules means that with 2 people we'll be getting 1/2 catch efficiency combined than with a single person alone, because we'll be to worried about where the other person is rather than chasing fish and grabbing bugs.

The reality is that if you're hunting and diving with a buddy, you're either not catching much at all or you're breaking the buddy rules.

I'm trained well, have lots of experience and redundancy.
But I certainly do wish that I can dive with a buddy all the time and still hunt effectively. It just doesn't happen that way.

TampaScott has a very good analogy.

Life is full of risks. To "Live" has even more risks. You just have to mitigate as much risk as you can. Would you like to dive with me as my buddy next to my 68" triple band 35' range gun in 8 ft vis? Neither would I, unless we stuck together like dogpoo on the soles of a tennis shoe

 

[Hamster]

In reality there is a lot of solo diving. As someone previously commented instructors with their students are solo diving. Two novice divers as a buddy pair are in fact both solo diving as neither would be able to assist the other in a real emergency.

I enjoy diving with a competent buddy but in the absence of a competent buddy I'd rather dive solo - why??? Simple because it's safer.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Hamster once bubbled...
In reality there is a lot of solo diving. As someone previously commented instructors with their students are solo diving. Two novice divers as a buddy pair are in fact both solo diving as neither would be able to assist the other in a real emergency.

I enjoy diving with a competent buddy but in the absence of a competent buddy I'd rather dive solo - why??? Simple because it's safer.

If an instructor with students is solo it's their own fault. A student who is ready to be in OW has learned and practiced emergency procedures and can help. True they are not very experienced yet but the instructor isn't at all alone.

If two nivices are diving withing their training and limitations they should be well prepared for the environment and the problems that might come up and certainly should be able to function. They are not solo unless poorly trained.

 

[Epinephelus]

I have an uncle who was a Navy hardhat diving instructor, who was once saved by his students after a flood of his rig.
The only time I dive solo is when I can't find a buddy; I much prefer to dive with a buddy.
E. itajara

 

[emeyer36]

I always dive with my buddy, but then since my buddy is my husband and he doesn't want me to have diving fun without him I probably couldn't even if I wanted to dive without a buddy. I have only been diving for a little over a year and I don't have the urge to dive without a buddy.

My husband and I have been married long enough that even underwater we read each others mind, so diving with him is like diving with an extension of myself. We work well together underwater. We also enjoy the after dive "Did you see that?" moments, that is all part of what makes us love to dive.

emeyer36

 

[Wreck/Tec]

It has been said that solo diving is the result of poor buddy diving skills. I don't know so much about that, it may, however my situation dictates diving alone half of the time. I will say that buddy diving is more enjoyable. I can't deny when I'm alone that I feel somewhat lonely at times. There is a peacefulness that I get alone. My days are typically crazey. Once submerged I forget all my land bound concerns and become one with the water. It's incredible how theripudic, and addictive, diving has become for me. I'm not an advocate of solo diving. I feel up to the task, however I have had episodes where I have had to rely on the training I've done to prepare me for solo diving. It's alot of fun, very peaceful, but has the potential to be very dangerous. Learning when say no, or recognizeing when to call it a day is extremely important. Having the skills to save the day when lack of better judgment or nature throws you a curve is essential. It's not for everyone.................
Wreck/Tec

 

[Beachman]

I went out just 3 days ago on my boat to dive and maybe get a couple more lobsters because we had some company coming and we were short a couple tails for dinner for the group. Seas were running 3'-5' when I got to my "spot" and I aborted the dive.

This had nothing to with the actual diving. I was by myself and I said to myself what can happen? I could slip on the bow in these bouncy seas and fall, I could end up overboard before the anchor is down and not be able to chase the boat fast enough, the anchor could not hold and nobody would be tending the GPS on board to identify the problem and take action, I could be trying to exit and the swim platform on the boat could hit me in the head bouncing 2'-3' up and down, etc., etc.

I think solo diving is a mattter or judgement. You do it because you are confident you can handle all the possible consequences (rightly or wrongly). When I decided not to dive the other day I was all by myself making my own decisions. I didn't feel I could handle certain possible surface outcomes, and aborted. When I feel that way about any of the underwater conditions, I do the same thing.

Wreck/Tec, your comments about the serenity and peacefulness of diving alone are something that you can only know when you've run to the reef yourself, donned your gear by yourself, enjoyed the underwater world with a crowd of sealife, exited and dried by yourself with a sandwich and a beer, and run back in with only your own thoughts about what a great day it was!