How close is too close?

[TSandM]

I understand where you are coming from, because my cave training has ingrained a reflex -- when I feel my fin contact something, I freeze that leg, and it doesn't move again until I'm sure it's clear of obstacles. That makes swimming next to someone I'm kicking a very uncomfortable experience! Modified flutter is the ideal kick for that situation.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I just spent a week diving with a buddy who has a nice way of letting me know she's close by ... she hums while she dives ... Hearing her meant that she was right where I expected her to be ... I didn't even need to look ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[CamG]

Wow Bob my buddy that does that it usually sounds like profanity!
Like diving with bar tender from BoonDock Saints.
We have fun what can you say!

CamG Keep Diving....Keep Training....Keep Learning!

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I agree with the "nothing wrong with bumping" crowd here, but if it is annoying, think three dimensionally. If one buddy is a foot above the other (and to the side) there is less bumping. Debbie and I have a "standard formation" in good viz and low viz: she is 2 feet left and 1 foot above me, absent a reason to "break formation. It's worked well for more than 10 years now.
DivemasterDennis

 

[jonnythan]

I agree with the "nothing wrong with bumping" crowd here, but if it is annoying, think three dimensionally. If one buddy is a foot above the other (and to the side) there is less bumping. Debbie and I have a "standard formation" in good viz and low viz: she is 2 feet left and 1 foot above me, absent a reason to "break formation. It's worked well for more than 10 years now.
DivemasterDennis

That works really well, as long as you have a signaling method such as a canister light. Otherwise one diver is in the dark, as it were.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

I frequently dive in low light, low vis conditions where I stay close to my buddy to avoid seperation. But I've noticed something. We tend to bump into each other a lot lately.

I try to maintain a position directly along side my buddy and at the same depth. We both frog kick and sometimes our fins will hit each other and sometimes we'll make shin an calf contact.

I apologized to a recent dive buddy but was told to not worry about it; it happens. I suspect he was just being polite.

What can I do better? I can't tell if it's me just being too close or if maybe my buddy cuts inside and I just happen to be in the way.

Maybe he's telling you it would be ok to be more than buddies?

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nolatom]

Coming north from the high-vis south for a visit to New England, I found the bump-braille buddy system very reassuring on a dive along an uneven ledge to my right, buddy on left. I had to keep looking at the ledge and not him, so the bumping meant I didn't have to keep diverting my vision away from the ledge. Buddy told me afterward this was indeed the way to do it.

Oh, and another thing. New England is colder..

 

[Kitty_Kat]

Maybe he's telling you it would be ok to be more than buddies?

I've also found that switching to a modified flutter helps with this if you think you're kicking your buddy too often!

 

[James R]

Since I was the "insta-buddy" with the OP yesterday... my two cents are that it wasn't really that frequent, and wasn't a big deal. There are lots of stumps and rocks that you go around at the sites we were at yesterday and one buddy can't always see what's on the other side of someone else in lower viz. Trust me, I wasn't "just being polite." When you are diving in the lake with someone you don't know, closer is better than abandoned.

Maybe he's telling you it would be ok to be more than buddies?

Keep your weird diving fantasies private, Lapenta!

haha

 

[scubadobadoo]

I agree with the above comments. Please bump me in those conditions. I have been diving with a new diver lately and I have to keep reminding him to stay closer to me when conditions are bad.