How do you plan a dive with a less experienced (nervous) instabuddy?

[kensuf]

If you're diving with someone the first time, ask them about their diving background. When was the last time they dove? How many dives have they done? What's the frequency of their diving? What type of diving they normally do? What type of dives do they enjoy the most?

Once that's known, the weakest diver should establish the limits and lead the dive planning. This reduces the risk of a weaker diver letting ego or peer pressure push them into a dive that is outside of their ability or comfort zone.

The stronger divers should be cognizant and willing to veto the plan if it sounds like the weaker diver is biting off more than they can chew.

 

[Bev'sBoy]

Thanks for this thread. I appreciate the welcoming attitude of the responders. I'm an old phart, 75, who took up diving this year. I have 14 dives logged. I safely surfaced from all of them. Yea. Like my other hobby, road bicycling, I hate to be the group's anchor, the old, slow guy. So that is why, unless it just my son-in-law diving buddy and me, I arrange for a private DM when we head to the Caribbean. The DM is getting paid or tipped to be nice to clients and they have all been helpful, and friendly. Each has seemed to be OK with going at my pace. After some more diving experience and when I get younger, I'll try diving with a group. Hopefully I can keep up.

 

[mrdre]

.... Each has seemed to be OK with going at my pace. After some more diving experience and when I get younger, I'll try diving with a group. Hopefully I can keep up.

There is absolutely no reason to feel being an "anchor" and there is absolutely no reason to swim fast. Usually new divers tend to swim fast. They think "over there" is something more interesting than "over here". It's when you go slow you see the most. The sea critters would tend to hide from fast swimming bubbling noisy creature. If you go quietly and slow they will come up to you to check you out. I actually prefer to stay at one place. It's much more enjoyable. I always prefer slow moving buddies.

You may need to be more physically fit if you are doing beach dives and you have some long surface swims against currents and/or winds, but you don't have to do such dives.

 

[SoCalRich]

Greetings,
I also find myself heading to a dive boat alone, then getting an insta-dive buddy, and many/most times it is a new diver. It puts extra stress on me, but,,, I was that diver once as well, so I try to go with the flow. There are some good sujestions in these replies, And I will try to use them in the future.
Good Divin
SoCalRich

 

[JimmyboyAAA]

I dive Cozumel twice a year and was diving a busy boat a few years ago and was paired with InstaBuddy Ivan. We dove a nice reef with a fair current and as group we all descended to about 80 feet and started cruising along and Ivan and I got separated from the group, but as you know in Cozumel it won't take long to find the group as you drift along. After 20 min, seriously I'm sure I had greater than 1/2 a tank left, Ivan looks at me and slashes across his neck. My reaction was WTF, doesn't that mean out of air? Not possible at 20 minutes right? So he pulls out a spare air that I didn't know he had and off he went to the surface. I know some of this was my fault as apparently our pre-dive briefing was inadequate but I learned a big InstaBuddy lesson right there. I finished the dive with the rest of the group and had fun but Ivan scared me that day.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I've found that showing up with a scooter and explaining they won't see much of you does wonders.

 

[ozzydamo]

The Irony of PADI's AOW ticket, you have people with this card in their pocket with a total of only 9 ow dives logged! some of them didn't even skindive before they did their OW course, some are very novice swimmers also!

Some of these people then go on a charter dive doing 18m+ diving, expecting to do "the dives" advertised. So if I was a paying customer and the dive operator expected me to buddy one of these people, I would expect to be paid for it! (that could be a free day out).

I would flat refuse otherwise. Unless that person was a friend.

Dive Plans-

My wife was recently AOW certified and after she did the course we still are doing 14m and under dives- which she now has done about 25 and we have booked a trip for some deeper dives on our holidays, I will be her buddy and the dive plan will be simply with in her capability.

Our main priority in our dive plan is to stay orientated on our position, while observing the beauty of the site involved. We do not over do communications(waste of air), if she has a problem equalising I maintain eye contact until she recommences her descent, signalling me "OK" and "down" I "ok" her back and away she goes! She tells me when she is on 100bar, we then slowly start our ascent/return to the exit position safety stop- enjoying the scenery on the way, we usually do arching paths so we don't go over the same stuff(which is more difficult to navigate, it takes an overview of bearings involved, a skill lots of AOW DIVERS are lacking in). Apart from an issue which requires X-ing the dive or handing off the alternate air source, we don't much other then stay side by side or she slipstreams me going into current, I work to her limitations always and I don't use a camera buddying her yet, but know shes not far off now(feel like 50 dives is a good time to be able to deal with me not being attentive of her totally always).



Moral of the story is- if someone bull$hit$ you about their experience, make it a one dive experience for yourself, refuse to dive with them the next dive! Let the dive op earn their money. For those people that do that, know this; IT SHOWS UNDERWATER, trim, aqua-nautical ability and BC control give you away immediately to anyone with reasonable experience, never mind the air consumption!

 

[Max Speed]

I usually like to be just as nervous as the new buddy so I giant stride in with sunglasses on, dive computer on the boat, regulator behind my back and dry suit unzipped. Breaks the ice...

 

[flots am]

I've found that showing up with a scooter and explaining they won't see much of you does wonders.

You're my favorite kind of buddy on boats that insist on making buddy pairs. I'm going to start looking for people with scooters.

I'd say "Sure, I'll be your buddy!", then mysteriously be "unable to keep up" underwater and have to go off and entertain myself.

flots.

---------- Post added July 29th, 2014 at 09:19 AM ----------

There is absolutely no reason to feel being an "anchor" and there is absolutely no reason to swim fast. Usually new divers tend to swim fast. They think "over there" is something more interesting than "over here". It's when you go slow you see the most. The sea critters would tend to hide from fast swimming bubbling noisy creature. If you go quietly and slow they will come up to you to check you out. I actually prefer to stay at one place. It's much more enjoyable. I always prefer slow moving buddies.

Those are my favorite dives and I do a lot of them, although I tend to get blown off a lot by people who want a buddy.

"Where are you going?"

"Nowhere. I'm staying pretty much right here under the boat."

"Ummm. I think I'll buddy up with those guys over there. . . "

Works perfectly.


flots.

 

[Kitty_Kat]

From a dive guide's perspective, 99.7% of the people we dive with fall under the category of inexperienced "instabuddies", and I (usually) very much enjoy diving with them. For most new divers, having someone spell out the basic parameters of the dive (entry, general underwater plan, depth, time, air, signals, exit, special considerations, etc.) is enough to put most of their anxiety to rest if the dive is within their skill level to complete.

Realistically it is sometimes impractical to have the new diver (instabuddy) completely plan the dive, especially if this is their first time diving the site or area. That doesn't necessarily mean they aren't ready to do the dive though... If every (now) "experienced" diver had only ever done the same type of dive over and over and over when they were starting out, they would probably still be missing some crucial dive skills and experience.

For example, we get new groups of divers every 1-4 months that are going to be collecting scientific data underwater. 99.9% of these divers have just completed their OW or AOW class and have exactly 4 or 9 dives respectively in conditions that were extremely different from where they are now. It would be unrealistic to have them plan the specifics of their first few dives here since they don't know the sites, entry/exit protocols, or environmental factors. However, it is not unrealistic to have them come up with some aspects of the plan like depth and gas management. Having them think about why it is important to turn at a certain point, or keep a certain amount of air in reserve is only going to help them learn more as a diver.

Once we have [-]beaten their bad habits out of them[/-] made sure they are comfortable and competent underwater, we usually then have them plan the entire dive. After the initial shock wears off (since many have never "led" a dive before), they usually realize that even if they aren't intimately familiar with the site, they can figure out a plan based on what they know from previous dives.

Details like exactly which direction they will turn at the bottom of the mooring are less important than understanding the reasoning behind things like staying on the wreck or taking a compass heading, staying close to your buddy, or swimming into the current.

The same idea works equally as well for an "instabuddy" you might only be diving with for a day. It's not bad for the more experienced diver to be the one truly leading and/or planning the dive, but everyone has to understand why the plan is what it is. I think that way even if someone forgets a minor detail, they know the underlying reasoning behind that detail and can usually deduce what their next step should be.