Thrillhouse
Contributor
I went for a charter a few weeks ago which was absolutely awesome... My first in cold water and in an excellent area for scuba. We literally had tropical visibility and could see ripples on the surface from 80ft down! Very nice.
Anyway, I was buddied up with someone who had less experience than myself (about 40 dives for me, 20 for her), but she was keen on scuba and had her PADI advanced (like myself) so we did the dive cautiously and had fun. Over the rest of the weekend we dove together and it was great, as she was very attentive as a buddy, calm underwater, patient about things, and alert. I felt quite safe, or at least as safe as one can be those things considered. She was by no means reckless, had a knife, and attentive enough that I felt I had a "buddy" while underwater.
During a night dive, however, I buddied up with someone else, as only a few of us were interested in going out. He was a PADI divemaster with over 200 dives, so I figured that would be great for me... I'd only done 2 night dives before. He brought his camera with him which was an expensive rig, and was intent on taking photos. Once underwater however, he completely ignored the rest of us and would constantly swim back to photograph something then catch up five minutes later, disappear off behind things, etc., etc. I kept an eye on him (he was definitely not doing the same) and did my best to stay in the field of vision of the other divers. Everything went fine, but it struck me as terribly irresponsible behaviour, rescue cert/divemaster or not.
I realize the buddy who only had 20 dives didn't know the particulars of diver rescue, but I still felt much safer with her than the "expert." An interesting thing to find out.
Anyway, I was buddied up with someone who had less experience than myself (about 40 dives for me, 20 for her), but she was keen on scuba and had her PADI advanced (like myself) so we did the dive cautiously and had fun. Over the rest of the weekend we dove together and it was great, as she was very attentive as a buddy, calm underwater, patient about things, and alert. I felt quite safe, or at least as safe as one can be those things considered. She was by no means reckless, had a knife, and attentive enough that I felt I had a "buddy" while underwater.
During a night dive, however, I buddied up with someone else, as only a few of us were interested in going out. He was a PADI divemaster with over 200 dives, so I figured that would be great for me... I'd only done 2 night dives before. He brought his camera with him which was an expensive rig, and was intent on taking photos. Once underwater however, he completely ignored the rest of us and would constantly swim back to photograph something then catch up five minutes later, disappear off behind things, etc., etc. I kept an eye on him (he was definitely not doing the same) and did my best to stay in the field of vision of the other divers. Everything went fine, but it struck me as terribly irresponsible behaviour, rescue cert/divemaster or not.
I realize the buddy who only had 20 dives didn't know the particulars of diver rescue, but I still felt much safer with her than the "expert." An interesting thing to find out.