Is it ok to ask to join a random group of divers on the spot?

[Ben_ca]

I've done many dives with visiting divers... one thing they usually have in common is that they have done some training with GUE or UTD. I've been know to toss them a scooter and a set of doubles and go smash the trigger and shoot of into the blue... If you have these certs I'm pretty sure that you have a baseline level of skills that I know I can trust....

If I was diving with someone unknown to me.... I would drag them to the Breakwater and start from the bunny slopes and work our way up. Luckily there seems to be quite a stream of Fundies and Essentials grads to dive with when my regular buddies cannot.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, one of the most wonderful things about classes like Fundies is that they do a bunch of the work that you need to do for you -- the work you should do before diving with a new buddy. Things like gas management, buddy separation protocols, hand signals and light signals, etc., have all been settled by the class long before you get in the water with the diver. It's not like my one absolute instabuddy experience, where I got in the water (through a set of very unusual circumstances) with an OC diver and an RB diver who were long-term buddies, who proceeded to dive with almost total lack of awareness of one another, got separated, and appeared to be completely unfazed by that fact (while I was going a little nuts, trying to figure out which one to stay with and how to discuss with him the fact that buddy #3 was MISSING).

 

[Hemlon]

The only time that I decline someone's offer to buddy up is when I am solo diving. Most of the time when I solo, I am doing so with the purpose of being alone. My dive network is large enough that if I want a buddy, I can easily find one. (Austin is a great place to live for fresh-water diving!)

But quite often, I solo dive with the intent to get away from people to reload my spiritual/psychic energy. During these times, taking on a dive buddy just doesn't fit into my dive plan.

But during other times when I am in a group or with a buddy, I welcome divers to join me!