Keeping Track of Buddies

[Guba]

Okay, I had to smile (at myself, that is) when I read TS&M's post after mine. Typically, when my friends and I dive locally, we are in less (much, much less) than optimal visibility conditions. Vis is generally 6-10 feet, and this is usually generous. That is why we use the wing-man formation I described, which usually makes it pretty easy to keep track of everyone under such conditions. Obviously, if visibility allows divers to spread out a bit more (but not too much for safety) then other styles will fit the purpose better. That just shows that I, for one, tend to analyze this type of question through the filter of my own experiences, and why it's great to have the broad experience base of so many posters on this board.

 

[TSandM]

The leader won't ignore his followers but will make his main focus, leading the dive and won't have to look back as often as we were doing on our dives this trip. I think that's a reasonable tradeoff that still honors the buddy system for all divers and improves the enjoyment of the dive for whomever leads.

When we dive as a team of three, the leader LEADS the dive, navigation-wise. But the "followers" aren't behind him, and stay where they can be seen. If you allow the "followers" to drop behind to where the leader can't see them, he's diving solo, to all intents and purposes. He has no way of knowing if they have stopped to look at something or to deal with a problem.

It really IS possible to get this all sorted so it works neatly; really, it is. We do it all the time, in clear water and in cloudy.

 

[Diver0001]

So is there a better way to orient ourselves to make keeping track of each other easier? To caveat that question, we did try some other configurations. But any time they were farther up where I could see them, they said they had difficulty being able to see me well enough to know when I stopped or changed directions. And I also frequently passed the lead responsibilities off to them so they could get some experience leading dives. They expressed the same issues with keeping track of followers that I did.

All polite responses welcome. :cool2:

I haven't read any of the other responses yet so forgive me if I'm repeating. I do have an opinion about this though so I hope you can use it.

Part of the answer will depend on conditions, especially visibility, but since you said you were diving in the tropics then that's the context I'll use too.

For one thing, if you're "supervising", which in essence you were, then you simply can't be ahead of the divers you're watching because you can't see them. In your case I'll recommend side-by-side but I'll get back to why in a minute.

When I teach scuba I never "lead" a group. I either put my DM in front to lead the group (navigate) so I can watch the divers or I pair up the divers and make one of the students navigate. Often I swim along side and sometimes, especially if conditions are terrible or they're doing something like a navigation exercise that they need to demonstrate without me influencing them, I swim behind and a bit above them so they can't see me. That's the the most comfortable position to be in to "supervise" but it carries one serious risk, which is that if *you* get in trouble, you're on your own and may even find yourself needing to abandon the other divers to save yourself. The "above-and-behind" thing I only use if there is at least one other supervisor in the water with the group, for this reason. Likewise, you really really REALLY don't want anyone you're supervising to be above and/or behind you because you're left blind and unable to maintain situational awareness. This is the worst configuration for buddy contact.

Swimming beside isn't always ideal either because while you're able to immediately help the diver to one side of you, the diver in the middle is the first one in line if something happens to the diver on the other outside. Ordinarily if I swim along side while supervising, I put the stronger of the pair on the other outside and clamp the weaker diver in the middle to hedge my bets in case of trouble.

If you're a much stronger diver than both of your buddies and you're trying to supervise *and* navigate then the most natural position to be in is in the middle with one diver on either side. As I said above I don't like to combine navigating with other tasks so usually I delegate navigating to one of the other divers so I can take the outside position and maximize situational awareness. This division of task responsibility goes further than just keeping track to buddies too.

The configuration you were using, with one diver in front and two behind, is what you would ordinarily use if the lead diver was navigating for a group but not necessarily directly supervising every diver. Dive guides usually do this because they navigate for the group but in that case every buddy pair is assumed to be able to care for each other.

Regardless of configuration, there are a couple of things you need to get coordinated before you get in the water. One of the big ones is to agree that the group moves as a unit. One of the things you mentioned was having trouble stopping or changing direction (or depth) as a unit. Agreeing about how you communicate this through the whole team *before* the dive starts eliminates confusion.

I don't know what would work for you but how I do it is that the person with the primary task of navigating communicates all changes in tempo (stop or speed up) or changes in direction and depth. If one of the other divers wants to change direction, he communicates it first to the navigator who then precipitates the message through the group and then takes the lead by initiating the change. This is probably overkill for diving in the tropics but our local conditions require a little stricter approch because sometimes the water is very tubid.

Hope this helps give you some ideas you can build on.

R..

 

[SubMariner]

Herk_Man, as this point you are all striving together as a team to find a system that works best for you all to be safely enjoying the wonderful sport of diving. WTG!

Eventually you will come up with a system that you can adapt to the number of divers on the excursion & diving conditions. Then it will become second nature: you will know if you look THERE, that THIS PERSON will be in that position. And vice versa.

I know that's how my husband and I dive. He knows I tend to be slightly above him just to his left, keeping an eye on him as well as looking for cool stuff for him to photograph. 'Cuz that's how we roll after a couple of thousand dives together.

Bonne chance,