Near Death Experience!

[OE2X]

If after you talk with a potential buddy and you determine you don't want to dive with them, what do you say then? How do you handle that? I've been taking whatever I get and that's not fair to me.

One way to get a more experienced buddy is when you check in with the charter. I'm always asked when my last dive was, how often I dive and what my certs are. Generally this means that I can get paired with a more experienced buddy since I dive all the time and have a load of dives each year.

If it doesn't work:
I've always suggested that they would have more fun diving with someone else. My style is slower than their's, their air consumption is different than mine etc... Diplomacy first and if they continue to make and #$$ of themselves then I tell them why I won't dive with them. I don't care if they don't like me. For the most part I can dive with anyone and have fun.

There is always time to talk to a person. Generally I assess the group when we are all hanging out at the dive shed or just got onto the boat. If I find someone that I like, I'll ask to dive with them. I also don't mind diving in 3 person buddy teams.

 

[pilot fish]

One way to get a more experienced buddy is when you check in with the charter. I'm always asked when my last dive was, how often I dive and what my certs are. Generally this means that I can get paired with a more experienced buddy since I dive all the time and have a load of dives each year.

If it doesn't work:
I've always suggested that they would have more fun diving with someone else. My style is slower than their's, their air consumption is different than mine etc... Diplomacy first and if they continue to make and #$$ of themselves then I tell them why I won't dive with them. I don't care if they don't like me. For the most part I can dive with anyone and have fun.

There is always time to talk to a person. Generally I assess the group when we are all hanging out at the dive shed or just got onto the boat. If I find someone that I like, I'll ask to dive with them. I also don't mind diving in 3 person buddy teams.

That's interesting, say something when you check in so they can match you up with someone of your experience level? Diving as a trio beats diving alone, buddyless.

 

[OE2X]

That's interesting, say something when you check in so they can match you up with someone of your experience level? Diving as a trio beats diving alone, buddyless.

For the most part dive ops can weed through the BS and tell when someone is a stroke or experienced. Sometimes the experienced diver will get paired up with an inexperienced diver to save the DM trouble. That I don't appreciate. On the other hand I've met some very cool divers that didn't have a lot of experience and turned into excellent buddies.

My own personal rule is to never dive solo when I can share the experience with others. It's one of the things that I really like about diving. The cool factor of when you and your buddy get to the surface and you can finally talk about some the different things that you saw or experienced on the dive. In many ways the shared experience is more meaningful - at least for me.

That said I have and will continue to dive solo on occasions.

 

[LuvsItWet]

I always make sure in Pre-Briefing I tell my buddy that anyone can thumb the dive at anytime, no questions asked. I also state that we all go out together and come back together. I'm glad you are ok and have learned from this lesson. A few questions/comments Pre-Dive can save yourself a heck of a time down the line.

Matt

That's EXACTLY how I was taught! I'd dive with you ANYTIME!

Mark

 

[LuvsItWet]

LuvsItWet, i think you did alright in making it out alive, and hidsight is 20-20. sounds
like you've learned some good lessons here.

i found myself thinking i would have done the following different:

1. the six foot swells didn't come from out of nowhere. did i check the
weather? do i feel comfortable making that sort of dive?

2. whether my own or rented, did i check the equipment before dive?

3. did i and my buddy do mutual bubble check before descending tomake sure no air is leaking?

4. did i keep an eye on those gages? did i check them often to make sure i'm good?

5. i would have refused to ascend alone and would have signaled the DM to ascend
with me. maybe he wouldn't have, but he won't if i don't ask.

6. i would have ditched weights immediately upon surfacing

7. i would have deployed my safety sausage as soon as i became aware of the
high seas (at the saftey stop would be ideal)

8. i would have used my pneumatic whistle (appears the boat heard the DM's) immediately, not waited five minutes. both you and the boat can move apart
a lot in five minutes.

Answers:

1) The weather was choppier than normal but not terrible, I SHOULD have "trusted" my "gut".

2) Yes, I did check out the rental gear, but the leak was coming from the manual inflator on the bc, and I missed it and was very small to begin with.

3) I already talked about my "so called buddy".

4) Yes, I was watching my guages and wondering why I was eating air and adjusting my bc more than usual.

5) I DID try to get the DM to make us buddy up to ascend, but he said no.

6) Learned my lesson on this one. I was so nervous from the weather, I spaced it, and should have known better.

7) Didn't have one then, do now.

8) Didn't have a sono alert then. I do now!

 

[pilot fish]

For the most part dive ops can weed through the BS and tell when someone is a stroke or experienced. Sometimes the experienced diver will get paired up with an inexperienced diver to save the DM trouble. That I don't appreciate. On the other hand I've met some very cool divers that didn't have a lot of experience and turned into excellent buddies.

My own personal rule is to never dive solo when I can share the experience with others. It's one of the things that I really like about diving. The cool factor of when you and your buddy get to the surface and you can finally talk about some the different things that you saw or experienced on the dive. In many ways the shared experience is more meaningful - at least for me.

That said I have and will continue to dive solo on occasions.

That was it in Coz a few years ago when I got paired with a brand new diver who was doing his first dives post cert. I said no to the DM because I had only 30 dives and thought I did not have enough experience to help a newbie, but he insisted. He was passing the buck to me. The newbie had two of my dives cut way short and that annoyed me. He had no skills whatever. At dinner that night I complained to a few of the other divers on the boat and they told me, forget about this guy cutting your dives short, we saw him in the water and he can kill you. Poor guy was awful. At that point I said, forget this, I'm not diving with this guy any more. The other guys on the boat said come with us, which is what I did. He then became the DM's problem.

I, too, prefer to dive with someone else and share the fun of diving but I don't like it when I get someone that should not have been certified. In the future I will ask when I check in to be paired with someone that has some dive experience.

 

[Michael Freeman]

When I was working on my AOW Cert and was teamed with an unsafe buddy. We did an 80 ft night dive with a stop in some cave/air pockets at depth. We dove down found the pockets and came up in the air pocket. Dive master asked everyone in the small group if they had at least 2000-1500psi left. My buddy lied and said he did!!! Since everyone told DM they were good on air, we returned to shore along a deeper path along the wall. My buddy ran his tank empty, and then came to me for air. (No low air signal). I gave him my Octo and tried to get him to relax. I still had over 1500 psi and showed him we were fine. He started to swim up so I dumped my BCD to go full negative and tried to swim down to try and prevent him from pulling us up too quickly. Unfortunately I didn't empty his BCD so I lost that battle. I kept us from going up really quick, but my computer still beeped so we surfaced faster then optimal.

I think I handled the situation okay for my training level. My first mistake was not dumping his BCD first. But who knows he may have dumped his weight belt if I had been able to prevent him from surfacing.

It turned out okay, but it goes to show you that an unqualified buddy can get you into trouble very quickly even if you are doing everything right. If someone tells me that I'm with an unsafe diver, I will take those observations very seriously.

 

[LuvsItWet]

When I was working on my AOW Cert and was teamed with an unsafe buddy. We did an 80 ft night dive with a stop in some cave/air pockets at depth. We dove down found the pockets and came up in the air pocket. Dive master asked everyone in the small group if they had at least 2000-1500psi left. My buddy lied and said he did!!! Since everyone told DM they were good on air, we returned to shore along a deeper path along the wall. My buddy ran his tank empty, and then came to me for air. (No low air signal). I gave him my Octo and tried to get him to relax. I still had over 1500 psi and showed him we were fine. He started to swim up so I dumped my BCD to go full negative and tried to swim down to try and prevent him from pulling us up too quickly. Unfortunately I didn't empty his BCD so I lost that battle. I kept us from going up really quick, but my computer still beeped so we surfaced faster then optimal.

I think I handled the situation okay for my training level. My first mistake was not dumping his BCD first. But who knows he may have dumped his weight belt if I had been able to prevent him from surfacing.

It turned out okay, but it goes to show you that an unqualified buddy can get you into trouble very quickly even if you are doing everything right. If someone tells me that I'm with an unsafe diver, I will take those observations very seriously.

You're saying, if I understand you correctly, that your instructor took you into an underwater cave on your aow cert at 80 feet?

He has no business instructing then! Cave diving is one of the most specialized "specialty" courses there is! Good for you and how you handled it!

Mark

 

[Michael Freeman]

Yes, that is what I am saying. The cave was almost 2-3 feet deep and the opening to the cave was very big. I was going to deply a line from my reel in case I got lost, but then I realized I could touch the deepest part of the cave with my left hand and put my right hand outside the cave, so I decided not to.

Sorry I couldn't resist. These are not caves, it is more of a wall dive with a large hole in the side with a lip on the end of the overhang that traps air. This was our night dive section of the AOW. Finding it is the hardest part of the dive.

 

[Stryker]

Hey Luvsitwet,

I have to ask, where did you get the idea about the CD? that is probably the best idea ive heard in a LONG time.

Also what part of indianapolis are you from? I grew up in Carmel (I know, no name calling hahaha)....