No Buddy for Dive Master ?

[Tigerman]

Well, you couldn't do that in Cozumel (where the post I was replying to specifically mentioned) since Marine Park Laws require diving with a DM. So your dive plan would involve surfacing when the DM surfaced anyway- just in this case, you'd hang around and watch to see if they can get themselves out of trouble, or if another diver further away could reach them in time, since you are clearly not interested in assisting. Maybe if you were diving outside of the park you could ditch them. It's scary to me though that you are so callous about human life, that you'd just ignore someone in distress if they weren't your designated buddy.

Who the hell EVER said something about ignoring the DM or anyone else? If they have already "used the nearest person" you should be able to use your eyes and waving anyone goodbye should be a pretty clear indication of you actually paying attention to the situation.

My OW checkout required me perform certain skills for an instructor. If the instructor wasn't underwater, they wouldn't have been able to determine if we did the skills. I had a designated buddy for when the instructor wasn't with me specifically, but they were with the group (16 divers, generally we were underwater in groups of 8, or 4 buddy pairs).

Clearly others have an instructor underwater, or else the issue of a student rescuing an instructor wouldn't even exist.
Maybe you used a different agency.

Skills where done on the training dives, checkout was as described above.
And no, its not exactly caribbean visibility along the coast of Norway (5-10 meters vis during the summer Id guesstimate to be normal for the places Ive been on this VERY long coastline)

 

[Skittl1321]

Who the hell EVER said something about ignoring the DM or anyone else? If they have already "used the nearest person" you should be able to use your eyes and waving anyone goodbye should be a pretty clear indication of you actually paying attention to the situation.

Your "not me" made me assume if you were the closest person, you'd wave goodbye. Either way- in the Cozumel Marine Park, you can't wave goodbye to the DM, as they are required by law.

Skills where done on the training dives, checkout was as described above.
And no, its not exactly caribbean visibility along the coast of Norway (5-10 meters vis during the summer Id guesstimate to be normal for the places Ive been on this VERY long coastline)

Our visibility was about 3-8 feet; I've never seen anything close to 10 meters locally. (Most of the time I could not see my fins, and I'm 5' tall.) Our OW checkout dives consisted of 4 training dives, repeating many of the skills done in confined water training. Again, must be an agency difference.

 

[Mike]

A divemaster is not your buddy ... even if you think they are. They can't be ... by definition they're leading the whole group, and are dividing their attention between watching the group for potential problems and watching the terrain to find you interesting things to look at. That doesn't leave much bandwidth for them to pay attention to you, specifically. If you're thinking that the DM is your buddy, you're basically diving solo, even though you're in a group and the chances are pretty good that if you get into trouble either the DM or another diver will be able to help you.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Read this again CCX2, as this is what you're missing. Reading your original post about you'll just stick to the dive master and not bother to try to buddy up with another divers just smells to me like a lazy way out with a false sense of security. Like Bob said, you're basically diving alone. Test it out for yourself, hang back from the group, lag behind, let them keep going and wait and see if the DM comes looking for you, he won't.

 

[ccx2]

Read this again CCX2, as this is what you're missing. Reading your original post about you'll just stick to the dive master and not bother to try to buddy up with another divers just smells to me like a lazy way out with a false sense of security. Like Bob said, you're basically diving alone. Test it out for yourself, hang back from the group, lag behind, let them keep going and wait and see if the DM comes looking for you, he won't.

Thanks Mike , what Bob said is just how i see it. When i jump in the water in a situation like that , part of a blob, i know the deal and am comfortable in the fact that I'm basically solo diving with fringe benifits and was curious if thats how its done everywhere. but that question/statement wasn't my original intent of my post.
My real question was why the Dive Masters/guides don't have a buddy? isn't it drilled into us from an instructor when we take OW that you must? and then the instructor or DM doesn't? My question has been answered a few times in this thread but its kind of funny that the answers were personal opinions and not some sort of industry,padi,ssi,ect safety standard.

 

[boulderjohn]

My question has been answered a few times in this thread but its kind of funny that the answers were personal opinions and not some sort of industry,padi,ssi,ect safety standard.

The standards for PADI or any dive agency in regard to the policies and standards for conducting dives as a DM or instructor are not relevant to the average diver and are part of the training those individuals receive. I know the standards that I as an instructor must follow when leading student divers. Every agency has a course telling DMs what to do. Every agency has a course telling instructors what to do. Why is it important for the rest of the diving community to know those guidelines? They don't have to follow them.