I do them on EVERY dive, no matter the time of day, the planned depth it duration... Kit can go wrong on any dive, the bubble check is an important tool in the box for avoiding the incident pit!
Yes. I do them on every dive to, but mostly I am alone in that and if I am unable to see something myself, well, I told what can happen then.
To suggest you don't bother in after work dives is to suggest a lazy approach to your dives when time constrained...
I do not suggest anything. I just live with reality as I am facing it.
And from my limited experience there divers are the same everywhere.
Big talk, sloppy practice in reality, on any dive they do not consider a special challenge.
I told of the exceptional buddy above. She did everything by the book, every time.
She was even doing formal safety stops after a shallow half-hour 5 Meter practice dive.
She was diving with her late husband's computer until it's batteries would run out after a year, so everyone considered her suicidal perhaps, but I was the only one at that diving side to do more than one dive with her.
It does not pay to be a stickler for rules here, except when those rules are kept by everyone anyway.
Buddychecks? No (you can talk about it dozens of times during preparation, if you do not insist when entering the water it will be forgotten)
Bubble Checks? Hell what is that...
Technical divers excluded, but they in particular get 'lazy' when doing less challenging dives with a sidemount instant-buddy.
That attitude is cavalier at best and as has already been suggested, is born only from laziness!
Actually, I think laziness has nothing to do with it. I think it's more complacency and not thinking that diving poses risks at all or trying to ignore them as much as possible.
Certainly not a quality I respect in a diver
I respect anyone diving on principle. There are some I am careful about when diving with them, but I never give orders and always respect their own decisions. I am always sure to be able to rescue both of us if it comes to that, otherwise I do not dive.
I do not presume to be entitled to tell anyone what to do. I give advice once if I see something that bothers me, then I shut up (or at least only take the topic up again in debriefing (and debriefing is another thing I do not see practiced in reality often)).
I am often a pain for weeks regarding 'best practice' and loose a lot of buddy's over time because of that, but I do not give up on them easily and I do not abort any dives.
and definitely one I would look to avoid in a potential buddy!
I do not avoid any potential buddy. It is hard to find someone here who averages more than 50 dives a year, so I need five or more different diving-partners or groups at the same time anyway and that does not factor in their own vacations, illnesses, engagements and divorces.
Recently my buddys all tend to become sidemount instructors after a while and stop improving themselves seeming to think their meager skills are adequate too teach - those I will avoid in the future, but I only learned that recently.
You are entitled to choose how you dive and what checks you make (or don't) but to suggest that's correct and normal and to try and defend the indefensible Is just pig headed.
Again, I am not defending anything, I am just stating facts of diving life as I experience them.
I do not use swearwords to describe my diving partners, even if I do not respect every little thing they do or don't do, but I share the sentiment.
These forums are for people to learn from being exposed to wider and/or greater knowledge than their own, I've certainly learnt a lot from the various forums I frequent.
Same here, more or less everything I practice regarding sidemount I took from one forum or the other (only quietly reading at that time).
Formal education came later.
You however, always seem to voice your opinion as the only way and when corrected with hard fact and/or logical responses, you don't seem to learn, but rather continue to defend your often poorly formed opinion....
Well, my English is not that perfect.
I can always offer a lot of 'hard facts' to explain my opinion, but that is not much use, as facts are a perception issue on the internet in any language.
If you're not here to learn too, why are you here?
To share experiences mostly.
I do not think there is much to learn for me anymore before cave or other technical education (except practicing what I already know, of course).
That motivates me to continue collecting information on what others do differently, why and how.
The bubble check is a 30 second check, easily done and if you're buddies don't know about it because of a more junior recreational experience, educate them, teach them this valuable skill, build their experience and increase their knowledge and ultimately safety. Don't be lazy and use them as an excuse for not bothering....
I do not teach anyone, I just go diving.
I am also not endangered by others laziness, so I do not care what others do.
If people around me think they can live this sloppy practices I ignore that after remarking on it once or twice.
But I have to admit I get used to that being normal much to easy.
