Safety Stop Dillema....???

[Warhammer]

I agree with the others. You handled the situation the best that you could. When you began sharing air with diver #3, he became your primary concern at that point, IMO. When your original buddy choose to search for diver # 4, he did so on his own. I'm sure he relized that when he ddid it and would not have expected you to continue to follow him with another diver in tow on your primary. To do so, would have been a grave error on your part, IMO. Why diver #3 decided to cut his stop short and surface, is beyond me. He should have stuck to you like glue, I know I would have, unless of course you had started back down.

 

[Iguana Don]

You did exactly right. Like the others said FIND NEW BUDDIES, these will get you hurt or worse.

"If she is kind and you are lucky, the sea will let you make one major mistake and live to tell about it."

ID

 

[BetterLateThannever]

Grendel,

I think you know what to do. RIP THOSE DIVE BUDDIES' NAMES OUT OF YOUR ROLODEX.

For those of you old enough to remember; that report sounded like an episode of The Keystone Cops.

 

[dsquid]

The sad fact is, many divers end up with buddies like these, particularly when paired up and meeting for the first time on a dive boat.

It happens... your regular buddies can't make it - you want to dive - and you decide to go... You do your best to
talk through everything with the person you get paired with, and they "seem ok", but something goes wrong.

This past weekend, my assigned buddy descended quickly then dropped off the anchor line in 80fsw in low (5ft) vis. When I reached the bottom he was nowhere to be seen. We had agreed to resurface after 1 minute search if we became seperated. I spent an uneasy 20 minutes on the surface waiting while this guy "finished his solo dive". :\

He was contrite afterwards, but that didn't make me feel any better.

The solution is obvious - don't dive with people you don't know and trust. If you do, realize you're taking a big chance.

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

Please keep in mind that i'm not trying to harass or bash you. Stating "don't dive with people you don't know and trust" is like stating "don't talk to strangers". If we do NOT then how are we suppose to get compentent dive partners and get in with good divers/people? Personaly I think there's a trade off to this problem. It's a matter of how far a person wants to take it that counts. I.e. if you don't dive with ppl you don't know then what are you suppose to do on a dive boat? You'll be with alot of people you don't know.

Ed

 

[dsquid]

Ed,
I agree it's a paradox... In the best of all worlds, you'd never dive with someone you didn't know and trust - in the real world you don't find those folks without taking a few chances.

I guess the moral of the story is to be aware of the risks, consider them prudently, and try to limit the challenging dives you attempt with new, unknown buddies.

I realize it's not always possible - in the "real" world.

 

[blacknet]

Hello,

Agreed! I personaly think that the solution to to look within for one's buddy. Sure it's great to have another physical body there just in case but if you can't rescue yourself then how do you expect others to? By no means is this an endorsment to solo diving.

What I do is get to know the person before hand (the longer the better) and get a feel for how they will do things. I remember one time I went to dive with a group and the shop stated "it will be a group dive" (yea right) My 'buddy' was a us arm ranger, I seen him on the boat, seen him at 10-15' and turned to look at the rest of the 'group' didnt' see anyone, turned my head back and he was gone. Durring that dive I seen very little of anyone (as they was off spearfishing mostly) I could hear them breath but they was abit out of range. Later when I surfaced they ask "wtf is your buddy" and I said "he left me once in the water and I never seen him since" he surfaced about 200 feet away. That was one cluster &*$( of a dive trip.

I learned my lesson on reliability of dive buddies and now I find out how each 'buddy' will react to different situations before diving with them. I'm also strict on who I dive with.

Ed

 

[TwoBitTxn]

One thing I noticed that I had to look up was the dive profile. According to my PADI tables 25 min at 100 ft puts you in to decompression. Minimum of 8 min at 15ft air supply allowing. You were the only one that did any sort of deco. I would imagine some computers would have said you were ok since all I can do is calculate a square profile.

Tom

 

[scubakat]

So I reread Grendel's original post & to me it does sound like he knew them and they had discussed standard operating procedure before they got in the water. The problem I see here is that #3 & #4 didn't follow the plan. Then Grendel's buddy took a detour from common sense and went looking at depth for the "lost" one, or maybe he just needed to free the anchor, who knows. I'm with the earlier posters who said that you need to RUN AWAY from them. They have demonstrated that they can't be responsible for themselves, let alone the situation where they might need to help another diver.

Buddies you know can be as dangerous as the ones you don't know!

There are certain risks in diving and I do like to minimize the number of new buddies I dive with, at the same time if I don't take that risk once in a while I won't meet enough people to keep up my diving habit. I know divers that will not dive unless they are with their husband/brother/wife/instructor and guess what... They don't dive very often. I agree with DSquid that to "be aware of the risks, consider them prudently, and try to limit the challenging dives you attempt with new, unknown buddies" is good policy.

-kate

 

[scubakat]

Originally posted by blacknet


My 'buddy' was a us arm ranger, I seen him on the boat, seen him at 10-15' and turned to look at the rest of the 'group' didnt' see anyone, turned my head back and he was gone. Durring that dive I seen very little of anyone (as they was off spearfishing mostly) I could hear them breath but they was abit out of range. Later when I surfaced they ask "wtf is your buddy" and I said "he left me once in the water and I never seen him since"

Um Ed, what is it you are supposed to do when you loose (or are lost by) your buddy?

It's unfortunate that a bad buddy can ruin a potentially great dive, but I'd rather miss a great dive than miss the rest of my life.

-kate