Three man buddy teams

[FatCat]

HID lights and passive communication.

A light, certainly. It doesn't need to be HID to communicate, ordinary halogen lights work fine (except for 38° or 43° beams on daylight dives, or LEDs).

Three person teams usually work fine in my experience. Best deployment I've been able to come up with is a wedge formation. Leader navigates and sets the pace and the two wingmen stay just a bit higher than the team leader, so they have a visual reference to each other. Communication is by touch for emergencies or interesting things to see, the dive leader usually checks the wingmen's position by watching the light beams on the bottom. The followers are supposed to check on each other while the team leader is navigating and should warn the dive leader by touch if there is an emergency. For routine "OK? OK!" checks, we use lights. For air checks, the leader signals a stop and turns do do the check.

When we stop for something interesting, positions may change, as long as there is visual reference. When we move on, we regroup first, then continue our way.

In my experience, it works better than a group of four. Three is a maximum IMO. Four is just two buddy teams.

 

[wscdive]

Uncle pug, maybe i didn't explain it right. I do have a buddy. It is the diver in the buddy team who is following me. I just take responsibility for communication with him. his main responsibility is to the other diver. Our lost buddy procedure is the same as if a pair had been split. Shallow we all surface, deep we meet at the line, then surface. I just feel it adds alot of stress for three unfamiliar divers to try to buddy -up. Its not that i don't need a buddy, I just find it easier to keep track of one buddy team then two divers. Typically what happens when a triple goes bad is that the two guys who know each other well lose the new guy. If all divers know one another a triple works well. The situation I describes was me, my dive buddy(a guy I knew well) and a stranger. It was also a warm water clear water dive. In low vis or a cave situation i would function more like a team as you describe. Personally i would only do that with divers I knew though. It is too hard to keep track of multiple dive buddies in those conditions.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Mike since you started the thread I'll let you describe a typical three diver team operation... and I'll give an example of where a three diver team does not work:

We decide on a sequence and stick to it for the most part, whether diving single file or side by side. Those are typically the only positions we use and every one is at the same depth...ie stay out of the other guys blind spot (above and behind).

Good lights make everything so much easier...keeping your beam in front and off to the side where it can be seen by others. When single file you keep an eye on the light from the guy behind you and of course you can see the guy in front. When side by side you can see people or lights. In either position all it takes is a wrist movement to exchange ok's, get attention or signal a problem.

We put the new guy, diver with a failed primary or whatever disadvantage a diver might have in the middle and sandwich him. This works especially well in a cave (where it's SOP) but it works well in OW too.

As on any dive some one is designated leader, some one else to call deco, shoot a bag ect. Any one can take over any task if needed of course.

Ascents are in a star formation or side by side depending mostly on whether we're traveling or not I guess. The point is every one can see eachother especially during stops and gas switches where we switch one at a time with the others watching...no time to mess up.

Did I miss anything?

 

[Uncle Pug]

Single file... each diver is watching the diver in front as well as the light beam of diver behind (this is why HIDs rule.) If Diver in front has a problem diver in middle solves while diver in rear holds. If diver in middle has a problem he signals diver in front who then helps while diver in rear holds. If diver in rear has a problem diver in middle signals diver in front to stop and hold while diver in middle helps diver in rear.

 

[OneBrightGator]

I like a mix of both, we usually run three inline though, but if the environment permits, I like running at least two side by side. On the way out of Ginnie I prefer it, even with one buddy, better contact and lights up more of the cave.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Side by side is what I prefer.. but the principle of passive communication between team members is still the same.

Now when it comes to four or more divers I prefer to have assigned pairs even if we are all planning to dive together.

Last Tuesday night we had six in three groups of two. We were in very low viz yet were able to do the dive safely. We all planned to arrive at the same location around 100' and after that the two air divers would take a different course while the four nitrox divers would continue at depth to another location. The transit between locations was done in pairs though several times we were all four abreast.

We ultimately ended up rejoining the two air divers at the very end of the dive.

 

[pipedope]

I like a different three man team.

1 diver
1 tender
1 dive supervisor

The diver concentrates on the job.
The tender concentrates on taking care of the diver.
The dive sup keeps logs and keeps the whole job on track.

This is the standard minimum for a commercial diving job.

 

[Uncle Pug]

Or
diver
tender
boat driver
for *mobile* operations.

 

[limeyx]

Thanks to everyone who is contributing here, I'm learning a lot from this thread . . . is there a similar one dealing with 2 person buddy teams from the past that anyone can suggest? Some of us new guys are eager to be good buddies/team members but need to know what that really means. And threads like this are great to get us thinking about what teamwork is all about.

Mahalo,
Tim

P.S. I did do a search, but this is a broad key word and I didn't find anything comparable.

I only have a few dives (less than 20 total), but probably have done about 1/2 in a 3 and 1/2 in a 2, and in my case both have worked equally well, but it's (as others have pointed out) about attitude.

Whether in a 2 or a 3, if i am not within 2-3 seconds swim of my buddy, I consider that a problem, and I am fortunate that my buddy's have the same idea. I'd rather "see" less down there and be a better buddy than get to see all the fishies

if my buddy is the kind of person that will not maintain that formation then I would not dive with them even on shallow, easier dives.

It might be that I have had the fortune to dive with people who either dive DIR or are trying too, but at the end of the day, I'll take someone who will stick with me over someone who has the DIR "gear" and a ****ty attitude any day

 

[Charlie99]

Just to be clear.
Three man teams are fine.

A buddy pair with a third diver along for the ride is not such a good thing.

Speaking as the 3rd diver along for the ride, the buddy pair with a 3rd along for the ride is unfortunately all too common on boats in resort areas.

I have no problem at all joining an existing buddy team that has good buddy skills. No problem with 2 inexperienced divers, where I end up playing dive guide. Big problem when hooking up with an existing "buddy" pair with poor buddy skills.

My worst 3 person dive experiences have all been with husband & wife buddy teams, where the husband insists on leading, then zooms about at full speed never once looking back.

3 man teams are quite doable, but do require a bit more (or at least some) buddy awareness.

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One area where I found that a 3 person team was a significant enhancement over a 2 person team was when hooking up with 2 divers that took turns being the photog and a fish spotter. A 3 person where the photographer for that dive had essentially no buddy duties, and the other two watched each other and the photog worked well.

Charlie

p.s. My funniest 3 person team experience was after diving with a husband and wife team. During the SI she told me that it would be just her and me for the next dive. When I asked if her husband was sitting out the next dive, she kind of sheepishly told me "No, but I told him to go buddy up with someone else". It seems that previous dive was a unique experience where she was able to stop and look at stuff, since I would catch up to her husband and stop him each time he wandered too far ahead.