Who was the Divemaster's or Instructor's buddy?

[Wijbrandus]

When I was certified, and when my wife was certified later, both Instructors had a DM with him in the water.

They went through all the buddy checks just like the noobs did.

I guess in these two particular cases, the Instructor had a buddy. I would have thought, based on my experience, that this was across the board, but apparently not.

 

[Cap335]

Who was my buddy? No one. I never realized that when I reached this level of training that my gear became infallible and I was kind of like "Superdiver", who would never experience troubles or need a buddy.

When I Dive either as an Instructor or Divemaster I have lots of buddies and one thing we teach in the DM course is a constant vigalance to keep these buddies with us.

Randy

 

[stoddu]

For the lower level classes, the instructor has the entire class as buddies. The students will probably be following closer than normal dive buddies trying to get a looksy at what is going on. The DM following the class has his choice of the students for a buddy in cases such as OOA. The biggest concern would be who is making sure the DM is still with the class, although that's not much to worry about since his purpose on the dive is to watchover the class, he shouldn't get distracted by the seascape and get left behind.

 

[divetahoe]

When teaching, I always assumed I would have to look out for myself, but that if anything went wrong with my own equipment, I had plenty of available alternates to choose from!

It does bring to mind the *painful* memory of a particular class when I didn't have a DM to assist. I ended up doing 38 decents/ascents in two days (a few students had problems!). I needed to do one last descent to untie my float and couldn't: my ears were shot. I flagged down another diver I knew on his way out and he retreived it for me.

In the end, an instructor must be a pretty much a self-sufficient diver. But you should be, if you have done the dives and know what you should know.

 

[KingStroke]

It does bring to mind the *painful* memory of a particular class when I didn't have a DM to assist. I ended up doing 38 decents/ascents in two days (a few students had problems!)....

During a recent class an instructor friend of mine also did something like 30 decents/ascents in his OW class. Don't you feel that nitrox could be a good gas choice for instructors in cases like this? I believe PADI does not allow instructional staff to dive with Nitrox during training...including Nitrox classes...but I could be mistaken.

 

[barc802]

The decents/ascents problems are your ears stop clearing.

 

[melfox26]

During a recent class an instructor friend of mine also did something like 30 decents/ascents in his OW class. Don't you feel that nitrox could be a good gas choice for instructors in cases like this? I believe PADI does not allow instructional staff to dive with Nitrox during training...including Nitrox classes...but I could be mistaken.

Nitrox on any dive up to 100 fsw is better for you, regardless if you're bouncing up/down dealing with students. There is no gas "restriction" set forth by PADI on what an instructor/DM can or can't use.

Mel

 

[divetahoe]

During a recent class an instructor friend of mine also did something like 30 decents/ascents in his OW class. Don't you feel that nitrox could be a good gas choice for instructors in cases like this? I believe PADI does not allow instructional staff to dive with Nitrox during training...including Nitrox classes...but I could be mistaken.

I don't recall any restrictions on gas use by instructors, but that wouldn't do anything for an ear problem anyway. The root cause of my particular problem is a congenital narrowed ear canal, which makes it more difficult to clear. The repeated equalizations inflamed the canal (pushed too hard a few times), further narrowing the space until it just wouldn't work! Took a couple of ibuprofen and waited a few weeks. <shrug> ya do what ya need to do.

 

[melfox26]

I will not get in to what I think of GUE and DIR, There is not enough room on the internet!

Anyway, yes they do. In technical wreck diving in the north east the buddy system works well, both buddys get loaded in the helocopter together and are next to each other in the medical examiners room and may even go in the ground together.

Jokes aside in most cases if one buddy gets into trouble, the other buddy give their life for the cause.

and I will not get into what I think about solo diving, there is not enough room on the internet.

Would I ever dive with a pony bottle? No way. My redundant air supply is the one on my buddies back.


At depths below 100 ft, the buddy system is certainly not out of the window. In fact, it's more important because of issues like narcosis. I personally won't dive below 100 ft until I'm triox certified, but that's off topic.

If you're leading divers as a DM and a diver comes up to you with the out of air sign, you hand him your pony bottle? :06: Why not donate him/her one that you know works, the one out of your mouth that should be on a 7 ft hose? That way you can better take control of the situation and ascend safely.


Mel

 

[CALI68]

I will not get in to what I think of GUE and DIR, There is not enough room on the internet!
]


Darn! Please please reconsider! I need a good laugh. A solo diver trashing GUE divers would be hiarious! It only took you 26 posts to offend a huge majority of SB members.

Good job!


MelFox has it right! Read his post again. Mel is one of my dive buddies and he's an awesome diver.