How do you plan a dive with a less experienced (nervous) instabuddy?

[00wabbit]

Hi

Im getting to the point now where I am much more confident in my skills and am sometimes more skilled than the buddies I get paired with. I travel and dive alone a lot so I always have an instabuddy. I try to size people up on the boat and choose someone with a similar skill level but sometimes I am paired up with a much less experienced diver. I don't mind because I was that guy before and some much more experienced divers from Scubaboard helped me out at first.

My my question is how do you plan a dive with this kind of instabuddy in such a way that will help ease their nerves. Most of these dives are wreck dives from boats in 60-100fsw.

Last week eek I did a dive to 85ft but this vis was a bit low around 20ft and the wreck was somewhat broken up an difficult to follow the outlines. My buddy took off right at first much faster than I would have liked and because of that I didn't get a good chance to survey the wreck. He then thought he was low on air and got concerned about getting back to the anchor. We tried to get back to the anchor to ascend but got a little lost so I decided we should shoot a bag and ascend since he was getting concerned about air. He had plenty, I checked his gauge myself and I was diving double tanks so there was no real worry just his nerves. Fortunately there was no current on this dive so ascending from 85ft on the smb was no problem.

Im in not sure how I would have planned this dive differently except that I would have made sure we paused at the bottom to take a compass reading and made him stay more beside me. Alternatively I think maybe we should have just gone to the bottom of the anchor line and stayed within site of it for the first dive then ventured out further for the second. There was plenty to see without going anywhere. Lots of sand tiger sharks. If the wreck was more intact it would have been easier to follow and not such an issue.

Anyway how do you handle a less experienced someone apprehensive instabuddy?

 

[Dsix36]

I have also appreciated a very thorough dive briefing from my buddies when I was new and a bit nervous. Having the details of the dive told to me prior and then being able to follow the order eased my nerves. The communication with the buddy was another way to be relaxed with the upcoming dive.

I now try to do the same with other new divers to help them feel comfortable. One of the most important things to remember is to never push a diver past their personal comfort level.

Communication and planning are good things.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Make them plan the dive. Go over all signals and contingencies and tell them if they deviate from it they are on their own. If there is something in their plan you don't like, say so. Every diver should be able to plan the dive they are going on including dives they are a student on. That's part of the learning process.

If they can't they should not be doing that dive and perhaps you should not be trusting them to do it with you. Let them know up front and in very clear terms that if they do not stick to the plan you agreed upon they are not to expect you to follow them.

There are too many with a sheep mentality that expect others to do everything for them and just follow along. What they do not realize is how dangerous this is for them to do. At least until the SHTF and then they see how leaving their safety to others might be the last thing they ever do.

 

[00wabbit]

Make them plan the dive. Go over all signals and contingencies and tell them if they deviate from it they are on their own. If there is something in their plan you don't like, say so. Every diver should be able to plan the dive they are going on including dives they are a student on. That's part of the learning process.

If they can't they should not be doing that dive and perhaps you should not be trusting them to do it with you. Let them know up front and in very clear terms that if they do not stick to the plan you agreed upon they are not to expect you to follow them.

There are too many with a sheep mentality that expect others to do everything for them and just follow along. What they do not realize is how dangerous this is for them to do. At least until the SHTF and then they see how leaving their safety to others might be the last thing they ever do.

interesting. This may have helped with the last dive. We did discuss before hand safety issues and gas issues. I also went over in detail air sharing from long hose. I told him I liked to go slow but I should have definitely gone over the slow down signal with him. Also I didn't think to go over the ascend signal. When he wanted to go up he started pointing with his index finger. There were sharks above us though so I though he was pointing at those. Turns out he was signaling to go up. It is such a basic signal I didn't even think about it.

 

[rivers]

What I tend to do with inexperienced/new/unknown divers is reiterate my one golden rule (well one of my golden rules. the other is minimum gas). Anyone can call the dive at any time. You give me a thumb, I give a thumb back and up we go. The only question you will get from me on the surface is "Are you okay?". I don't care if you weren't happy, were cold, bored, etc., the one thing I want to know is if everything is physically okay with you. I make sure to go over minimum gas rules, as well as long hose gas sharing if they've never seen one before. Sometimes, I find if someone is really nervous about a dive, or stressed during a dive, give them something to take their mind off of it, or ask if there is something they want to work (for example, reeling in a line on ascent or working on navigation if it's a site you know).
Go over signals that you normally use (some agencies have different signals for things like 'stop', 'slow down', etc). it's important you are both on the same page before the dive, so make them an active part of the plan. But personally, I wouldn't be doing 80-100ft dives with someone i didn't know.

 

[DogDiver]

This is the best reason a lot of experienced divers go solo.


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[00wabbit]

This is the best reason a lot of experienced divers go solo.


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i am practically solo. I have redundant everything. I dive sidemount with dual bladder bc. Carry smb and lift bag. Carry spool and reel. Back up mask, lights. Nautilus lifeline radio.

 

[Zen1300]

From the new diver perspective, I struggled after OW because of my fear of being a burden on an insta-buddy and concern I would end up with a maverick that would leave me behind or fail to listen if I indicated I wouldn't do something or go somewhere. My comfort plays a role in my safety.

I like the idea of being part of the dive planning. That turns me into a dive partner and not a tag along.

 

[TSandM]

I dive a lot with inexperienced folks, and I try to follow a pretty simple rule: Having a novice diver in the water is all the complication a dive can have. Otherwise, it needs to be dead easy. I'd have some problems with having to go down to 85 feet with somebody who was a) novice and b) unknown to me, because that's deep enough to run into gas consumption issues pretty fast, and somebody can get hurt if they panic or lose control of an ascent. But at the very least, I would make sure that navigation was a no-brainer (stay in sight of the anchor) and that a very clear dive plan had been described and agreed upon (stay on the superstructure, for example). I'd also try to see if I could scare up a third team member.

 

[mrdre]

Keep communicating with your buddy. That's what I've learned. When I take a newbie buddy on a little challenging dives I keep stopping and asking "are you ok?" "what's your air?" "my air is this", "look around, it's cool", "we are at that depth - check", "you want to go further?", "let's stay here a little more".. and so on, keep repeating. I think the key questions are "do you want to go further?" and "do you want to stay more?", make it his/her decision.