Was this kosher?

A buddy of mine told me about a recent dive he went on. He was on a smaller boat with three other people diving on a wreck. One person was essentially a solo diver, so him and the other two formed a loose buddy triumvirate of sorts. Unbeknownst to him or anybody else on the boat, the two guys he was paired with planned on a penetration profile. They abruptly disappeared into an opening and didn't come back out for a long while. My buddy waited but ended up having to do a solo deco stop/ open water surface.

When he told me about this, it seemed kind of wrong to me. Nobody on the boat knew about their penetration plans since they didn't announce them, and my buddy was properly flummoxed when they went in and didn't come right back out. I've dove with folks intent on penetration dive plans before, but they have always announced it early, so that everybody is aware of their plans.

I'm fine diving on the same boat as CCR divers, deco divers, wreck divers,etc, but letting the other folks on the boat know about any such plans seems like a responsible thing to do. How would you handle a situation like this?

I certainly wouldn't dive with them again. If it was my boat I wouldn't let them dive again either. As just a passenger with no authority, accept that some people are just inconsiderate and hope they don't die while on the same boat with me.

I guess that is what can happen when you accept "him and the other two formed a loose buddy triumvirate of sorts".

awap, yes and no. Both of us have dove with the divers in question before, and they have never penetrated when we dove with them. They discussed a dive plan but neither of the two guys mentioned that they planned to penetrate the wreck.

Maybe the question, "Are you planning any penetration?" ought to be part of the pre-dive discussion on a wreck with unknown buddies?

This goes to the degree of attention paid to the pre-dive briefing and plan. We don't know what the actual degree of detail was, but the description of "loose triumvirate" tends to suggest to me that it wasn't great.

A proper dive plan describes the planned route and activities, as well as they are known. On my repeated 60-foot tours of Cove 2, the dive plan is, "The shallow tour of the cove". Nothing more needs to be said, nor is. But diving the Saskatechewan, a wreck off Vancouver Island, there will be a much more detailed discussion of how much of the wreck we intend to tour, what depths we are willing to do, how our ascent profile will be constructed, how our gas will be managed, etc. I think, all too often, a group such as is described is thrown together and the discussion goes something like this:

Q. You guys willing to have me as a third buddy?
A. Sure.
Q. How deep are you going?
A. Depends on what looks interesting.
Q. Oh, okay.

If people are really diligent, they may actually propose a dive time, or talk about what size tanks each is using.

If the pre-dive discussion covered penetration and the pair violated their statement that they didn't plan any, I would be angry, and I would probably confront them and not dive with them again. If it wasn't covered, what I would do would depend on whether I ever contemplated diving with them again. If so, we'd talk it out, that penetration is one of those things that should be planned and not done spontaneously, and everyone has to be on board with that plan.

A big part of a predive safety check ( which I am sure we all do ) is also to discuss the dive and the plan and activities for it, especially with "instabuddy" or pairing up with someone with whom you were not involved in planning the dive. LOts of errors here, but good job for the third man not penetrating the wreck when not comfortable or qualified to do so. A little conversation about the qualifications of each diver, recent dives, and etc. can go a long way to preventing this kind of misunderstanding as well. I have a blog on this , "Diving with "Instabuddy" which I think applies here. Instabuddies come in all shaopes sizes and levels of competence, and have all different kinds of dive plans. Communicate BEFORE the dive. Please. And let the boat operator know your intended activity and profile for every dive. That is just basic safety and common sense.
DivemasterDennis

I think that's a solid conclusion. Everybody could stand to be a bit more careful when in an instabuddy situation. Thanks for the input everybody.

Just disappeared into a hole suggests they didn't run line either. Since a) bringing a reel would have been a conversation opener about penetration and b) it takes at least 30 seconds or so to do a primary and secondary tie-off during which the hapless buddy could tap them on the shoulder about this sudden change of plans.


While I sometimes end up in instabuddy type circumstances (by design - I do invite people I don't know to go dive) I wouldn't dive with those two ever again

I discussed it a bit more with my buddy.

Neither person was carrying a reel, and after the dive the discussion went something like "We always make sure we can see light, you should have come with us!"

The decision was made to never dive on the same boat with either of them again. IMO, they're an accident waiting to happen.

I guess a lot has to do with the personalities involved, the discussions that they had, the assumptions that were made, etc... I don't really know much of the specifics based on the OP. I agree that a dive plan should be discussed by any buddy team ahead of time. I don't quite understand how the fact that the divers penetrated the wreck caused your buddy to lose the anchor line, requiring an "open water surface" (free ascent? SMB?).

But I will say this:

If your buddy showed up on a boat without a buddy or solo certification, and then just expected a pre-existing two-person buddy team to accommodate his specific diving training, skills and needs, then that's not really fair either.

Suppose they had this conversation ahead of time, and the divers had told your buddy that they were planning to penetrate the wreck. What would he have done then?

Option 1) Made plans to just hang around the penetration point and wait for them, but he certainly had that option when they surprised him during the dive, right? Since it sounds like he is not solo certified, he might have been uncomfortable doing that alone with his "buddies" inside the wreck.

Option 2) Made a solo dive - sounds like that wasn't an option

Option 3) Followed them into the wreck on a "trust me" dive - not a good idea

Option 4) Watched bubbles.

Now I suppose that the buddy team could have been nice and said "OK, since you are here without a buddy, and since you are not trained to penetrate the wreck or to dive solo, we will change our plans, limit our dive, and just do what you want". That would have been nice, but certainly not optimal for them or required by any standard of dive ettiquite, right?

If they were good friends, OK, maybe that's appropriate. But if they aren't, I don't think that your buddy has the right to expect this sort of favor, and I don't feel that his anger is justified.