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

Hank49 · Jun 3, 2005

This never occurred to me until this morning. When you take an open water course the buddy system is stressed from lesson 1, all through the course. You do buddy checks on all dives, buddy awareness, to a point, on all dives etc etc. But the instructor, even on the AOW DEEP dive, has no required or assigned buddy. And divemasters working in resorts routinely take down 4 or 6 or 8 divers paired up in buddy teams but the DM is basically solo. I did it myself. You brief the divers, assign or become aware of buddy teams, go down and show them around on a tour of the site. 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. I went through my instructor manual this morning and could find nothing about maklng sure I had a buddy on all dives during a course to at least demonstrate to students that I practice what I preach.

JDostal · Jun 3, 2005

Good point...I just finished up my Divemaster course, and I never remember studying that at all.

In OW classes, the instructor could be your partner in theory...but you are usually not next to the instructor.

Then again, I *personally* don't have any qualms about solo diving, but it definitely doesn't "adhere to PADI standards"

spectrum · Jun 3, 2005

Our instructor mentioned the same thing. Sometimes but not always he has assistants etc with the group when doing check out dives. Some times it's just he and the students in the immediate area. He said the same thing, that he considers it solo diving since despite the training done to that point we students are just that. He mitigates some of this by always using the same site that he knows like the back of his hand and being checkout dives the depths are modest. However if something did happen to him he would only have the students to help him. He seemed to think the biggest risk would be something physically happening to him as opposed to an equipment issue.

I'd like to think as students we're pretty well prepared to assist as trained for an air delivery failure or even helping with an entangelment. If he had something like a heart attack we'd be winging it at best.

Taking a group of unknowns down as a solo DM does souund a bit daunting when you look at it that way.

Pete
Pete

Hank49:
This never occurred to me until this morning. When you take an open water course the buddy system is stressed from lesson 1, all through the course. You do buddy checks on all dives, buddy awareness, to a point, on all dives etc etc. But the instructor, even on the AOW DEEP dive, has no required or assigned buddy. And divemasters working in resorts routinely take down 4 or 6 or 8 divers paired up in buddy teams but the DM is basically solo. I did it myself. You brief the divers, assign or become aware of buddy teams, go down and show them around on a tour of the site. 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. I went through my instructor manual this morning and could find nothing about maklng sure I had a buddy on all dives during a course to at least demonstrate to students that I practice what I preach.

barc802 · Jun 3, 2005

I beleive that an Instructor or DM (as I am a DM) should be 100% self relieant and should be prepared to lend help to any student or diver that they are leading. Dive a pony bottle or doubles that can be isolated.

When I lead dives and assist in classes I know that I am the only one responsible for me and that I am also responsible for the 8 or so others that I am leading. While leading trips i dive with doubles that can be isolated and a detachable pony bottle that i can hand off to a diver in trouble.

When I dive with friends we dive as a team but we do not rely on each other in emergencies. That is not to say we won't provide assistance, just we all dive so we don't expect assistance in an emergency. When I dive for fun I also dive doubles and pony, although the pony is set up as a deco bottle.

JDostal · Jun 3, 2005

OffTheWall -

My sentiments exactly. I either dive doubles or large single tanks with an h-valve. When diving with friends, we are mostly all cave trained, so we are pretty independent if things hit the fan.

barc802 · Jun 3, 2005

Omicron:
OffTheWall -

My sentiments exactly. I either dive doubles or large single tanks with an h-valve. When diving with friends, we are mostly all cave trained, so we are pretty independent if things hit the fan.

Exactly...
My friends an I believe that the buddy system is great for moderate Recrational diving. But once you are a DM and above or a tech diver at depths beyond 100ft the buddy system is out the window.

Hank49 · Jun 3, 2005

OffTheWall:
Exactly...
My friends an I believe that the buddy system is great for moderate Recrational diving. But once you are a DM and above or a tech diver at depths beyond 100ft the buddy system is out the window.

I have only read about DIR and GUE here on SB, but isn't team and buddy awareness one of the biggest issues they stress in Tech and cave diving?

JDostal · Jun 3, 2005

Yes - it certainly is.

However - self rescue is also something that is highly stressed. Hence the "redundancy, redundancy" that we do.

Lead_carrier · Jun 3, 2005

Granted they are still in "training" so to speak and if properly maintained my gear "shouldn't" fail but if it does then I will expect a student to react properly. If not then I have failed to properly train them and then we both fail. Them the course, for not reacting properly, and me for not doing my job, which hopefully, I'll get a second chance to correct.

barc802 · Jun 3, 2005

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.

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

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