Rant

[desiredbard]

I have to get this of my chest majorly annoyed.

Three weeks ago I had a dive in which I lost my buddy, viz was ppor and we lost eachotehr two times before but the way we were divingand hanling ourselves (stick to depthrange torches banging) made that we found eachother back.

The third time we did not, we could hear eachother, but nothing.

Now for some reason we were at diff depths .... 9 and 17 meters, and for an even more obscure reason I ended up in a decompression dive according to my vyper. Due to current viz and temp that was adjusted to a P2. The difference between surfacing was 14 minutes...to long, and my (computers) fault.

Needles to say I am getting a bit of deserved stick re one minute searches

Today we dove a threesome immediately after descent we lost a man (the same lad from three weeks before) I had to notify the 3rd man that he was missing and he was even argueing aboy surfacing...anyways I did he followed 20 sec later. We found our 3rd member back (got seperated due to current for about 75 m (He drifted we swam slightly against current.

Now buddy nr 3 (the one that was arguing about surfacing) had his mouth full regarding camera use and God knows what, an In all fairness I had a bit of a F U attitude towards this guy.
Anyways no 2 wasc continuously 2-3 meters above us and eventhough I tried to point out several species of dealife to No3 he was in such a damn hurry .... towards the end of the dive we lost eachother again.... surfaced neatly...but now this ****e is my fault.

The ammount of comments that this was my fault.... from the beginning communication was ****e, and they have not seen half of the sealife, I've seen.
Not that I've managed to get any good shots.... there was simply not the time for that

I cant enjoy myself speeding along. The scorpionfish, the congers and crayfish were completely missed by them, and they were not that small either.

Just bloody fecking annoyed at the moment
Seriously considdering solo-diving at the moment. Dive with a pony instead of a buddy.

I know that diving is supposed to be enjoyable for everyone, and no I am not an expert diver, only coming up to 50 now, but its safety first.
I consider diving in 3 a really bad thing if at least two of the buddies do not know eachother very well.

I pay €40/$50 for a dive, and I get 37 minutes out of it and more than half a tank of air left, I am annoyed. Especially if I am considdered the common denominator.

Its safety first, and I wont delay a buddy if I cannot make a shot, but if I can I expect a buddy to hold on for me a bit.

Sorry for the rant but had to get this of my chest

 

[mirrocraft]

im a solo diver but im also a cave diver i wouldnt solo dive unless you get the right training i completely under stand on the buddy thing though thats one reason i had my wife get her cert.. so she can do things my way lol if your going to solo dive and im not telling you to i would learn to dive doubles and still carry a pony bottle you can also try better planing if you take turns on leading the dive each one can get to do what thay want and if theres 2 one can lead a dive in the morning and the other can do it in the after noon if its three well your smart enuff to figure it out but thats what it sounds like to me is bad planing everyone wants to do there own thing and its a team thing when you havae a buddy but if you do go solo its alway a good idea to have someone on the surface waiting for you and let them know you dive plan as well just my opion but thats what the board is for right good luck

 

[Mako Mark]

sounds like you should lose buddy #3 permanently, find a local dive club and dive with peole that enjoy the same type of diving you do. You might find that trips come cheaper too, especially if you find a buddy with their own boat.

 

[TheFoggyMask]

spellcheck

 

[BKP]

spellcheck

I second the motion...

 

[Halthron]

Really bad viz? What kind of lights were in use?

1) Find someone who has similar interests
2) Who the heck cares who has seen how much sealife? That's like someone who has 1000 dives at the same site saying they're better because they have more dives.

 

[Brandon]

In bad Vis, stay CLOSE.

You should be able to reach out and grab your buddy at all times. Any farther then that and people WILL get lost.

Lights are very helpful. We did a 10' vis dive today, touch distance, lights blazing... no problems, even on a silty bottom that reduced visibility at times.

-Brandon.

 

[desiredbard]

I agree indeed stay close
But who is doing the staying close, if my buddy does not come to me do i go to my buddy.

Maybe its just my mindset. I' as happy to cover 20 square meters during an hours dive and see evry critter twice in that area, than covering 200 square meter and see only 10% of what was there.

Bottom consistency is rocky here, so under any two rocks could be something....

My wife has her openwater now as well, much for the same reason as above.
My toughts are that after a couple of dives you get used to eachother and buddying becomes easier.

The drawback though is if your paired up with another diver and he/she reacts different to my wife/I .

Again a bit of stick reg the 14 minutes difference when we lost eachother is ok
I'm even willing to take "credit" for not keeping eye enough on my buddy.
I am not willing to take stick for loosing them two the last time.

 

[erparamedic]

I agree indeed stay close
But who is doing the staying close, if my buddy does not come to me do i go to my buddy.

Maybe its just my mindset.

I'm as happy to cover 20 square meters during an hours dive and see evry critter twice in that area, than covering 200 square meter and see only 10% of what was there.

Bottom consistency is rocky here, so under any two rocks could be something....

My wife has her openwater now as well, much for the same reason as above.
My toughts are that after a couple of dives you get used to eachother and buddying becomes easier.

The drawback though is if your paired up with another diver and he/she reacts different to my wife/I .

Again a bit of stick reg the 14 minutes difference when we lost eachother is ok
I'm even willing to take "credit" for not keeping eye enough on my buddy.
I am not willing to take stick for loosing them two the last time.

YES! You go to your buddy... they are your buddy for a reason.
Yes... maybe the problem is your mindset.
Why would you be paired up with someone else, if you show up with a buddy to dive with? That shouldn't be a problem. Tell the dive operator you have a buddy and that's who you are sticking with.
Where did you come up with 14 minutes? That's solo-diving.

Find a buddy that dives with the same interests as you. Losing your buddy should not be an every dive event... even in super-low vis. I've actually held hands with my buddy in very little to no vis. We did just fine, and never lost each other.

 

[Guba]

Ten foot vis is bad? Really?

I dive north Texas lakes, so if we have ten feet, it's "normal". This weekend my partner and I dove an Oklahoma lake. Unfortunately, there were classes in the bay and that meant the silt had definitely been stirred, not shaken. Six feet in places was the norm. However, that didn't spoil our dive. We stayed hitched, kept within arms length, used our lights, and watched for each other. Standard procedure. Now before you think we're nuts for diving in that, just remember that we counted it as a "training dive". After all, it was a lot like making a night dive, so we just sucked it up and had a ball!