What to do with an inexperienced instabuddy?

[absolute_mess]

Hi all,

I'm posting this in Basic Scuba Discussions because I'm hoping that it might make some new divers aware of some of the issues that can arise for their buddies when diving.

Last Saturday I was paired up for a couple of boat dives with an instabuddy who had just completed Advanced Open Water. She had only done 12 dives and I met her on the way out to the dive site. I'm not the world's most advanced diver, but I'd consider myself to be reasonably experienced in a variety of conditions - cold(ish), currents, poor vis etc.

Our first dive was on the wreck of a submarine at 26m. She wasn't wreck qualified so we decided just to hang out on the outside of the wreck and cruise up and down it. I told her to keep an eye on me, signal when she was at 100 bar, then we'd ascend at about 80 bar to a three minute safety stop at 5m. The dive went well, although I noticed that she was far more interested in taking footage with her new GoPro than keeping an eye on me. She didn't communicate with me at all during the dive and I didn't see her check her gauges (depth or SPG) once during the whole dive (I kept an eye on her pressure by checking the SPG myself). When I signalled to ascend, she looked a bit grumpy but came up with me. At our 5m stop, her inexperience became apparent as she forgot to dump any air. I tried to help her but she became inverted, trying to swim back down and all she had was a shoulder dump/LP inflator, so she couldn't dump any air. Eventually she admitted defeat and floated to the surface. I decided to skip my safety stop (possibly not a great idea?!) and ascend slowly to the surface to make sure she was ok. She complained of being under-weighted, but admitted later on that she had still had air in her BCD.

Our second dive was on a wall to 30m, which dropped away to about 80m. Before the dive, I told her to keep a close eye on her depth and air, not to drop below 30m and to signal me when she was at 100 bar. I told her that I was going to shoot an SMB from 10m at the end of the dive and that if she was having problems with her safety stop, she should ascend and wait at the buoy while I did mine (I didn't want to risk my health for her again). I also told her that we might get caught in a bit of current at the end and that if we did, she should relax and just stay close to me and that the boat would follow the buoy. The dive was beautiful - no current, pretty good vis and heaps of fish - just what you want! The problems occurred toward the end. Again, I didn't see her check her depth or SPG for the whole dive (I was keeping a pretty close eye on her). When I was at 100 bar and about 29m, I signalled her to start ascending, slowly, to a higher point on the wall. She nodded and then descended to about 33m, ignoring me completely. I followed her and told her to ascend, to which she nodded again, before completely ignoring me again and staying where she was. I was on nitrox and nowhere near my NDL but I was concerned that she might be nudging hers (on air), so I forcefully told her to ascend. This time she got the point and followed me to about 20m. At this point, I checked her SPG and discovered that she was at 70bar. I was pretty unhappy. We started making our way to the bottom of the shot line, at about 15m, at which point, she got caught by the (quite mild) current. I stayed with her and started to get out the SMB. As I shot it, she decided to swim away, back towards the shotline. This freaked me out as I now had an SMB in tow and couldn't follow her easily. She just swam off and when she was about 15m away, I lost sight of her. I was working quite hard to follow her, so I knew I was chomping through my remaining air but when she disappeared, I basically had to give up, ascend, do my safety stop and cross my fingers that she was ok. I'm not going to lie - I was freaking out. I knew she was low on air and inexperienced and I was afraid that if she didn't run out of gas, she'd ascend too quickly and hurt herself. Eventually I ascended and the boat came and picked me up. She was sitting on board like nothing had happened.

I resisted the temptation to shout at her, but gave her a bit of a stern talking to about staying with her buddy and keeping a closer eye on her depth/air but she just explained that she'd got worried when she was drifting in the current, knew I'd be fine by myself (luckily I was!) and so decided to swim back to the shot. She didn't explain any of this to me underwater, of course! At the end of the day, I tried everything I could to be a good buddy to her, but she was just too inexperienced to do the same. I'm not an instructor and don't see it as my responsibility to teach her good diving practice beyond what is necessary to keep us both safe when buddying, so I left it at that and vowed never to buddy up with her again.

I'm by no means perfect, but I genuinely felt that I tried everything I could to keep us both safe, however she put us both at risk. As well as telling the tale, I'm hoping to get constructive feedback on what I could have done differently. What would you have done in the same situation? Unfortunately instabuddies are a fact of life where I dive and if you want to get into the water, you have to team up with them. Had I decided not to go on the second dive, the only person who would have missed it was me!

Thoughts?

AM

 

[doctormike]

This is a common issue here on SB, it's a tough one, and a lot of it depends on non-diving stuff like the personalities of each buddy, who else is on the boat, etc...

The easy answer (which might be a good one for you), is the SDI solo course. I took it, and it really let me do some of my favorite dives. As a photographer, I especially appreciate not having to worry about how much I'm boring someone else, or to keep track of someone else when I have the macro lens.

If you don't want to do that, the answer would really depend on what your diving situation is. Is this diving that you are doing from home? If so, find a dive club, find some compatible buddies, and don't look back. If this happened when you were on vacation, then it's tougher - you need to assess all of the other single divers on day one and figure out from all of those subtle cues who is going to be a good buddy (ease with setting up gear, not having a lot of non-standard dangles, not going on and on about how great a diver they are, etc...).

Bottom line is that if you show up to dive without a solo card or a buddy, you are stuck with this problem. You might want to read my response to this thread...

Good luck!

M

 

[absolute_mess]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your helpful reply. I'll definitely look into the solo card. I didn't, however, want to give the impression that I was unhappy with being stuck with an instabuddy. I really don't mind that at all. I was diving close to home, with a club I dive with regularly. Even if someone's inexperienced, I don't mind keeping an eye on them and showing them some of the sites I'm familiar with.

The feedback I was hoping for was more along the lines of what I might have done differently on those dives. Do you think I should have done my safety stop anyway on the first dive? Should I have let the SMB go and followed by buddy on the second? At what point is it acceptable to leave a inexperienced/incompetent buddy to safeguard your own well-being?

On an entirely unrelated note, there's a possibility I'll be moving to New York later this year, so I might hit you up for some tips on where to dive around there!

Cheers,

AM

 

[Dsix36]

When diving with a new buddy, regardless of experience level, a very good and thorough predive briefing and communication of the dive plan is an important part of the dive. Making sure that all divers in the team have the same goal and plan goes a long way to prevent problems once in the water.

When everything goes sideways, you will have to make a decision at that time. This has always been my saying: "I will do anything in my power to help you, even giving you my last breathe of air, but if you panic then you will be on your own".

In the end, it is always better for there to be one death/injury than two. I know this sounds morbid and uncaring, but this is just the plain truth. There is only so much that you as a buddy can do and I think you acted appropriately in this case.

 

[doctormike]

I didn't, however, want to give the impression that I was unhappy with being stuck with an instabuddy. I really don't mind that at all. I was diving close to home, with a club I dive with regularly. Even if someone's inexperienced, I don't mind keeping an eye on them and showing them some of the sites I'm familiar with.

Sure, I also like diving with new divers. But there is a difference between showing someone new sites and taking responsibility for their safety, which it sounds like you found yourself in the position of having to do on this dive. That's not good, you shouldn't be in that position - you are not a pro, you are not trained or insured for this job. Also, you paid for your dive, you should enjoy it!

Do you think I should have done my safety stop anyway on the first dive?

Yes, unless you thought that your buddy wasn't breathing or having some other sort of medical emergency. You don't say what the vis was, but you could probably have watched her on the surface from your safety stop. On a non-deco dive, the safety stop is "optional", but I have taken a chamber ride without breaking NDLs, so I'm a little bit cautious about that stuff...

Should I have let the SMB go and followed by buddy on the second? At what point is it acceptable to leave a inexperienced/incompetent buddy to safeguard your own well-being?

More of a legal question - there is a "duty to care" that a buddy assumes by agreeing to be a buddy, and I have heard that estates of deceased divers can go after a buddy if they didn't do something that was within their training and didn't jeopardize their own safety. But if the vis was bad, you might not have found her anyway... I probably would have kept the SMB, especially if there was current.

On an entirely unrelated note, there's a possibility I'll be moving to New York later this year, so I might hit you up for some tips on where to dive around there!

Cheers,

AM

Well, I'm glad that you asked! I'm actually the president of one of our local dive clubs - the NYC Sea Gypsies - and we have all sorts of terrific local diving during the season, not to mention lots of great social events in between. Please come to a meeting and meet some new friends... Not sure if you will be at Beneath the Sea, but we will have a booth there...

 

[Steve_C]

She might have been narced at 33m.

You did what you could. The predive discussion is good but some instabuddies listen and some do not. Some divers have situational awareness and some just go into la la land.

My only question is if she was able to swim back to the boat how come you shot the SMB instead of swimming back to the shot? Were you close to it?

 

[Tigerman]

Problem is that not everywhere and not all ops will let you solo dive even if you do have a solo card and others may let you without one...

 

[Phil_C]

As Mike has already said this is a common problem. The best thing you can do is make sure you have had a thorough dive briefing with your buddy and explained your expectations of what you want from the dive.

The main thing I would have done differently would have been between dives - you said she didn't appear to have been checking depth or air usage - I would have told her that that was the impression I had got, and that I was concerned for her safety if that was true. I would have given her the chance to contradict me, to say she had been checking, but I would have pointed out how I saw it and that it made me feel vulnerable because I was not confident she was aware of her dive parameters such as air, depth and NDL's.

Then during the second dive I would have made a point of regularly communicating to her how much air I had and asking her to confirm hers, at least every five to ten minutes, and then do the same with NDL's - in the hope she would get the message. (I know you said you were on NITROX but the point would be to get her to check hers and hopefully realise the issue).

But - You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink !

If she didn't get the message I would have followed the dive plan, thumbed the dive at the appropriate time and then would have politely but firmly told her that whilst she continued to dive in that way I would not be happy to dive with her because I considered her an unsafe diver and told her why.

If she didn't follow me when I thumbed the dive there would have been some very firm underwater gestures and I would have gone up with or without her - I am responsible to help if she has a problem, or an accident, I am not responsible or liable to put myself at risk because of her stupidity. If I was not in a formal position of responsibility I would not have tried to drag her up, but if I was DM on the dive I would have taken a firm hold and made sure she started he ascent, bu that wasn't the role you were undertaking on this dive.

If it was a club dive, here in the UK every BSAC club has a diving officer (DO) who approves dives, pairings etc. I would have had a quiet word with the DO and left it to the club training officer to deal with long term. - Dive safe - Phil.

 

[Indydiver2]

As a new diver, with right at 25 dives under my belt, I can tell you that I adhere to my buddies advice and instructions because they have more experience and skill than I do. The reactions of your buddy raises concerns to me because as a new diver I can't imagine ignoring you as a more seasoned diver than I am. But I am very conservative, resisted penetrating a wreck because I've never done it and the vis was horrible and declining to go down to 150' on another dive so maybe I'm the exception. I prefer to be safe and dive the rest of my life though. I've got a good 60 years left.

 

[Steve_C]

declining to go down to 150' on another dive so maybe I'm the exception. .

No, I am not going down to 150 ft period with the mixes that I dive. I don't care what is there. You sound like a sane person to me.