Underwater Navigation

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

windapp

Contributor
Messages
614
Reaction score
142
Location
Windsor Ontario
# of dives
50 - 99
Has anybody else here been messed up by trying to keep buddy contact in the Underwater Navigation course or Underwater Navigation portion of AOW?

Right or wrong, after my buddy and I flunked the first skill, I pretty much ignored him while I was doing the skills, relying on the instructor to keep an eye on both of us.
 
If a buddy pair is not working togeter as a team any sort of task loading leads to tough sledding.

Were you both navigating at the same time? Idealy the leader navigates and the buddy "follows". If following is done in a flanking position you can keep contact out of the corener of your eye. If you need to be turning around or looking up under your butt to find you buddy the navigation will be challenging to say the least.

Afterwards reverse roles.

Pete
 
You should only be about an arms length from your buddy. If leading the dive then you should position yourself slightly forward.

The only way that I can possibly forsee, that you and your buddy could fail the navigation portion of ADVOW is poor planning. You guys should have discussed about who is going to have what duties in the water, then swap those duties halfway through the dive. Remember from Basic OW, planning? You should plan every detail of your dives.
 
EVERY, repeat EVERY, time my Nav buddy led, we got lost and had to do a green water ascent. (Monterey).

As a buddy, my job was to stay with her. I tried, each time, to get her to tell me her heading so I could back up her navigation, but each time she'd just take off and, thus, we both got lost.

Very frustrating, but I managed to stay with her and learn a lot about ascents without visual reference.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Our instructor had has navigating at the same time. I was thinking it would have been better to have one navigate while the other just followed. However, given time and air constraints, this really wasn't possible.
 
Usually when assessing navigation skills, the first attempt in limited vis often fails, in part at least because the trainee either gets fixated on the compass and ignores everything else, or the other way round and fails to trust the compass.
In good vis, it's an easy skill, just take a bearing on a distant rock and swim to it, repeat as needed
One way to help prevent it is to teach the skill initially in the carpark, though it looks silly having someone with a bag/towel over their head so they can only see the ground beneath them and the compass and walk out the course planned.
Either way - just treat it is a learning curve :)
 
My friend Bob Bailey has an absolutely diabolical dive in his AOW class. As a buddy pair, you descend to around 20 feet, so that you cannot see either the surface or the bottom. You then swim a preset, polygonal path with sides of varying lengths, with one person watching heading, and the other watching depth and time. You cannot take a bearing on a rock, because there are no rocks, and there are no visual references for depth or attitude, either.

When I tried to do this dive, it was a disaster. I ended up completely head down in the water at one point (wondering why my much more experienced buddy was vertical, when in fact he was horizontal and fine, and it was I who was out of kilter) and couldn't maintain depth when it was my job to do that, because I had to watch my gauge every minute, and couldn't look at my buddy without rising or sinking.

So yes, I'm one who had problems with buddy contact during a nav dive! Thank goodness, the average nav dive is much easier, and keeps you in visual contact with the bottom or with structure, where the compass is not the only resource.
 
Has anybody else here been messed up by trying to keep buddy contact in the Underwater Navigation course or Underwater Navigation portion of AOW?

Right or wrong, after my buddy and I flunked the first skill, I pretty much ignored him while I was doing the skills, relying on the instructor to keep an eye on both of us.

Yes, I've been there! As the navigator, no prob, but my buddy was a lot less aware.

It takes practice, and good communication. Having one person as lead, and the other arguing, doesn't work. You get into a cycle of, check gauges - check bearing - check buddy. Above all, rely on NO ONE to keep an eye on YOU! You keep an eye on you, and your buddy.

BTW - failing is a good thing, because when you pass, you will know you EARNED it, and can navigate safely. Keep up the good work!
 
I might as well say it. I did the skill just fine. I got thrown off because my buddy (insta-buddy for the class) couldn't do it, and I was trying to maintain contact while trying to navigate. The second time we did it, we ended up ten feet apart on the way out. He was little behind me on the way back, I ended up right at the start, and he someone navigated right back to the start point as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jax
First off, I am a PADI Instructor, so these comments may be PADI specific.

I personally think a square is very square, so my favorite location is great for triangular navigation. We do the triangle twice; one buddy handles direction, the other buddy handles distance, the second time duties are switched and path reversed. For a private class I am the buddy.

On the Reciprocal Nav, that you also completed in the OW course, one air conservation possibility is to have a flag at the start/return point. The instructor is the buddy on that skill; one student can stay at the flag while Instructor and one student do the skill.

I am in warmish, calmish, clearish water, so the certified diver / student waiting at the flag is in very, very little risk alone for less than 5 minutes; YMMV.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom