Hello Insta Buddy ...

[freewillie]

Not wanting to hijack another thread regarding DM led dives and buddies, I have a somewhat similar question.

My wife has tried scuba diving but unfortunately it's not for her. She is not a good swimmer and does not feel comfortable in the water. My friends that scuba only like to dive on vacation in tropical places, and have no interest in diving locally.

Consequently, I don't have a set buddy to dive with and am always getting paired up wtih an insta buddy. I've joined a local dive club but pairing up for buddy system is left up the the individual and often falls under the practice of group dives. My experience with buddy checks has been from non existent to text book. As I've had a few more dives with them I'm getting to know a few of them and are more comfortable, but I never know if they will be there on the mornings I show up.

How do you assess your new buddy who is for all practical purposes a complete stranger?

How do you start the discussion about buddy checks, and what do you do then to review about things like hand signals, lost buddy protocol, and turn around time/PSI levels?

Any insight would be appreciated.

safe diving to all.

 

[deadbilly]

How do you assess your new buddy who is for all practical purposes a complete stranger?

You ask them what their dive experience is and what their range of comfort is. It's as simple as that. If you're feeling extra diplomatic you can start by describing your own experience and comfort level.

How do you start the discussion about buddy checks, and what do you do then to review about things like hand signals, lost buddy protocol, and turn around time/PSI levels?

Say, "I like to do buddy checks before diving, I hope you don't mind." If they do mind, find another buddy. Then say, "here are the hand signals I use, what are yours? Let's agree on some basics." Repeat as necessary for lost buddy protocol, turn pressure, etc.

 

[g1138]

A nice way to do a non intrusive buddy check is to first check each other's tank valves to make sure they're on. Then stand eye to eye and do a self buddy check. Call out your pieces of equipment and check them yourselves simultaneously.
Do all your dumps work, you inflator inflates, straps are connected, weights are on, regs breath, SPG shows a likely reading etc.
Take each check one step at a time and wait for your buddy to finish checking that piece before moving on.

Make sure you cover all the the things on your BC, that way you'll realize what you have and what your buddy doesn't and vice versa.
ie. you have a cumberbun and your buddy doesn't OR you have a integrated weights while your buddy goes hybrid with a weight belt.

 

[Saudi-Diver]

After a really brutal divorce at the age of 47. I went for a couple of dive holidays in Sharm and South East Asia.
I was all ways the sad single guy on the boat that the dive master struggled to place. Till they realised I was actually a half decent diver and after that things went really well. I dived with disabled divers who were brilliant in the water.(What is it about horse riding that seems to hurt so many people, way more dangerous than diving! Sorry for that but most of the people that I dived with who were disabled had been involved in a equestrian accident.). What you need to do when teamed up with an insta buddy is to have a chat with them and establish a rapport. Plan the dive with them, get them involved. You might find out later that you have made some friends for life.

 

[Jaydubya]

It gets better
As you dive locally you will meet more and more divers and the need for an instabuddy will go way down.

Choosing a buddy
When I was first doing single tank recreational dives off the NC coast I had this approach. When scoping out a buddy, or a pair to join up with, I looked first at their gear. You can tell a lot about diver from the gear. If it's all new stuff or old dryrotted stuff I move on. I also like to observe how they transport their gear onto the boat, how are they setting things up, which spots on the boat they choose, etc. Basically, I want to see evidence that this person has been here before, knows what he's doing and that his dive plan is likely compatible with mine. Ten thousand in camera gear and I'm on to the next guy. Once satisfied with the gear and mannerisms, I will approach they guy - I think I must be too gun shy to approach a female - and ask if he has a buddy. Or if approaching a group ask whether they mind if I join them.

Pre-dive safety checks
I learned something that we called a pre-dive safety check which I have always done mostly alone (except in OW class). I assume "buddy check" is another name for that. If so, I don't like the name at all. I am not under the illusion that my buddy is responsible for my safety and don't want my buddy to think that either. Unless my buddy appears to be green (in which case he would probably not be my insta-buddy- I will dive with new divers if I know that when I am booking my charter) I never do more than take a look at his kit for something obviously out of place. If he forgot to turn his air on, I would hate that, but I would never check someone's air for them unless they asked me to.

Dive planning
I never went over basic hand signals with anyone on a boat, but with one group I dived with they had special signals that we talked about ahead of time. I liked them enough that I started using them with my new buddies. We'd usually talk about our dive plan, e.g. meet on hang line, descend to wreck, explore into current along side of ship, turn at X psi, float back to the anchor line, explore that area until X psi or NDL and then ascend together, etc. Since I dove a long hose I always explained air sharing procedure to someone in a standard rig: if you *need* gas rip the reg out of my mouth but if you just want gas and can wait a a few breaths, it's ok to ask politely and I will donate my primary to you. We talked about buddy separation since the standard plan of surfacing does not work well in our environment. We'd usually agree to return tot he anchor line and wait there for 5 minutes if still within the NDL. If we both had redundant air supplies we might just agree to continue the dive solo if unable to find each other.

Full circle
I haven't had an instabuddy in quite sometime but as I am starting to do some vacation diving this year I think that I will be the poor noob without a buddy and have to learn the instabuddy ropes again in a whole new environment.

 

[macado]

I'm pretty comfortable diving with different levels of divers but I always try to do a basic gear check before every dive, go over hand signals that I use, the basic dive plan, any compass headings and what to do in a lost buddy situation.

Everyone might have slightly different ideas on what these are so it's good to always be on the same page.

 

[Kenny13]

Pre-dive safety checks
I learned something that we called a pre-dive safety check which I have always done mostly alone (except in OW class). I assume "buddy check" is another name for that. If so, I don't like the name at all. I am not under the illusion that my buddy is responsible for my safety and don't want my buddy to think that either. Unless my buddy appears to be green (in which case he would probably not be my insta-buddy- I will dive with new divers if I know that when I am booking my charter) I never do more than take a look at his kit for something obviously out of place. If he forgot to turn his air on, I would hate that, but I would never check someone's air for them unless they asked me to.

I know you've got a lot more experience than I do, but I'm gonna respectfully disagree with you on this point. Yes, we were taught to "buddy check" during OW class and it is something that I absolutely insist on doing. IMO it's not about being responsible for your buddy's safety, or him/her for yours. It's about another set of eyes possibly catching a potential problem you or your buddy may have overlooked. Afterall, while you may not be responsible for his safety, you may have to deal with his life threatening problem that could have been avoided if it were caught pre-dive.

 

[knowone]

So I get the going forth and procreating business, but what is it about the
attempting to live with people, work with people, then attempting to drive
through people to try and dive with people that sounds overly complicated


People that make the effort to learn gear and people
conduct informal checks as part of a coming together
conversation as opposed to an awkward interrogation

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

So I get the going forth and procreating business, but what is it about the
attempting to live with people, work with people, then attempting to drive
through people to try and dive with people that sounds overly complicated


People that make the effort to learn gear and people
conduct informal checks as part of a coming together
conversation as opposed to an awkward interrogation

That level of buddy check comes with experience. When I was a fairly new diver and during the course of having a conversation with a very experienced dive buddy while we were gearing up I suddenly realized that he had casually covered every piece of gear I was wearing, found how who taught me how to dive, how many dives I'd done since, how I liked to dive, and by the way, reminded me to connect my drysuit hose.

I think buddy checks like that are an art form ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[nolatom]

I typically arrive at the boat alone and get an insta-buddy. It's almost always worked out fine. Relying on the capt or DM to match me up has usually worked well.

Echoing the above, I want to know what insta's experience level is, how many dives, when last dived, done a boat dive before? You have an octo or Air-2? Weight belt or integrated? Where inflate/deflate buttons? how quickly you use air? How we signal psi to each other, and how often? And generally what each of us wants to do on that dive, who leads, when to turn, and when to be back on the line.

I'll take a newbie if it's a 'routine' dive where I'm just getting wet, done the site before and it's not a "premium" dive where I need an experienced buddy. Other divers were patient with me when I was the newbie.