another insta-buddy fail story

[thatdiveguy]

Ah, I see what you mean. I was comfortable with the group as a hole. I talked to several of them beforehand and got a good feeling about the rest of them. A dive master, couple of knowledgeable instructors, and rest regular divers. You do make some good points there though.

I ended up going out with a subset of them again today to a new site. I left the camera behind since it was a new place and just let my new buddy be the tour guide. She was great, got a nice hour long relaxing dive in with plenty of air to spare, and saw a ton of stuff .

 

[RJP]

You will have a different perspective about this statement after you have 100 dives for sure.

I wish I knew half as much now, after >500 dives, as I thought I knew after 100 dives! (Which, coincidentally, was half as much as I thought I knew at 25 dives...)

 

[ScubaSteve1962]

Ah, I see what you mean. I was comfortable with the group as a hole. I talked to several of them beforehand and got a good feeling about the rest of them. A dive master, couple of knowledgeable instructors, and rest regular divers. You do make some good points there though.

I ended up going out with a subset of them again today to a new site. I left the camera behind since it was a new place and just let my new buddy be the tour guide. She was great, got a nice hour long relaxing dive in with plenty of air to spare, and saw a ton of stuff .

Good to hear. we all know hindsight is 20-20, so I can't say what I would have done in the same situation.

 

[The Chairman]

Reading this, and kind of laughing at some of the description, I think that the title of this saga is misleading. This was an insta-buddy SUCCESS and not a failure.

The only "failure" would be if the tank never got re-attached! Let's look at this from a fresh perspective.

In most buddy teams and especially those of the instant variety, there is almost always a stronger and a weaker buddy. You can measure this in many ways, ability, experience, knowledge, good sense and yes, even strength. There can also be a difference in goals as was presented here. In this case, the stronger of the two buddies successfully assisted the weaker. That's not a fail, but a success. At the end you even had a chance to bail, but you didn't. You accompanied your buddy to the shore. Good job! That's what you were supposed to do. Your buddy was clearly diving beyond his abilities, his experience and possibly his training. Rather than letting him become another statistic, you prevented that by being the best buddy you knew how.

Hopefully, your buddy learned from this and will be better prepared to have another go at it. I also hope that you learned a bit from this yourself. While you showed some brilliance in anticipating the problems, you seemed resigned to watch them happen anyway. Successfully leading people takes a long time to master. It's part anticipation and part remediation. IOW, the best way to handle any problem is to prevent it from happening. This entails great communications and even getting a bit creative with them. Are you up to it? It sounds like you are.

 

[thatdiveguy]

While you showed some brilliance in anticipating the problems, you seemed resigned to watch them happen anyway.

If you saw the signs, what would you have done to prevent the problems from happening? Keep in mind group setting where he can just tag along with someone else who doesn't care if I won't buddy up.

 

[The Chairman]

My actions would be determined by my insta-buddy. If he has a camera, I often assume the role of a spotter and keep him busy (and calm) with filming critters. It's subtle, but it's fairly simple to lead your buddy where you want them to go by pointing things out along the way you want to go. I have also been known to take someone's hand during the dive, or their shoulder, their arm... whatever is appropriate. Touch has a very calming effect at depth. I would have communicated during dive just when we needed to up and called the dive myself just as you did. That was the best part of your account: you stuck to your buddy at the end and made the decision. Calling the dive is the hardest thing for a new diver to do, so I take the lead there often calling the dive based on their air (not mine). Of course if calling the dive is important, so is turning the dive. This is where more leadership would have helped in my opinion. Getting him swimming towards shore and reducing that surface swim as much as possible helps to conserve energy that will be needed for a shore exit.

Looking at the situation, the new diver was probably way confused over who to listen to. You passed him off to another buddy at one point and then you returned. There were probably two leaders on that dive at this point and consistency was lost. Were this to happen, I would lead the leader. I would still call the dive based on the lowest air, but I would communicate this to the new leader and let him communicate it to the old buddy.

The best leaders are as subtle as they are clear in their efforts. Most people don't even realize they are being led and they have a lot of fun. They almost never brag about their air consumption and are the ones brave enough to turn and then call the dive based on the limits of others. While most see this as a pain in the butt, there are a few people who take great satisfaction out of assisting others. Again, the most successful ones are the ones who anticipate the problems and resolve them before anyone realizes that they were an issue. Resolving a problem requires action on their part and shows awesome leadership. Sure, it's easy to criticize, it's harder, far harder, to come up with and implement a solution. That's what ScubaBoard is all about: giving you some fresh perspective on how to deal with a problem the next time you are in the water. Of course, there are often more than one way to resolve a problem, and it's good when there are more than one perspective presented. A good leader is always learning from others and isn't afraid to adapt their approach based on that.

 

[wedivebc]

I am sorry if I misunderstood this but the fact that you were willing to fob your assigned buddy off to two different other divers so you could enjoy the rest of your dive makes me think neither of you had a good buddy.

 

[adventuredivepcb]

when I started diving i made alot of stupid mistakes and I know i put people thru hell, its good that stay with the people in distress. its frustrating to have people ruin your well planned diving but it happens. I still feel its safer to dive a good plan alone, than to dive a bad plan with a buddy.

 

[themagni]

I am sorry if I misunderstood this but the fact that you were willing to fob your assigned buddy off to two different other divers so you could enjoy the rest of your dive makes me think neither of you had a good buddy.

That's a good point, local dives can be redone pretty easily. He who thumbs and goes up to play, lives to thumb another day.

I've surfaced with 2300 pounds on a trip dive when my buddy ran out. Admittedly, I rented a steel 120 so I wouldn't be the guy running out of air, and I usually get 45 minutes out of an AL80...

Originally Posted by requin02
You will have a different perspective about this statement after you have 100 dives for sure.
I wish I knew half as much now, after >500 dives, as I thought I knew after 100 dives! (Which, coincidentally, was half as much as I thought I knew at 25 dives...)

I've just hit #85 and realize that I'll never know anything about diving.