Branching off from the digressing solo diver thread

[frogxman]

I hate this. Especially when a buddy is more or as experienced as myself. Then there is no excuse.
Once I was diving on Cozumel wreck and my computer showed that I can't stay on that depth any more. I signalled my buddy (he was more experienced than me) and asked to go up a little bit. He just ignored that and disappeared inside the wreck. That put me into very nasty choice - to follow the buddy and violate my computer recomendation or stay outside. I decided not to go as there was a lot of people around and inside the wreck. Instead I stayed at the crow nest at the highest possible point watching people going in and out of the wreck. Finally my friend got out and only then he realised that he does not have his buddy. Then we had a nice talk at the curface.
In cases when I dive with less responsible person (I am not talking about fulfilling DM responsibilities) I consider myself fully responsible for keeping eye on my buddy.
But things happen, especially in low visibility waters of Great lakes. So that is another story. Buddies can loose each other (they just need to do everything to prevent that) and then the corresponding procedure should be taken - wait, search, surface, wait, call for help. And of course it is a lesson for the next time.

 

[ianr33]

frogxman once bubbled...
I hate this. Especially when a buddy is more or as experienced as myself. Then there is no excuse.
Once I was diving on Cozumel wreck and my computer showed that I can't stay on that depth any more. I signalled my buddy (he was more experienced than me) and asked to go up a little bit. He just ignored that and disappeared inside the wreck. That put me into very nasty choice - to follow the buddy and violate my computer recomendation or stay outside..

The way I see it that is actually a really easy choice. You asked to call the dive (or at least to ascend a bit ) Your Buddy ignored you. Just leave him and dont dive with him again in the future.

Both members of a Buddy team have the right to call any dive at any time for any reason

 

[frogxman]

ianr33 once bubbled...


The way I see it that is actually a really easy choice. You asked to call the dive (or at least to ascend a bit ) Your Buddy ignored you. Just leave him and dont dive with him again in the future.

Both members of a Buddy team have the right to call any dive at any time for any reason

It's not that easy - he is my good friend. So I hope he learned something from this case.

 

[ianr33]

I can see that if they are a good friend then its a bit different. But you still have the right to be way pissed with them though !

 

[seakdivers]

frogxman;

That is really scary! I hope your friend understands how dangerous that was.

When I "abandoned" my buddy, I didn't know that I had strayed off the path - I actually thought he had gone the wrong way. We were in some pretty spunky surf, so it was almost impossible to swim side by side. By the time I could look back, I realized he wasn't behind me any more, so I hung around at the bottom and waited for him to show up. I had no idea that I was waaay off course.
I realize now that I should have come to the top and looked to see where I was, but hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it?

 

[inner space]

HAPPENS ALL THE TIME ON WRECKS, YOU HAVE TO BE SELF SUFFICIENT, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY AT THE END OF THE DAY, SHOULD NEVER GET IN WATER RELYING ON SOMEONE ELSE.

 

[MikeFerrara]

It doesn't happen to us on wrecks. We used to lose eachother and it seems we didn't really learn to dive in a team untill we got some tech training specifically cave training. We often dive with new team members even in caves and we have no trouble staying together or conducting the dive according to plan. I think the difference is diving with someone who has developed good buddy skills. IMO, there is no way to make buddy diving work with a bad buddy and while solo diving may be an alternative it isn't a solution.

 

[Amanda]

inner space once bubbled...
HAPPENS ALL THE TIME ON WRECKS, YOU HAVE TO BE SELF SUFFICIENT, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY AT THE END OF THE DAY, SHOULD NEVER GET IN WATER RELYING ON SOMEONE ELSE.

Where's the need for caps-lock here ?

 

[scuberd]

Amanda once bubbled...


Where's the need for caps-lock here ?

thats all he does maybe his keyboard lost that button =-)

 

[frogxman]

seakdivers once bubbled...
frogxman;

That is really scary! I hope your friend understands how dangerous that was.

I hope he realised that. We had a good talk after this dive.:upset:

But here is another scenario for your attention. Happened to me in my early days. Me and my buddy (BTW the same one) went together to the shallow but distant from the shore dive. We were going over the ruins of an ancient port. The visibility was about 6 feet. First we used a compas to get to the starting point, but one of our mistakes probably was the fact that we didn't know where our exit point will be and didn't take the bearing to the shore from there. When we decided that we want to go back we didn't have a good idea where to swim. Let me remind you that the dive was very shallow - probably 20' max. So we decided that I will go up, take a bearing and then we will swim back using compas again. We didn't have any lines with us, so I just surfaced, stayed outside for no more than 30 sec and went down again. My buddy was not there. I signalled him knocking with my knife on a tank. He answered me but of course there was no chance to find him in that poor visibility. So we actually did according to standard procedure - we both surfaced. He was about 100m away (don't know how much that in yards)! Apparently he didn't move anywhere, that me who was moved by the waves on the surface.
So no one to blame this time just both of us and to learn for the future - not to separate under any circumstances, that ocean is a dinamic environment and that the rope is good thing in low visibility conditions.