Buddy breathing

[czjack]

I use the buddy breathing skill as my signature/joke. Recently someone mentioned that their instructor did not believe in emphasizing buddy breathing as it can make a problem worse (I'm guessing the argument is that the octo should be used instead.)

Anybody have opinions on this skill, i.e. is it necessary or antiquated? Personal opinions and discussion are definitely welcome.

My personal opinion is that even with an octo I have no problem with learning a skill that can be seen as being triple redundant. In fact I think that one should do a buddy breathe safety stop every once in a while. Otherwise, there may be other skills you wish to practice while you hover for 3 minutes.

 

[Marek K]

I was PADI OWD qualified in 1985, then AOWD in 1986. (Took a 13-year break between 1991 and this summer, when I re-took OWD with my 14-year-old son.) Some of the differences since then are striking; others are not.

We were definitely taught buddy breathing then. And every resort check-out dive included that skill. But remember that octo's were just being accepted then as standard equipment; and rigs with no alternate air source were still definitely around. So buddy breathing was a necessary skill then. By the same token, I may be wrong but I don't remember OOA drills being taught using octo's in OWD or AOWD; that's just something you picked up on your own.

My personal opinion? I don't think there's a real high probability of its being needed, and I understand why it's not taught any more in OWD. But it's still a good-to-know skill. However, it's obviously much more complex than using an octo, and requires a much higher level of trust and cooperation -- it risks a fight over a single air source with a panicked diver. It assumes, I think, that the alternate air source has failed for some reason.

--Marek

 

[Xman]

I understand why it is no longer a required skill, but that does not mean that it is not taught. You just have to get an instructor who believes it is worthwhile. I think that it is important to practice buddy breathing, despite the fact that you should never have to use it, since you and your buddy should always have an alternate

 

[ScubaFreak]

I think buddy breathing is definitly a skill that's useful. the more skills a diver has in his brain to prevent accidents the better. As we know, PADI have buddy breathing as an optional skill, why- i aint so sure, prob cuz pretty much everyone has an Octo nowadays. But it's normally a skill that I teach at the end of the confined water sessions providing there's enough time remaining after we've mastered the other required skills.

Regarding the issue of "making a problem worse" I believe in a way it's kinda true. If students get the timing wrong (and i've seen it as im sure has many instructors) they get a breath full of water and it's glug glug glug to the surface followed by a spot of coughing etc .
It's interesting though, as buddy breathing is a skill to be known for DM's in their skill circuit.

It's something i've thought about a few times, why use buddy breathing when you have an OCTO?

I dunno, the above is just my early-morning-not-really-woken-up-yet opinion... but i'd expect a few replies to this post

 

[VeniVidi]

that buddy breathing is something that could be useful although the probability of applying it might be slim. Yet it is good to train this skill exactly in order to prevent things to worsen. It may turn out to be another survival option. Your instructor is right as the vast majority of divers cannot execute buddy breathing properly and in 99% of all incidents, the octopus suffices to the problem, so why not take the convenient way.

Now one can figure out about how to deal with the residual 1%...

 

[Xman]

that buddy breathing is something that could be useful although the probability of applying it might be slim. Yet it is good to train this skill exactly in order to prevent things to worsen. It may turn out to be another survival option. Your instructor is right as the vast majority of divers cannot execute buddy breathing properly and in 99% of all incidents, the octopus suffices to the problem, so why not take the convenient way.

Now one can figure out about how to deal with the residual 1%...

I suggest that it is more like 99.9% and 0.1%, but you are right to bring it up. If, for some unknown reason, you are unable to use your buddies octi one day in an OOA, you will be glad you regularly practiced buddy breathing.
One of the main problems I see with buddy breathing is that is requires a rapport between buddies (or at the very least, trust and control) which you often may find your buddy lacks.
In an ideal world, we would always buddy up with people we know and trust, who we have dived with frequently and practiced skills with. The problem is that this is a long way from reality for most divers. For any number of reasons, we often end up buddied with people we don't know, who may or may not regularly practice important skills.
Since this is the reality, we will usually rely on octis as our backup rather than buddy breathing.

 

[Kim]

It was part of my PADI OW in 1995 - it was also required for PADI Rescue diver in 1999. In Japan under the Japanese scuba agency JUDA it is still a required skill for OW. The more ways that someone knows how to get air in an OOA emergency - the less chance that they'll panic in the first place IMO.

 

[theskull]

2 good reasons to be practiced in buddy breathing:

1. Octo maintenance is often neglected. When you need air, you need air, and the octo may not function properly.

2. If you move on to tech diving, you may some day need to buddy breathe off a deco bottle, since these do not have octos.

theskull

 

[miketsp]

It's something i've thought about a few times, why use buddy breathing when you have an OCTO?

Let's just imagine your 1st stage o-ring blew at 40m and you grab your buddies octopus and it feels like you're trying to breathe through a pin hole because he's a cheapskate and bought the cheapest octopus he could get, because after all, with a top end principal 2nd stage, whoever is going to need an AAS anyway?

It's share or CESA.

 

[waterdaughter]

I think buddy breathing is definitly a skill that's useful. the more skills a diver has in his brain to prevent accidents the better. As we know, PADI have buddy breathing as an optional skill, why- i aint so sure, prob cuz pretty much everyone has an Octo nowadays. But it's normally a skill that I teach at the end of the confined water sessions providing there's enough time remaining after we've mastered the other required skills.

Regarding the issue of "making a problem worse" I believe in a way it's kinda true. If students get the timing wrong (and i've seen it as im sure has many instructors) they get a breath full of water and it's glug glug glug to the surface followed by a spot of coughing etc .
It's interesting though, as buddy breathing is a skill to be known for DM's in their skill circuit.

It's something i've thought about a few times, why use buddy breathing when you have an OCTO?

I dunno, the above is just my early-morning-not-really-woken-up-yet opinion... but i'd expect a few replies to this post

I just took the PADI OW this past summer, here in Ontario. The instructor was quite adamant that I learn this skill, depite it not being "required". He cited many of the same reasons already noted..but most especially (as Scubafreak pointed out) the fact that the more options you have and are competent in using, the greater your likelihood of dealing with a problem successfully.
We did this skill as part of our OW dives, both on the bottom and surfacing from 30' with a buddy. He insisted on profficiency. I don't know if I will ever need to use this skill---I really hope not...but I intend to continue to practice it regardless of the fact that I have an octo. Can't hurt
>C