Calling a dive on your buddies behalf?

[Kitty_Kat]

The AOW course is nothing more than broadening your knowledge on diving and getting a taste of a couple of the specialty areas of scuba. I don't think you are an advanced diver just by taking AOW. You get to be an advanced diver by getting more experience. The reason these dive shops and charter boats want to see an AOW cert. is so they know you received (or should have received) the training required to safely plan dives and to dive to depths between 60 and 100 ft. I think with NAUI, as AOW, you can go to 130 ft... I teach PADI, so I don't know that for sure.

Exactly! I think the AOW course offers a great "preview" of what you can get into with diving, but shouldn't be confused with experience. For a particular trip, an AOW cert + a certain number of dives would obviously be better, but again means nothing if all of said dives were in unrelated conditions. IMHO, dive operations should be more concerned with the type of dives that a person has done in the past instead of whether they are OW, AOW, rescue, etc. I've seen good divers (hundreds of dives in one type of condition) go someplace new and end up being very uncomfortable/unsafe. If you stick someone (no matter how good of a diver) who has only ever worn a 2mm shorty in a drysuit, hood, and gloves chances are there's going to be some problems.

 

[TSandM]

You know, I can remember some situations in my first couple of years of diving, where my buddy asked me if I was okay, and I replied that I was . . . when I wasn't. Usually, I had some kind of issue that I thought I could deal with on my own, and I didn't want to imply that I had a serious problem by saying I was "not okay". Sometimes it turned out I couldn't cope with those issues on my own, and sometimes my buddy had turned his back on me, having been reassured by my not entirely truthful signal. I think a lot of new divers think a state of "not okayness" has to be some kind of emergency, rather than simply something which is interfering with the orderly procedure of the dive.

If I saw my dive buddy in a state of "not okayness" (and clearly leg cramps are one of those) and still saying she was "okay", I'd start to wonder a lot whether this person was going to communicate accurately and honestly with me at any point in the dive. (Not out of dishonesty, but out of the very issue I describe in the first paragraph.) It wouldn't take much more at all for me to decide it was to go home. If you don't intend to dive with the person again, you can say you're cold or your ears are acting up. If you do intend or need to dive with the person again, just thumb the dive, and in the post-dive debrief, explain that you simply weren't comfortable with her having what was an obvious problem that she both denied and refused help with.

 

[ferris213]

Thanks to all for the replies. I guess I was thinking how I would feel if someone thumbed a dive only because they thought I was having a problem, but actually I was fine...

A lot of good info has come from this, but I'm still curious; how would you signal time to someone? As in "lets' look around for another 10 mins then head back to the boat"?

 

[RJP]

but I'm still curious; how would you signal time to someone? As in "lets' look around for another 10 mins then head back to the boat"?

Easy.

1.) With two fingers point to your eyes
2.) With one index finger make circular motion pointing "around here"
3.) Point to wrist, as if pointing to watch (or computer if wearing a wrist model)
4.) Signal "10"
5.) Signal "thumb up" to ascend, or "boat" to head back to boat - whichever is appropriate

"Let's look around here for 10 minutes and then head up/back to boat."

 

[acteg]

Ferris, I would love to have a dive buddy like you! I feel like most of the time with my friends, my job is to make sure they come back alive.

I think you did all you could do. You might mark her inattentiveness up to sea sickness, but it sounds like she wasn't all there.

---------- Post Merged at 09:57 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:55 AM ----------

I carry a slate. They are cheap and make communication a lot easier. Trying to communicate (outside the standard signals) with someone you don't know underwater is an exercise in futility and can have unexpected results.

Thanks to all for the replies. I guess I was thinking how I would feel if someone thumbed a dive only because they thought I was having a problem, but actually I was fine...

A lot of good info has come from this, but I'm still curious; how would you signal time to someone? As in "lets' look around for another 10 mins then head back to the boat"?

 

[TSandM]

I think a lot of underwater communication is dependent on context. A signal of "five" could mean 500 psi, or level off at 50, or let's go five more minutes. If the sequence goes like this: Diver A comes over and gives the signal "move up", and Diver B responds with the signal "level off" and "five", I think it's pretty clear that the pair is going to move up to around 50 feet. If the diver gives the "pressure" signal, followed by "five", or points to his gauge and says "five", I'd interpret that as 500 psi (and be seriously annoyed). If we got back to the anchor line and my buddy gave the signals "question", "swim", and "five", I'd interpret that as "let's spend five more minutes swimming around before we go up."

I've never had to check anyone's no-deco status. But I rarely do any dive where deco is at all an issue, with someone I don't trust to monitor their own.

 

[Diesel00]

Thanks to all for the replies. I guess I was thinking how I would feel if someone thumbed a dive only because they thought I was having a problem, but actually I was fine...

A lot of good info has come from this, but I'm still curious; how would you signal time to someone? As in "lets' look around for another 10 mins then head back to the boat"?

A lot of the time I dive, it usually becomes a solo dive for me. Also I have been left out there on my first night beach dive before. I went to the surface to fix something and none of the group ever came up to see if I was ok. So needless to say I am a little shy on new or insta-buddies. Well tonight I am doing a night dive with divers I have never gone with.

 

[mala]

A lot of the time I dive, it usually becomes a solo dive for me. Also I have been left out there on my first night beach dive before. I went to the surface to fix something and none of the group ever came up to see if I was ok. So needless to say I am a little shy on new or insta-buddies. Well tonight I am doing a night dive with divers I have never gone with.

what did you fix?

---------- Post Merged at 09:01 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 06:47 PM ----------

A lot of the time I dive, it usually becomes a solo dive for me. Also I have been left out there on my first night beach dive before. I went to the surface to fix something and none of the group ever came up to see if I was ok. So needless to say I am a little shy on new or insta-buddies. Well tonight I am doing a night dive with divers I have never gone with.

what did you fix?