Challenging Poor Buddy Skills -

[Phil_C]

I once told someone I highly respect and care for that I didn't think we should dive together anymore ... because I found the feedback from this diver to be presented in a way that was just too hard to take. When I dive with my friends, I want to be able to relax and enjoy myself. If I'm constantly worried about that person being overly critical, I won't be having much fun ... which negates the whole point of diving with them. Thankfully we've since reached an accommodation ... and the same feedback put in more constructive terms has an entirely different response from me. The same may be true of your friend.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Normally - I don't have problems being tactful in passing messages, feedback and so on, in my last posting before retirement I managed 135 staff and regularly had to discuss all sorts of sensitive issues and performance feedback - so I got very regular practise of feeling my way through conversations about sensitive subjects.

For me the thing which surprised me when I thought about my own diving behaviour was that my response to his poor buddy behaviour wasn't to have a conversation with him about it - that hadn't actually occurred to me. My subconscious response was to change the way I dived and stop carrying my camera to provide a solution to the problem when I dived with him, and I wonder how much that behaviour was affected by the fact I have a tremendous respect for his skills and experience and maybe subconsciously don't feel competent to criticise him, however tactfully put?.

Logic says have the conversation - be tactful about it and work out what we both want from the dive and how we will achieve it without either of us feeling resentful or short changed because of the others behaviour.. Over a pint we have no problem having all sorts of conversations - it just never occurred to me to have this one. - P

 

[gypsyjim]

Sharing thoughts over a pint has been known to lighten many a difficult conversation

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I do not like diving in a tight buddy team unless it is with my kid. He knows to stay with me, within 15-20 feet normally and I go ballistic when we dive in high currents and I end up down stream of him on open bottom, and the result is that I can NOT reach them in an emergency.

So we are pretty good buddies. He knows I go freaking crazy if he ever pulls that "bird of pretty" sheeet (hanging directly above me watching me and completely invisible to me). Divers in a team need to be at a similar depth and a predictable pattern.

This video, shows a diver pulling that crap in 3-person team. We were spearfishing as a 3-person team and the current was strong and the max depth was around 140 ft. The other diver shoots a fish, I put another shaft in it to kill it and control it, since this area can have VERY serious shark problems (and a struggling fish on a line is "ringing the dinner bell").

I help the other diver and then look around for our 3rd team member two times. He is nowhere, I signal to my buddy, holding up 3 fingers which I mean to indicate a question (where the hell is the third guy?) and his response seems to be: Screw that, take my freaking stringer and lets send this fish up (before a shark shows up). I comply and stop doing any scanning for the missing buddy. I do not know where he is for like 2 minutes in this video, which means a huge potential separation distance. In this current there is no "going back", if a diver should get entangled on the bottom or something.

So from a safety standpoint, we were much more concerned about getting rid of the fish, then the diver missing for a few minutes or so in clear water and high visibility. The video is funny, because when I look up, the camera has such a wide angle view, that the camera sees the diver "doing the bird of prey" (hiding in the sun in my blind spot) but I did not see him. Eventually when I look up at the ascending fish, I see the third diver and film him by looking at him with the head camera.

This was NOT the way we told him to dive, we had agreed to bunch up and assist in defending any fish shot from sharks as a 3-person team. We had a debriefing and I think he probably understands that watching us from above is NOT what I want. In these conditions, it takes attention and situational awareness from all 3 members.


Skip to 4:30 or so.. to see how this little buddy team breakdown occurs...



[video=youtube_share;JIN1uz94HNQ]http://youtu.be/JIN1uz94HNQ[/video]

 

[bracko]

a secondary question.... who actually does buddy checks with new/instabuddies?

3 of the 4 on the most recent trip insisted we do buddy checks... I've got no problem with that, so I lead them through the PADI acronym and not one picked up that I had no dumpable weights. I just said I keep my weight on my back (Oceanic Probe BCD) and no-one bothered to check actually where it was.

 

[Foxfish]

I insist on it with newbies and get suspicious with those who dismiss this as unimportant. But at the end of the day if a diver won't do the check I don't force the point. You could argue that you should at least insist on checking the octopus. I remember a while back a diver said he didn't want to do a check and forgot to turn on his air valve.

It is a lot harder for a newby to carry out a proper pre-dive check when an experienced diver plays down the need for it and gets impatient. In this situation it is easy for things to be overlooked. Experienced divers need to demonstrate they consider pre-dive checks need to be done properly.

I've come up with my own crazy acronym - Vets Ride On Goats In Wet Sand ie. valve, regulator, octopus, gauges, inflator, weights, straps. It's kind of arranged in decreasing order of importance. I do the check as we're kitting up.

 

[TSandM]

I insist on buddy checks, new diver, new buddy, or old, experienced buddy. The only time it doesn't get done is when I'm intimidated by the person with whom I am diving, and I'm getting better about that, too.

I do tell them where I have my weights, and explain that, to drop them, they will have to undo my harness. I always ask where people have their weights, and whether they are ditchable.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I must confess I have been slack about pre dive buddy checks with our regular buddies. If I change something on my gear or they change something on theirs I consider a bit of show and tell mandatory. Otherwise I have just left the experienced divers to take care of their own gear.

If it is someone I normally don't dive with I really want to go over the gear and know how it works and I want them to know how mine works as well.

I agree you can't tell by what someone says if they are a skilled diver or not. You need to watch them in the water. I am just an average diver, not an instructor so what I see as doing ok may not be what someone else sees. I personally don't care if they have perfect horizontal trim. If they look to me like they are in control of their bouyancy, are not trashing things, and managing their gas consumption I kinda figure they are ok. I am certainly not qualified to challenge an Instructor, tech diver, cave diver, CCR diver etc on skills I am not trained for.

I am just curious what others watch for to determine if the diver is skilled or not.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

I do.

a secondary question.... who actually does buddy checks with new/instabuddies?

3 of the 4 on the most recent trip insisted we do buddy checks... I've got no problem with that, so I lead them through the PADI acronym and not one picked up that I had no dumpable weights. I just said I keep my weight on my back (Oceanic Probe BCD) and no-one bothered to check actually where it was.

 

[Foxfish]

I am just an average diver, not an instructor so what I see as doing ok may not be what someone else sees. I personally don't care if they have perfect horizontal trim. If they look to me like they are in control of their bouyancy, are not trashing things, and managing their gas consumption I kinda figure they are ok. I am certainly not qualified to challenge an Instructor, tech diver, cave diver, CCR diver etc on skills I am not trained for.

I am just curious what others watch for to determine if the diver is skilled or not.

Like you I tend to avoid nitpicking. Most of the people I dive with are experienced and while you could find fault if you looked hard I don't. The last time I spoke with someone about their diving technique was when they clobbered me over the head and the piece of coral I was trying to photograph with their fin as they moved away from the coral.

 

[Pullmyfinger]

DumpsterDiver,

I've always liked your videos. It's awesome that you taught your son early on, and now enjoy that together.
Lucky kid!

Your "Dad-Fu" is STRONG!!

Cheers,
Mitch

I do not like diving in a tight buddy team unless it is with my kid. He knows to stay with me, within 15-20 feet normally and I go ballistic when we dive in high currents and I end up down stream of him on open bottom, and the result is that I can NOT reach them in an emergency.

So we are pretty good buddies. He knows I go freaking crazy if he ever pulls that "bird of pretty" sheeet (hanging directly above me watching me and completely invisible to me). Divers in a team need to be at a similar depth and a predictable pattern.

[video=youtube_share;JIN1uz94HNQ]http://youtu.be/JIN1uz94HNQ[/video]