Groundhog246
Contributor
Diving this past weekend, near Owen Sound. Water temp of 42F. I ended up buddied up with the buddy from hell. It was an OW/AOW training weekend. My wife was doing AOW and our 14 year old his OW. As the most experienced of the certified divers there, I was asked to "look after" the group, which mostly consisted of making sure all knew the dive site rules (check in and out of the water, as well as above/below in the water, with the divemaster on shore and keep them out of the way of the classes. We had a couple of older gents, one newly certified (same LDS I was with), one who claimed 7 years and 70+ dives (trained with a different LDS) who had planned to dive together. I had buddied up with another guy who I had buddied with once last season with quite decent skills and we planned to dive together with the aforementioned pair. I kept an eye on the new guy, who assembled his gear correctly and in reasonable time. My second mistake (the first was agreeing to supervise) was not checking the "experienced" divers gear closely enough. After check in all bc's/tanks/regs ready to go, we donned wetsuits. My buddy and I checked each other over. The other pair were taking a little longer and we were getting warm, so we told them we'd wait in the water (error #3?). As we floated waiting, they came down to the shore a couple of minutes later, "experienced" diver had his BC on and weight belt in one hand. Then he sat down (??) and couldn't get up again and his buddy was not sure what to do. I managed to attract the attention of the LDS owner on shore. He came over, helped him off with his BC, discovered he had the tank/regs in backwards. Got it straightened around, his belt and BC on and into the water. Meanwhile my buddy and I decided a change of pans was in order. He would buddy with the new guy and I'd take the "experienced " diver (error #4 if your counting). We did buddy checks, went over the dive plan again and off we went.
Now remember the site "rules". We happen upon an OW pair. He's looking only at the bottom as he hand over hands along it, runs straight into a student and still doesn't look up. I grab his tank valve a drag him around, point him away from the group and he turns right and runs into the instructor. Grab and drag him again. Finally get him away from them and get him to look at me and optimistic me, figure we're all set now. NO WAY. He floating feet high, head down, listing to one side (his belt shifted), hand over hand along the bottom. OK, enough of this, I signal the other pair (who wisely kept their distance) that we're turning, they turn with us. I physically have to turn my buddy. In the process, I bumped my mask and had a flood of cold water up the right side of my hood (at least it didn't flood my mask) and instant vertigo/nausea. I rapidly "eject" my bacon and egg breakfast through my reg, manage to take a not too violent breath, get controlled and swap to my octo. Then still feeling dizzy/nauseous, chase him down and signal and ascent. On the surface, we signal OK to the shore crew and while I'm explaining what happened to the other pair, who were just on the fringe of visibility, my buddy strikes out for shore by himself (for which the shore crew soundly chastised him upon his arrival). The saddest part, trying to discuss it with him after the dive, he thought it was a fine dive till I got ill. I spread the word, but he found a group willing to take him along in the afternoon. Speaking to them later, it was more of the same, by which time no one would buddy with him and he sat Sunday on the shore.
Since there's no method I'm aware of to "revoke" a C-card, aside from telling all around you not to dive with him, what does one do with the "Buddy from Hell"?
Now remember the site "rules". We happen upon an OW pair. He's looking only at the bottom as he hand over hands along it, runs straight into a student and still doesn't look up. I grab his tank valve a drag him around, point him away from the group and he turns right and runs into the instructor. Grab and drag him again. Finally get him away from them and get him to look at me and optimistic me, figure we're all set now. NO WAY. He floating feet high, head down, listing to one side (his belt shifted), hand over hand along the bottom. OK, enough of this, I signal the other pair (who wisely kept their distance) that we're turning, they turn with us. I physically have to turn my buddy. In the process, I bumped my mask and had a flood of cold water up the right side of my hood (at least it didn't flood my mask) and instant vertigo/nausea. I rapidly "eject" my bacon and egg breakfast through my reg, manage to take a not too violent breath, get controlled and swap to my octo. Then still feeling dizzy/nauseous, chase him down and signal and ascent. On the surface, we signal OK to the shore crew and while I'm explaining what happened to the other pair, who were just on the fringe of visibility, my buddy strikes out for shore by himself (for which the shore crew soundly chastised him upon his arrival). The saddest part, trying to discuss it with him after the dive, he thought it was a fine dive till I got ill. I spread the word, but he found a group willing to take him along in the afternoon. Speaking to them later, it was more of the same, by which time no one would buddy with him and he sat Sunday on the shore.
Since there's no method I'm aware of to "revoke" a C-card, aside from telling all around you not to dive with him, what does one do with the "Buddy from Hell"?
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