Diving with strangers

[Dave_Rapp]

This is an incident and my own cursory analysis of what happened to me yesterday. I was at one of the popular inland dive sites here and diving with a group from my local shop. I didn't know them that well and after the incident realised I didn't know them well enough.

The dive site itself was pretty good, the vis started off at between three to five metres but by the time of the third dive had degraded to between one to two metres. We were exploring the various underwater attractions in the shallow section of the site. The group I was with was experienced and while I wasn't the least experienced diver there, they were used to diving with each other.

As we explored the first attraction I noticed what I thought to be divers from our group moving off on the planned route. So I followed them, as did one other diver from our group. It's important to note that at this stage I did not know that they were not actually the divers we were with, but I did not realise this. So I swam along behind this group with the other diver keeping up. Both groups were diving the same plan and at the same time.

About half way through I had suspicions things weren't right, but with the other diver from our group keeping track it reassured me that this was our group. We were coming to the end of the dive when I noticed that the other diver from the original group was missing. I was still with the second group and making a stop before my ascent. I ascended and saw the second diver waiting on the surface. I also realised that the second group wasn't the first group I went in with and then realised that I had been solo diving for the last few minutes.

In my mind this could of and should of been easily avoided. Here's a list of what we didn't do,

1) We were in a large group, but didn't seperate that group down into buddy pairs. In fact at no point did any of us have an assigned buddy. Groups get split up and the larger the group the more likely this is to happen. If you have someone who is both assigned to remain close to you and who you are supposed to remain close to then in the event of group seperation the buddy pairs can independantly follow the plan.

2) The diver who joined us did not notify me that he had suspected the second group wasn't the first group. Had he done so we could of explored the attractions and began working as a buddy pair and possibly rejoined the main group (It is possible that we both made the same mistake).

3) Once I had suspicions I should of made efforts to confirm them and then followed the appropriate course of action. Surfacing alone is safer than staying alone.

4) I should of made a better note of the equipment and look of the other divers in my group, I should of been able to positively identify them without getting mixed up.

I know what I did wrong and would like more opinion on this because to me it's a new hazard, one I wasn't aware of and one I would like to avoid experiencing again. Mostly because of the embarresment on surfacing with strangers. I later dived with a different group from the same shop and found I was paying much more attention to there kit load outs and staying closer as a result. Although it also helped that we were the only ones in the water at that time.

I was later told that while what happened isn't common, it's not as rare as it seems to be especially at popular inland sites. An instructor told me he once went down with four students, but somehow in the middle of the dive had seven before he could continue he then had to work out who was who and return them to there respective teachers.

 

[PerroneFord]

Who checked over your gear before you entered the water? And who's gear did you check before you entered the water? Who's gear did you check over once you hit the water to ensure there were no leaks, and who did the same for you? Which person did you develop your dive plan with?

The correct answer to all these questions is "my buddy". If you didn't do this, then you didn't have one. And if you didn't have one you were solo when you got in the water. PERIOD.

It takes a LOT of skill and experience to do team diving. Group diving, what you were doing, is actually multiple solo diving, and is an accident waiting to happen, as you discovered.

Sort the issue before you get in the water.

 

[Dave_Rapp]

I know the correct answer is my buddy and I've learned from this, on the second dive (the fourth one for that day) I was certain to have a buddy and to ensure that buddy knew I would need him and he would need me should an incident arise. We were diving more as a team and I can see a degree of sense in that (instead of one buddy you have in this case four and should a problem arise go to the one who is closest) however having a specific buddy should mean that they are always closer. In the future I will insist on buddy checks and on operating a buddy system within teams.

The next dive I did after that one was with a different group, and on this dive buddy checks, leak checks and all the like were carried out and the dive was the best one of the day, I enjoyed it more because I had that safety cushion and I knew the mistake that occured was less likely.

As for the decision for the group diving it was more a case of me bowing to the experience of the most senior diver, which in hindsight is not always a wise thing to do especially in a hazardous environment. I should of raised questions before this happened but partly because of a respect for experience but mostly out of an ignorance of the problems that could (and did) happen I didn't.

In a sense I'm glad it happened, I always feel you can learn more from your mistakes, and those you observe others doing (providing of course they don't kill you) and use them to improve your safety. I had no reason to post the thread, the other divers didn't see it as the problem I did and I feel there are many lessons for me to learn from this (including what I thank you for pointing out, the benefits of having a buddy as opposed to diving in a group).

 

[PerroneFord]

Looks like you learned a lot. Good for you! Taking nothing away from these experiences is the real danger.

Oh, and I make a STRONG deliniation between diving as a "team" and diving as a group. This was not team diving. Darn few groups can dive as a team.

 

[bisonduquebec]

I would add (personnal experience), when you see a diver in your group that does not belong to your group, you should stop and signify to him that he lost his group and help him find it back (or make sure gets securely back to the surface). It happenned to us in a night dive. It took a while but he finally understood (you should have seen his eyes popping out...lol) and he got back to his group.

Last resort would be to rearrange the group to include this diver but I would not recommend this for the following reasons:

1- He's buddy might (should) be looking for him
2- Rearranging buddy grouping during a dive is always messy
3- Dive plan, dive plan, dive plan - who knows what level, air, configuration, boat, site was planned and expected.

You got very valuable experience during this dive and became a much more safer diver by learning from it. Congrats.

 

[TSandM]

Even when you pay attention to the gear of other divers, it's still easy to get confused in a group, especially at night. (And imagine a bunch of DIR divers running into one another . . . everybody in black, BP/W, long hose, black fins . . . ) I've had several anxious moments, sorting out who's who when several groups converge on a particular attraction. The saving grace is having a designated buddy. You keep looking for one another until you're sure who you've got

 

[Dave_Rapp]

That was the main problem, we never organised down into buddy pairs. The later dive I did with a third group (I knew a fair few people at the site) was much more organised and we stuck to the plan and to each other. Before this I had never even considered the problems of diving and joining a random group. Then when I heard that it wasn't unheard of I began to think, why isn't it mentioned in the briefings and why we didn't have a system in place to prevent it on those dives (there is a system and a good one, buddy pairs).

Also while it's a good idea to listen to experienced divers, it's never a good idea to bow to them especially on issues of dive safety and safe practice, what they might of found you *can* do isn't always what you *should* do. That I think is the most important lesson I learned from this.

 

[Airborne!]

Here is what I think about so called Team or Group Driving without designated Buddies.

Operation Orders are given in the Army before every mission outside the wire. This occurs even with the most highly skilled Teams. Part of this Briefing spells out exactly what everyone’s responsibilities are in case of certain situations such as ambush, separation, down vehicle, injured soldier, chain-of-command, etc… The reason being is that in a stressful situation groups, even highly trained groups, tend to do nothing at all without direction or prior instructions. It’s that silly safety in numbers mentality. There are those critical moments when everyone is expecting everyone else to do something to save the day. Plus things sometimes change from day to day or mission to mission.

Imagine if a diver had an out of air emergency in a group without a buddy. He swims to the first guy he sees, who was a little far for comfort, and gives the out of air signal. You see the guy’s hand coming out towards you as your eyes and now hands are desperately trying to find his secondary on his vest. What the heck is this moron doing trying to push me away! Oh crap now you realize that he is using one of those fangled all in one inflator thingies and he is just trying to hand you his primary. If he was your buddy you would have already known that from the pre-dive.

Bottom line is if you dive in a group without a Buddy then you have to consider yourself diving solo.

 

[scubadobadoo]

AAh the dreaded stranger/group dive. I am lucky to mostly dive with my wife thus I have a built in buddy most of the time. Nonetheless, once you have been diving long enough you will eventually end up with strangers. Politeness can easily get in the way of pre-dive communications. I frequently feel like a know it all when I start to ask questions of a new buddy but if that new buddy seems uncomfortable with my questions of him/her and his/her gear, I start to consider not diving with that person or that group. Add a group of divers together and you get even more confusion that only leads to issues EVERY time unless they are a true dive team.

In my case, feeling comfy with my buddy changes the way I dive. I feel comfy with my wife because I know how she will react if a problem arises and therefore I am a better diver for it. If I am diving with people I don't know and don't trust I get paranoid real quick and that is a bad place to be because panic lives right around the corner from paranoia.

Don't worry, you live and learn. Everyone who has been diving long enough will experience this or similiar and all you can do is promise yourself to never put yourself in that position again.

 

[Turtle Diver]

I dive like this all the time. Most recently today. When I get on a boat where I don't know anybody, then my position is I'm diving solo, whether they assign me a buddy or not. I've had good buddies and bad, but I won't trust anybody on the first dive.

The bad buddies were the ones who didn't understand the concept of the buddy system. They'd go off and do their own thing, expect me to follow, and not ever look back for me. If I ever get anybody like that again, screw 'em. They can do their thing, and I'll do mine.

Today's buddy was good. I'd dive with him again anytime.