First dive after scuba certification dives

[DanLW]

We all make mistakes. What makes a good dive buddy is whetehr or not we learn from those mistakes. I would almost guarantee that guy will assure he is more appropriately weighted in the future. And he will surface swim with his mask around his neck. While most of us try to learn the "easy way" and listen to our instructors, a lot of times simple lessons must be learned "the hard way", and those lessons are rarely forgotten.

Only you can tell if he is worth diving with again. It's not so much the mistakes which were made, but rather, his attitude towards the mistakes, and attitude in general. I can overlook mistakes as long as my buddy is willing to learn, and doesn't have a blasé attitude towards the risks involved in diving. As long as my buddy isn't trying to push his or my skills beyond a level appropriate for our training, and actively desires to improve, I'd dive with him.

But then again, with only 6 dives, I'm most likely the most inexperienced of the pair, and need to demonstrate the positive buddy traits I just described.

EDIT: There's actually another lesson to be learned from the sinking buddy experience, aside from making sure you're appropriately weighted. Have fins on before getting off a platform. Having fins or not can easily be the difference between being able to swim an overweighted rig up, or having to get rescued by your buddy/ditch weights/ditch your rig/walk back to shore underwater.

 

[Quero]

First of all, lajoyce, major props for handling the complications of your buddy's dive so well when what you really wanted was a carefree dive. There is a bright side to what you went through, and I'd like to encourage you to look at it and appreciate it. While I understand that you're disappointed and maybe even a bit peeved that your dive day didn't work out the way you envisioned it, I believe you have probably grown more in dealing with the challenges that presented themselves than you would have if your dive had been trouble-free. So there's that positive aspect of the day to consider. You haven't been cheated, not really. Your buddy skills have been tested, and you've shown yourself worthy.

Second, please consider buddying up with this diver again. If you had a somewhat rough day, imagine his day! He must have felt like a complete loser by not getting his weighting right, needing rescue, not being able to hold his stop, and finally losing his mask. It couldn't have been easy being him. And yet I'm certain he has learned valuable lessons from the experience--he already showed that he sorted out his safety stop problem after one little glitch. He's willing to keep trying, and he's a quick study, it seems, based on his ability to self-correct for the safety stop. You can bet he'll never lose another mask! On top of it all, you both came back safe. He could end up becoming an excellent buddy in only a little time.

 

[PsyWulf]

Sounds like a good enough fellow,didn't bolt up,rip out your reg or generally be a hazard. Two inexperienced divers hoping to depend on the other.
Jitters can strike anybody,when it does you lose all sense of practicality or logic,training and practice helps override that.I have no problem diving with people like that,if you're willing to learn I'll teach what I can,if you want to teach me i'm happy to learn.

Experiences like this are actually a boon - they help prepare you for future hazards or emergencies in a less life threatening setting

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I first want to applaud lajoyce for dealing well with the situation, before sharing a constructive criticism. It seems once the weighting issue was under control, your new buddy did ok. I think that issues, and others, could have been avoided with a better predive conversation and buddy check. Since the new person had not dove in similar equipment or conditions before, a proper weight check in shallow water should have been done. As there were instructors and DM's in the area, they could have helped if needed ( as occurred later). If you are paired with an instabuddy, there needs to be communication about equipment, last dive, dive plan for this dive, etc. And there needs to be a predive check of equipment including weighting. As for the loss of the mask, that it is own punishment. You8 don't have to baby sit, but you need to be a buddy, and that starts BEFORE the dive. I disagree with the "don't dive with that guy again" comments . He was responsive and corrected things. He followed the dive plan and stayed in close proximity on the second dive. He sure learned about mask retention, and that is not a problem likely to recur. And lajoyce learned some valuable lessons, about buddy predive protocal and about her own competence to deal with some less than ideal situations. Overall, it was a real growth day.
DivemasterDennis

 

[lajoyce]

Thanks everyone for all of the feedback and comments so far! I feel like there were a lot of new factors at play here, I wanted to be able to learn from it for future dives of course. The question "would I dive with that buddy again" wasn't even in the forefront of my mind when I wrote the post, so it's interesting to see the discussion of it.
I would indeed consider diving with the buddy again. He was discouraged by the day and the quarry wasn't what he'd expected or hoped for. When we were back at the shop he was talking to an instructor he'd worked with previously, and I did overhear her encouraging him and explaining the merits of diving practice in the quarry, and he seemed to receive that well.
I do like the idea of finding a diving mentor. I am very much a 'figure things out on my own' kind of person, somewhat by necessity, but I think I'd benefit a lot from having a mentor. It was asked where I'm located. I'm in NYC. The shop I've been going to doesn't have it's own club, and some instructors there told me to be cautious of the dive club I do know about because they encountered problems with members.