How to handle an awkward situation

[ScubaSteve1962]

I'm relatively new to diving, (less than a year) and had an awkward situation happen to me. A few months after being certified I joined a dive club, and went diving with one of the members at a quarry. me being new to diving wanted to stick to the shallow side of the quarry but him having been a diver for 10+ years talked me into staying near the deep side 140'+. Since there was a thermocline at about 40' we agreed to level off at 30'. We jumped in the water gave the go down signal and started down, I started a slow descent and he went down like a rock. I tried to keep up with him but when we hit the thermocline visibility went to nothing. I came back up to 30' and looked for him for a min then I surfaced, and a few minutes later he surfaced. After that went to a shallower part and I ended up leading the dive. He had more problems controlling his buoyancy than I did. Found out yes he's been a diver for 10+ years, but hasn't been diving for 10+ years, just dives maybe once or twice a year. Which means in less than a year I have more dives than he does. How do you handle when you're the newbie and find out who you thought was the more experienced person is really all that experienced?

 

[Willar]

You just learned lesson #1 - When paired with an InstaBuddy, ask a few questions to determine their current diving status. "Have you been diving long? Where & when did you dive most recently?" etc. Then remember that your job is to take care of yourself first, then your buddy second.

 

[Hatul]

Experience and skill is one aspect of matching with a buddy, the other is personality. Some people are just not safety conscious, not responsible and don't make good buddies that you can rely on.

 

[lv2dive]

Sometimes people can have hundreds or thousands of dives and still be a train wreck in the water. (On the flip side, you can have brand new divers with amazing control in the water and great buddy awareness! and of course everything in between) Experience can play a part, skill plays a part, team orientation and desire play a part (does the other person a-know how to be buddy and b-want to be one?)

Some of these questions you can ask the other person directly, others you can get answers and/or impressions from non-verbal cues before the dive. If I have any doubts, I'm sticking to a shallow hard bottom with no overhead until those concerns are allayed.

 

[freewillie]

Communication prior to the dive is key. I rarely have a friend and a dive buddy and generally rely on a local dive club for dive buddies. That almost always puts me in instabuddy mode.

I always like to review what to do if lost buddy routine, what PSI/air do we start heading back, simple hand signals, etc before we get in the water. In general I don't rely on or think my buddy is an 'expert' diver anymore just based on number of years diving. I've accumulated more minutes underwater and experience than all of my friends who have been diving for longer periods of time because I don't limit my diving to vacations.

Because some instabuddies have jsut left me, literally, I now approach all dives with my dive club with the possibility I might finish the dive by myself. I've been saying for a while I need to change dive clubs but have not yet found the time to indroduce myself to another club yet.

 

[TSandM]

Somebody who is unknown is just that -- unknown. If I'm diving with somebody with whom I have never dived before, I try to set the dive up so no one can get into too much trouble. (There are a few exceptions to this, but it's my general rule.) You were trying to do that and got overruled. I might have said, "I'm sorry, but I'm still new and I'm just not comfortable going over to the deep part of the site -- would you humor me and stay where it's shallow?" Somebody who refuses to do that has just told you a great deal about how he views being your dive buddy.

 

[farsidefan1]

Not too awkward, you just never dive with that person again.

 

[supergaijin]

You run across these guys from time to time- 'I've been diving since you were just a twinkle in your father's eye' types.

Unfortunately it's hard to really know what they know until they hit the water unless you're clued in and watch for little things like how they set up equipment, and the like. Diving in unfamiliar situations can include conditions, equipment configurations and buddies and calls for prudence.

As a working guide I meet 'new' divers every week- they may have been diving for years and have different cards and all the gear but no idea, and that's why I don't do deep/challenging dives until I see what they're doing underwater.

From your post, I think you did well in the procedure of lost buddy. I think in the future you'll be looking for clues that may help forward-thinking and exploring the 'what if' factor. Recreational diving is for fun and shouldn't involve putting yourself at undue risk and if you seriously think that this diver is unsafe, you don't have to dive with him again. How you feel is up to you but you could choose your words carefully and recommend a buoyancy dive where you stay shallow and practice neutral skills or something like that. You may not want to have that burden, so talk to a club member you can trust and bring it up with them.