insta buddy nightmares

[MXGratefulDiver]

Once was meeting up with a friend to go crabbing. He showed up with some fellow he knew from his dive shop and asked if it would be OK for this guy to join us. Sure. This particular dive site is known for silty, low-vis conditions ... so the plan was to stay shallow and if we got separated we'd just surface and regroup. Sure enough, as soon as we started chasing crabs, separation happened. No problem ... we're in 20 feet of water. I head up. My usual buddy's up a few seconds and a few feet behind me. Our instabuddy never surfaced. After a few tense moments, someone on shore hollered out that she could see bubbles WAAAAY OUT THERE ... which, of course, we couldn't see being only a few inches off the surface. We held our position for a few moments, then swam in, thinking to call for help. Just as we were about to place the call, our third diver surfaces and swims in. When I asked him what happened, he told us he decided the crabbing would probably be better down deeper, so he swam down to 70 feet, where he caught his limit. When I mentioned that we were pretty worried when he disappeared, he told us "I'm OK diving by myself".

That was fortunate, because we both refused to do the next dive with him ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Mr Carcharodon]

It seems most dive master lead dives are a prescription for bad buddy teams. Really that is a structural issues since it is decided at the outset to focus of paying attention to someone other than your buddy. Boat dives in Cozumel and Hawaii were pretty much mob dives with no coherent buddy teams. Shore dives by contrast, where there was no dive master, were no issue at all.

 

[JTinSD]

I do a lot of insta-buddy dives. I really don't mind paying it back by pairing with divers who because of their skill level and/or attitude require special attention. When I was new and without clue, other divers did it for me.

If I am going out on a boat by myself, I try to be prepared to dive with whoever I am paired by virtue of my equipment choices (pony, slate, extra weight and lights). I also have pre-dive points I always discuss. 9 times out of 10 the dive is a good experience all around.

I get to dive a lot, so helping someone who needs it, rather than always diving "my" dive, it not a big deal. I guess if I were a resort diver who looks forward all year to a dozen or so dives, I might have a different outlook.

I think I have learned a lot from all my insta-buddy dives. I am observant, I pay attention to air supply and no-deco time and I am a pretty good navigator, as I got tired of getting lost. I hope when I go to a new area and need a little guidance someone will help me learn the local ropes.

Here's an observation: The bigger the camera, the worse the buddy. There have been exceptions, but that is the rule, IME.

 

[scubadiver888]

This is the main thing that concerns me with diving now that I have my c-card. My wife does not dive, so when we go on our vacations I will be in insta-buddy land. I am pretty conservative and careful, and I would love to be paired with someone who feels the same way. But as illustrated in this thread it's a crap-shoot as to what kind of buddy you might get paired with. I'm still learning, and I want to learn. I really don't want to end up chasing someone around in the water just for the sake of staying with my "buddy". That doesn't seem to be the proper application of the "buddy system".

What do you experienced divers suggest as a way to mitigate this situation?

Diving on a cruise ship as a solo diver usually means it is a crap shoot. Even if you find a good buddy they might not go diving at all the same ports you want to dive.

If you go to a resort it can be a little better. At a resort you can always talk to the DM and see if they will be your buddy. You might get one or two bad dives if you try to find a dive buddy. Hanging with the DM has some ups and downs. They tend to be looking for things to show the other divers so you get to see more. They occasionally have to help novice divers.

The best way for a solo diver to avoid the bad insta-buddy is find a local dive shop. Either do local diving and make a good buddy or do pool drills and find an good buddy who goes on dive trips. If you find a good dive buddy this way you can either dive with them locally or go on dive trips with them.

Currently, I stopped going on cruises and resorts with the wife. I spend all my diving locally and found a few good dive buddies. Once I have a few good dive buddies I can see if they are interested in doing dive vacations together.

The other option I tried was convince my long time friends to become divers. That didn't work for me because they all seem to have a fear of diving.

 

[Charlie99]

Since I often travel solo for dive trips, I have had a wide variety of insta-buddies. Generally I've had good luck, with buddies ranging from OK to great.

Rather than add to the list of horror stories, I'll add a more humorous one.

My instabuddies one day were a husband and wife. We agreed to hit the water and head north. He hit the water first and headed south without looking back. I chase him down. Repeatedly during the dive he left us behind and I had to chase him down to keep him from leaving his wife behind, including when she hit the agreed upon turnpoint on air.

During the surface interval, his wife told me that on the 2nd dive it would be just me and her. "Is his sitting out the dive?" I inquired. Her reply: "No. I just told him to go find a new buddy".

We had a wonderful, relaxing 2nd dive. I noticed while packing up and leaving the boat after the dive that they weren't talking very much.

 

[Charlie99]

... I like to sit down with the prospective person and I begin by making small talk, asking about their previous experience and asking what kind of a dive they have in mind (if the dive isn't led). If I get an answer that even hints at a lack of teamwork, I may give a brief story illustrating a previous negative experience and suggesting it would be great for us to work together to have a good dive. This has to be done very tactfully, or the person may feel they are being accused of something. There were 2 occasions (out of 50+ dives) where I requested a change because the talk didn't seem to go well. I haven't had any serious buddy mishaps since I began this approach.

that being said. I know try to talk in advance with divers before ever getting into the cattle boat and at least to some degree try to sum up experience. I dont partner now with people who brag of how the world could learn from them. I dont partner with people who expect me to follow them (I prefer to work as a team and decide as we are diving what actions to take next within the dive plan) and I honestly dont mind diving with someone who comes right out and tells me that they are a horrible diver but are trying to improve.

For this reason I say give me a newer diver any day who is upfront and honest that they may be a burden more then the guy who will get on line after the dive and bost how the dive was only made enjoyable because he was there.

A bit of chatting on the boat can tell you a lot about what a diver will be like underwater. Going underwater doesn't change someone's personality.

More experienced divers put up with my inexperience several years ago. I'm more than willing to buddy up with a new diver that has a good attitude.

I enjoy pairing up with new divers. Their enthusiasm is infectious.

Charlie

 

[Mopar]

If you have never had a bad experience with a instant buddy than you are the bad buddy.

 

[jackmac]

I'v only had one Bad insta-buddy experiance.
I was in Bali diving the talumben wreck, I was a very new diver then and it was my first dive trip. i showed up at the site with the DM who I was to dive with and then set about waiting for "the other guy" he was about an hour and a half late! i should have worried right then.. well after he got there he began setting up his camera gear. that took another half our. The DM asked me if i thought i could handle the profile he had in mind, i said i thought i should be ok but i would be on the limit of air surply.
the other guy over-hear this and began giving me a lecture about how not to expend air so fast and how he didn't want me to cut the dive short. Anyway, we finaly got in the water and headed over to the wreck. i had a wonderful dive, and the DM was great but this other guy didn't pay any attention to us.. only his veiw-finder.
sure enough he ran out of air and had to share with the DM all the way back to shore.
We then did a second dive and the exact same thing happened.

 

[jar546]

After reading another thread I was just curious to hear other peoples insta buddy nightmares. Here is mine on a recent dive trip.

1. a 19 year old diver begins to cough and hack and not be able to speak at the surface but regains control of her breathing and says everything is ok. She tells the divemaster she has had Asthma in the past but it doesnt bother her anymore. She continues the dive with no other problems though I had concerns and spoke up I was over ruled. (I did not really care one way or the other just had to speak up for the what ifs.)

2. a guy was surface swimming to the front of the dive boat and his snorkel broke. He begin to kick around and cough and show signs of distress. This was a simple fix though as we told him to just put some air in his bcd. This remedied that problem.

3. a more supposed experienced diver on the boat was paired up with a VERY new diver who was herself highly concerned about diving in a new location unfamiliar to her. At 80 feet he had a panick episode and shot up to the surface. (Apparently without any injuries noticeable) He did convince the dive master he was ok to dive the second dive though and did so only to repeat the episode at 40 feet.

4. several of the divers on this outing were for some reason very friendly and tended to be tighter then the schools of goat fish we seen. So close in fact only the neoprene seperated them I think from performing well other duties.

Day 2 same group.

1. We go into the drift dives of Cozumel which is fine this group is doing a little better today. However the ever present swatting of divers with other divers fins was a very real and recurring site.

2. several divers who try to get the same picture at the same time really aggrivated the sea life with some near misses on the defense the creatures put up.

3. upon surfacing the groups really did not surface well at all heads were all over the sea and appeared to be 100s of feet apart. (Which I deployed my Safety sausage to assure I wasnt lost at sea and the EXTREME number of boats that seemed to make a complete circle around us.)

4. it was learned that one person on our group was not paying attention to his air and decided it was time to come up from the bottom with 250 pounds of air remaining at 80 feet. Not a good scenario and he blew his safety stop of course.

I thought you were starting a post about buddies that you were assigned but it appears as though your post is stories about others that you observed. Were any of these people assigned to you as a buddy or are were they just on the same boat as you? Just asking because I like to hear stories that we can learn from.

 

[jar546]

Once was meeting up with a friend to go crabbing. He showed up with some fellow he knew from his dive shop and asked if it would be OK for this guy to join us. Sure. This particular dive site is known for silty, low-vis conditions ... so the plan was to stay shallow and if we got separated we'd just surface and regroup. Sure enough, as soon as we started chasing crabs, separation happened. No problem ... we're in 20 feet of water. I head up. My usual buddy's up a few seconds and a few feet behind me. Our instabuddy never surfaced. After a few tense moments, someone on shore hollered out that she could see bubbles WAAAAY OUT THERE ... which, of course, we couldn't see being only a few inches off the surface. We held our position for a few moments, then swam in, thinking to call for help. Just as we were about to place the call, our third diver surfaces and swims in. When I asked him what happened, he told us he decided the crabbing would probably be better down deeper, so he swam down to 70 feet, where he caught his limit. When I mentioned that we were pretty worried when he disappeared, he told us "I'm OK diving by myself".

That was fortunate, because we both refused to do the next dive with him ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Great story and a great reason why it is so important to pre-plan and talk about the dive and agreed to rules before we go in the water.