DaleC
Contributor
Personally, I don't know of any human endeavour that is better tackled solitary, rather than by a team. That's just my belief. I don't know of anyone who doesn't benefit from a helping hand when they are under stress or in difficulty.
This came from a pretty well balanced post I thought but I would offer a counter viewpoint to this. Just as we cannot know how we will respond to stess until a degree of experience has passed so too, can we not know how a buddy will respond. With instabuddies this experience "bank" just isn't possible. Therefore, insta diving with a mindset that ones buddy will be the solution to ones problem can be more dangerous than diving with a solo mentality.
I have, on a number of occasions, asked a member of a buddy team I was diving with "where's your knife" or "where's your SMB" only to get the reply - "my buddy has that".
As a diver I try very hard to be a good buddy when diving with a team but I also try very hard to never be in a position wherein I need to rely on their assistance. I beleive the buddy system is a good concept for most but the way it is taught is sub optimal. From the start, divers whould be pushed to be independent in their actions and then to bring that degree of skill to their buddy teams.
Now, can you help me on with my fins and reach my regulator - I know it's back there somewhere...