Team diving

[Soggy]

No no they are a perfect team, what ever that means.. they have the same mission, they stay close together, they watch eachothers air, etc. etc..

Frankly, it's not really possible to operate in a team that large given the parameters you described.

 

[H2Andy]

No no they are a perfect team, what ever that means.. they have the same mission, they stay close together, they watch eachothers air, etc. etc..

the primary quality of a team is that it enhances (not degrades) the safety of each diver

if that is not possible b/c of the circumstances, you don't have a team. you just have four guys doing a dive together that perhaps ought not to be done together

 

[Irene]

I don't have a team failure story, but I do have a good team success story. The team consisted of four cave divers on a trip to Akumal. Two were photographers with cameras and strobes. The third carried a slave strobe and I served as main navigator and model.

After a couple of dives together, we found a smooth rhythm. Since I was unencumbered with extra gear to hold onto, I'd run the lines, then step out of the way for the slave strobe guy who would be followed by the photographers. After a few shots, I'd move over to whatever they were focused on, pose for pics. Often, I'd return to the front to run the lines for jumps, then return to the back. At the end, I was at the back, reeling up our lines.

The photographers would not have been able to get the great shots they did if they had to run all their lines too, and I would have missed out on a TON of great pictures (many of me!) that they shared.

 

[TheWetRookie]

A herd really isn't a team.

Yeah, more than 3 really isn't manageable.

So to get clarification here, by team we are talking 3 people/divers and not just a group out diving?

 

[Thalassamania]

[SIZE=-1]"A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they are mutually accountable." (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993)

That's not four yahoos in the same body of water looking for fish to spear.
[/SIZE]

 

[Diver Dennis]

So I'm interested in stories about team failures, whether it's diver separation or a failure of a teammate to perform as expected. Note that "teammate" does NOT mean instabuddy, but someone committed to the concept of team diving. And I didn't put this in the DIR forum, because I'd like to think there are other people who dive as teams.

What is "the concept of team diving" then? I asked before and it was a good buddy but Lynne equates it to a DIR team. It seems that to be "committed to the concept" is more than just situational awareness.

 

[Diver Dennis]

the primary quality of a team is that it enhances (not degrades) the safety of each diver

if that is not possible b/c of the circumstances, you don't have a team. you just have four guys doing a dive together that perhaps ought not to be done together

This does not sound "recreational" to me Andy.

 

[H2Andy]

This does not sound "recreational" to me Andy.

i'm sorry, i believe that the first goal in any kind of diving is to be safe

(btw, i dont' buy the difference between recreational and tech diving. just beacuse you're doing a "recreational" dive doesn't mean the **** can't hit the fan at 100 feet)

you're under water on life support equipment you're under water on life support equipment

 

[Thalassamania]

This does not sound "recreational" to me Andy.

There are people who recreate by collecting beatles or by restaging long Civil War marches. One person's hell is another's recreation.

 

[Diver Dennis]

I understand that Andy and Thall but I'm trying to relate this to recreational diving. I'm being a bit coy here but my point is that none of the recreational divers I know work of team skills as they would relate to DIR, which was implied in the first post. I agree that the team concept is a good one but I've been reading some of the posts here relating incidents and I don't see any "commitment to the concept".