John C. Ratliff:
Hi SeaRat,
Most of the assists I've performed were actually helping people we just stumbled on when they were having trouble. One was a solo diver who was loosing his tank and trying very hard to drown himself. LOL
Once my buddy had a severe leg cramp about the time we were exiting a fairly highy flow cave entrance with about 30 minutes of decompression remaining and managing a bunch of tanks. I think she probably would have survived without me but it would have been more work.
Entanglements, even minor and I've seen a few...With care you can certainly deal with it yourself but the safest is to move as little as possible and let your buddy remove the line that you know is there but can't see. Of course you need a buddy who will be aware of the situation.
When I teach I don't solo dive. Every one has an assigned buddy including me. Teaching is just a task or mission for a dive and it can be done as a team like most other tasks. That so many instructors view teaching as a solo diving situation has always buged me and I think it's one of the things that prevents people from learning how to dive with a buddy. Many classes aren't run like a team diving situation but rather a bunch of solo divers in a pack following a solo instructor. We're teaching solo diving in a group. When applied in real diving as "the buddy system" it doesn't work...hence the claims that the buddy system doesn't work.
The buddy system does in fact work if divers apply themselves to learning how. Like anything else it takes some work.
Again, I don't see anything wrong with diving alone if you want to and there are certainly situations that even call for it (or at least a modified way to use a team) ...like exploring tiny no-vis caves. You can't buddy dive with some one you can't see or reach.
At the same time there are many situations where another pair of hands, another set of eyes and another brain can be a big help if not a life saver. IMO, it's best that a solo diver realize that having only one brain, 2 hands and 2 eyes can be a disadvantage and procede accordingly rather than deluding themselves into thinking that they are somehow safer because they are alone.
Even with a bad buddy...you don't have to let them endanger you and it is an avoidable situation. If you need help they may help and they may not. But...if you are alone and need help you can be sure that you will not get it. With a good buddy tou can be pretty sure that you'll get help. So...we have a probably yes...a maybe...and an absolutely not. In all cases we of course strive to avoid problems in the first place and to be able to deal with them ourselves but...
