We were all new once RANT

[MikeJacobs]

Ugh... it happened AGAIN. You probably know all about it - you take a buddy into your group on a boat dive and he/she either sucks air like there's no end to it or panics and brings your dive to a screeching premature halt.

But they're all such *nice* people - 99.9% of divers are - that you just can't blame them. Its just that the boat trip costs us about $100 and we're such low-breathers that we usually get our money's worth.

Ah, well, the conditions sucked today anyway, and visability was so bad that we couldn't find the main reef - no big loss. And, we had a good wreck dive, though I came up with 2,200# (went in with 3,400#). I think we helped put this new diver at ease and gave him some tips that may help correct his problem.

I've showed up in need of a dive buddy myself, and most of the time things work out well enough. But I'll be a little more careful from now on... can't help it... not LOOKING to waste money, but I'd always like to think there was somebody in my early days who took a chance on me. Still, $100 is $100. It may be worthwhile to get Marvel on Nitrox just so we can have an excuse to say 'no' to mystery dive buddies.

Opinions?

 

[Natasha]

I'm a little confused. This new diver, was on the boat, but not your buddy, is that right? If so, why did you have to come up the same time as he did?
If he was your buddy, then yes, that is a bummer that you were so mispaired. You should have asked for a buddy more on your level, or even asked, or paid the DM to buddy with you so you could get your 100.00 worth. Maybe a bit more if you had to pay the DM to be your buddy, but I think you would have had a longer dive.

 

[Wendy]

Was this new diver someone you brought on the boat or was this person 'assigned' to you once on the boat? If it was someone you brought to the boat I wuld have done a 'buddy check out dive' with them in a shallow site like a shore dive or Blue Heron is a good place for this and only an hour from you. That way you know if you 2 are both on the same page before you spend the big bucks for a boat dive.

And where were you diving that it cost $100?

 

[MikeJacobs]

We (my girlfriend and I) were approached by this diver while actually sitting, geared-up, waiting for our first dive. It turns out that he was "assigned" by the DM to somebody else, who ended up diving alone. I was a little confused too when the DM explained this to me afterward lol.

Ah well, today's another day. He's safely on his way back north and we're chuckling about how rough the surface was and how easy it would be to blame a stranger for a bad day when it was just a bad day. It all works out!

It costs about $100 for a couple to dive, BTW. THanks for the tip about asking for another trip - if this ever happens again I'll be sure to do so.