What Kind of Insta-buddy Experience Do You Prefer

[KeithG]

Can I change my vote?

I went with option 2: close buddy pair since that is what we have dove for the last 25 years.

But that is not an insta buddy answer. On our last LOB dive trip I was presented with 2 different situations.

a) another (photog) diver needed a buddy for the night dive and they asked if they could join us. This was day 2 so we had already chatted with the diver and quickly agreed that they could join us (I am also a photog). We indicated the dive would be slow, shallow and long. All went well.

b) sucks to be me? My divebuddy had an issue after day 3 that prevented her from diving. I now needed to make a decision. Show team solidarity and sit out or seek a suitable dive buddy situation? After (a very) lengthy consideration I sat out the next 2 days of dives. The majority of the boat was doing cluster dives with the DM. I hate that. Not my style of diving. To be happy, I realized I needed a photog compatible buddy.

 

[kelemvor]

Can I change my vote?

Scroll up to the top of the page and you'll see a button that says "Change Your Vote."

 

[admikar]

Maybe. But even when I'm down south in clear, warm water I'm uncomfortable diving anything but #2

I understand that, my previous comment was about your surprise that your choice came 3rd.

 

[AdivingBel]

After (a very) lengthy consideration I sat out the next 2 days of dives. The majority of the boat was doing cluster dives with the DM. I hate that. Not my style of diving. To be happy, I realized I needed a photog compatible buddy.

Really gif? You couldn't find a buddy pair and third wheel it or just leave the cam on the boat and just dive? I don't mean to argue, just surprised. Sometimes on an LOB s**t happens and reality gets in the way, but unless I'm thumbing a dive for my own reasons or I'm chamber ride support, I'm getting wet. I guess I haven't seen as much stuff as you have. My wife/dive buddy skips dives all the time. If she thought I was sitting out dives in solidarity, she would kick my a**.

 

[tilikum]

I'd have to be really sick to sit out a single dive much less two days.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I am and always have been a firm 2. Even if we are on a group dive I ask to assign buddy pairs. If everyone doesn't want to declare buddies I will approach someone and get an agreement to buddy up.

One time we got slack on this because we were diving with two highly qualified instructors with thousands of dives. We spent the entire dive trying to keep the group together and keep track of the other two. At the end the most experienced of the group swam away and became the subject of an A&I thread in less than 3 M and only meters from shore.

Experienced competent divers can die in benign conditions on easy shallow dives. My OW instructor said "The Ocean is a bitch... never trust her and never turn your back on her or she will get you!" When experienced divers get too complacent they are as much a danger to themselves as the greenest new diver out there.

I have sat out dives because I was not comfortable with the options for buddies to dive with. I don't mind wasting the money I spent to get there and get my space on the boat. I don't ever want to go through the horrors of the process followed after a dive death. The stress of doing CPR on a friend is nothing compared to the police interviews and the kicking that you are likely to get in A&I.

 

[northernone]

Excellent idea for a poll.

Nice to see the variety. Always a good reminder of the diversity of diving styles. Also interesting how those personal preferences can cause so much debate when forced on another. I'd be interested in seeing a compelled list of advantages and risks for the various options.

Side note: My nearest miss I'm aware of diving was in warm slightly deeper than knee deep water so I too have a respect for even benign conditions.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[drrich2]

Seems like a good time to review the stat.s. I count 146 votes. Only 3.4% voted others, so the choices met the preferences of the large majority. I hardly ever do a survey where I’ll fully comfortable with my answer choices on every question, so there are limits. Scuba Board members probably aren’t fully representative of the greater diving community, but there’s still something to learn here. We work with what we have. Very benign vacation conditions aren’t universal but they are very common in vacation diving, which constitutes a lot of diving.

I anticipated options 2.) & 3.) (traditional buddy system, tight or loose) would dominate pretty strongly, & 5.) & 6.) (discounting the need for a buddy, or even desiring to avoid having one) a small minority. While I threw in 1.) out of curiosity, I didn’t think even DIR-trained divers would have much desire for the level of disciplined team work and standardized gear I read of in GUE discussions. At 11.6% I was surprised by that, especially since from what I understand only a small minority of divers are DIR-trained (or similar - GUE, UTD, etc…). But the % of actively posting Scuba Board members with such training is likely higher.

If we combine 1.) & 2.), we’ve got fairly tight buddy diving, as basic OW training courses tend to push for; 30.8%. Nearly 1/3rd of poll respondents prefer disciplined ‘responsible’ buddy diving.

Combine 1.), 2.) & 3.) and we’ve cover those who prefer a specified buddy, even if some are more loose about it; 56.1%.

So far, working out like I figured, except those preferring option 1.) more prevalent than expected.

Option 4.) is what often happens on dive boat excursions; you’re one of the group, whether you supposedly had a buddy or not. 13% prefer that.

Combine 5.) & 6.) to get those who don’t seem to view a buddy as particularly important to their safety and enjoyment when diving. 21.2%. Just over 1 in 5. Solo diving has come a long way over the years, or at least the willingness to publicly favor it.

Part of what motivated this poll was to explore:

1.) Whether what mainstream dive boat operators (land-based & live-aboard) require vs. what the diving community desires. Many boats forbid solo diving. Some try to assign buddies, but some just don’t allow solo. Some allow solo if you’ve got a solo (or self-reliant) cert. & solo-gear. Some don’t try to dictate what you do (hello, California!).

2.) Whether what mainstream training agencies (e.g.: PADI) endorse in OW is what the customer base wants once they get more seasoned. PADI’s emphasis on buddy diving did a number of my wife & an old friend’s heads in training; they drank the Koolaid and my solo diving bugs my wife.

3.) Whether oft-voiced buddy system expectations on our forum community are a good match for real world practices. When we get an accident/incident thread with a fatality, we may see someone post asking ‘Where was the buddy?’ That seems to imply if someone goes into dire distress, the buddy is duty-bound to notice and discern that within some maximum time frame, and intervene (hence the old debates on what & how much rescue skills training should occur in OW courses). I wonder if such perception could encourage some to forego buddy diving because they don’t want to shoulder that responsibility?

Thanks to everyone who participated!

Richard.

Side note: My nearest miss I'm aware of diving was in warm slightly deeper than knee deep water so I too have a respect for even benign conditions.

Over the years I've read 2 accounts of shore entry divers falling & getting their tank wedged, trapping them. In one case someone helped & the diver survived, but IIRC (been a long time since I read about it) I think there's been one fatality from such an event. And while the conditions under which our very popular forum member Quero (Marcia) died diving weren't as benign as what I described, they should've been well within her capabilities, and her death after buddy separation (IIRC) was a frustrating mystery.

Richard.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Actually the only part of your description of a benign dive that doesn't match Marcia's last dive was the temperature which was warm enough for here around at 18C (64.4F). Viz was best I have seen at that site and current was minimal to non existent on an incoming tide.

You are right about the frustrating mystery of COD. IMHO her death should be a warning to those who think their massive experience and dive certs mean it can't happen to them. We'll never know if a buddy at arms length could have saved her. We do know the anguish she caused by choosing to swim off on her own at that time has created scars that will never go away for a lot of people.

 

[billt4sf]

What I *want* is an actual buddy. But in a rec boat, what I am going to get regardless of my preferences, is a group that likely doesn't act like buddies.

- Bill