As a relatively new diver, over 70 less than 100 dives (don't have my log with me), I've witnessed a lot of things on dive boats that baffle even me. However, my wife and I got really, really lucky and hooked up with a group of divers in the Gulf Coast area. Lot's of cave, cavern and tech divers. So you learn fast watching them, the way they route hoses, buoyancy control - darn near everything we do as divers was made better by diving with them. The LDS does fun nights once a month here in Baton Rouge. Obstacle courses, games, etc. We go, and spend most of it working on buoyancy, and running through various scenarios. Dropping your rig, grabbing a weight pouch (both of us dive integrated weights) - and then doing the obstacle course with the other while using their second. Shooting SMB's. Reaching around and hitting the others inflate button - rule is you can't hit the surface before getting back in control. Turning air off, ripping masks and fins off, regs out, etc. We practice - a lot. That way, at least to my mind, when the (to steal a phrase from here) the smelly stuff hits the spinny thing, we already know what to do and remain calm. It's happened and we both remained calm, handled the situation and continued the dives.
On our trip last month, we were paired with a 3rd diver as a buddy 3 times in 14 dives. In the diving world, these were "easy" dives. Max depth less than 35', 100' vis in some cases, light current but heavy surge with 3-5's on the surface, but we approach pretty much every dive the same regardless of depth, and a panicked diver heading to the surface from 33' holding their breath - not good. We talked about it between the two of us, and agreed - after talking to each diver.
Back to instabuddy stories - the first gentleman had about 10 dives after OW. We talked to him and made sure he understood the plan, hand signals, gear configurations, lost buddy, OOA scenarios, etc. He was MY buddy. When we splash in, don't follow my wife, don't swap buddies in the middle - stay with ME. For your purpose, she isn't part of the group. Me and my wife dive together enough, she knew to stay in buddy distance, and I trusted her to kind of do her own thing off to the side. Instabuddy stayed fairly close most of the time, but wow - I've never seen anyone dog paddle underwater like that - I'm not sure if he ever used his fins. But we got him back to the boat and showed him a lot of cool things he was swimming right past. Now I am an amputee diver, so I do use my hands on occasion, but nothing like this.
Second Instabuddy had about 20 dives after OW. Same plan - they stay with ME, etc. He had a rental camera and every time he went to take a picture, he held his breath and poof - he's a dolphin. But he stayed close and really enjoyed his dive. After the dive, he met us in the parking lot, and was asking me about my big camera rig. Putting it all on me (not him), I explained the hardest thing for ME to learn was not holding my breath to take pictures UW, like you do on the surface, that it took a while, but you HAVE to learn it fast or you're going to be in trouble. 33' to the surface, holding your breath, the air in your lungs expands to double what it was. He listened and thanked me for the info. Hope he remembers it.
3rd instabuddy - we almost said no. Her first dive after certification. 4 months ago. On vacation. In a foreign country. Hmm. We talked, and agreed to talk to her. Same plan - you dive with ME, etc. etc. She was probably the best diver out of the 3. She stayed glued to my side, no more than 3-4' away and always quick to respond to signals. When I gave her my backup light to use for looking into the nooks and crannies, she just about started glowing underwater. Not the best buoyancy control, but really good for her first dive after cert IMHO, and if she hooks up with the right crowd, she's going to make a great diver.
We got all 3 back to the boat safe and sound, so they were great dives. Now to the funny stuff
1st instabuddy had such an unusual breathing pattern he literally had a steady stream of bubbles that never stopped. When I saw it, I thought something was wrong. But he made it back to the boat after 50 minutes with 800psi. When we pointed out the free swimming moray, I thought he was heading back to the boat right then and there. When we pointed out the free swimming nurse shark, I REALLY thought his dive was over, but he swam right over and scoped it out with us. He also tried to go everywhere at warp speed.
Last instabuddy, about 45 minutes into the dive, signed "where's the boat?" After checking her pressure again to make sure she was ok, I rolled on my back and pointed up to the boat and tag line
. In her defense, she was the best diver out of the 3 we had, and we had covered some ground on this dive, crossing over the "dead zone" a few times to get to the other side of the ledge, and we only had 5 minutes left in the dive plan anyway. Plus, how often do you look up, especially as a new diver? Afterwards in the parking lot, she said she had found it quite amusing when she had asked me where my wife was at one point during the dive, and I just pointed to her, without ever stopping lining up the picture I was trying to get or looking in my wife's direction.
2 of the 3 couldn't remember the signal for "what's your pressure?" and 1 could only remember the OOA sign. All 3 had a different way to signal pressure back. We agreed that when I asked, just show me your gauge. One of them liked our one handed method so much, she picked it up on the ride out, and used it on her dive with us. Fast learner.
It was a great learning experience for all of us, and although we dive with these boats quite often, it was nice to know the crew thought we were good enough to handle a third. Again, these were easy benign standard Keys diving, but if you're underwater, anything can happen. It was pretty cool to get 3 "new" divers (even though I still fall into that category as well I guess) and show them some great dives.
Off topic slightly, and funny to me anyway, on one of our just standard me and her buddy dives, vis was terrible. 8-10' is being generous. 4-5's on the surface, 40-60' dive profile. Embarrassing, but I blew the nav. Completely. 100%.
50 minute dive plan (back on the boat at 500psi or on the tag line at 50 minutes). At 45 minutes, after searching for the anchor for 10 minutes, sighed, signaled, and we did a "crappy water" free ascent. Our first one ever outside training. All I could think about was the "surface swim of shame". Then we hit a heavy current at 25' that went all the way to the surface. Great. Here we are holding our safety stop, and I could just feel the boat getting further and further away. Shot the SMB, and did a REALLY slow ascent from there, ears open for boats. Popped the top - and the boat looked like a speck, but was actually only about 150 yds away. Great. Signaled we were okay, and coming in on our own power. Barely saw the signal back, stay put, coming to get you. Cool. So we're drifting, waving this big 6' SMB around to keep from getting run over (Keys boat drivers are absolutely 100% certifiable) laughing and joking about it. We hear the boat crank up. We're drifting. We hear the boat turn off. 5 minutes later, still no boat. I was just drifting along on my back enjoying the sunshine, so I rolled over and looked - boat is WAY out there now, and doesn't appear to have moved. Hmmm. Starting to get a little nervous at this point. Try to signal the boat, but can't tell if they signal back or not, but did see a speck keeping eyes on us it seemed. A few minutes later, hear the boat crank up again and finally - here it comes.
Anchor was stuck, they had to send the DM down to get it loose. Made for an interesting surface interval at least.
