Who was your best insta-buddy?

[Adobo]

Kidspot. Bar none.

He's not easy on the eyes like a swedish lady or japanese woman (sorry Tim) but he is a great buddy. He is a great diver and he is super nice.

 

[Cacia]

This guy I had to do my DM equipment exchange with...

we were smooth, cause he had it down.

I lucked out. (I did beat him on the swim time though)

 

[TSandM]

Well, I don't really do true "instabuddies", because I travel with my husband, but I've done some dives with people I absolutely didn't know, and sometimes didn't know much of anything about.

One, last June, was a new diver on about his 7th dive. Bob asked me to dive with him on a "Big Buddy" day. He was a very pleasant fellow and very earnest about his diving. We did a simple, shallow tour and had a good time. He has since become a close friend and one of my favorite dive buddies. Not only is he fun to dive with, but he has a WICKED sense of humor.

Kidspot was another great surprise. I only knew him from Scubaboard, and we got in the water together for our first dive, and it felt like diving with somebody I'd known for years.

And then there's HBDiveGirl, who, with KMD, made up my Monterey team. Again, like beloved old jeans, immediately comfortable.

And the last one is our own Do it Easy, who also felt like an old friend in the water.

I've been fabulously lucky with doing this sort of thing.

 

[Double_D]

Probably my first insta-buddy - Dave, the weather guy!

Dittos to you, my friend - wherever you may be.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I've had several excellent insta-buddies. One particularly pleasant one comes to mind. Met her on the ScubaBoard 2005 Bonaire trip ... Love2GoDeep. She buddied with Cheng and I on the first day out ... excellent buddy skills, good diver, and all-around fun person to be around. We did several dives together over the course of the week, and still keep in touch from time to time.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[nymbus]

I've had a couple. One of my favorites was Paul from our DM class. We had a darn good time with healthy competition throughout the process, including his decision to make the gear exchange just a bit more fun by underweighting himself for the process. We spent half the time holding him down, and the other half trying to keep me on the bottom... good times...
Another great one was a father/son pair that ended up on our dive charter for Channel Islands from MD. They were an amazing pair- really intuitive, very careful, but great fun to hunt lobster with. (Their air consumption was AMAZING.)
My newest buddy is my favorite though. I have a feeling we'll be doing this for a long time together, though we still need to figure out some hand signals and he really needs to have some experience with someone that isn't me, I know that he is perfectly capable and incredibly safe and easy going while underwater.

 

[marshallkarp]

Instant Dive Buddy, just add water.

 

[Carribeandiver]

I always travel alone so end up diving with people I dont know. On live-aboards, I can see who is a good diver and who isnt and after the first couple of dives, I gravitate to the good ones.
One of my first trips was on Blackbeard cruises in the Bahamas. I was alone as usual and got paired up with this guy from Toronto. Pleasant man, intelligent and a fair diver. But as a dive buddy, he was the worst. He swam off at 7 or 8 knots with me trying like the dickens to keep up. His air consumption was billions of times better than mine and when my BT or air ran out, I had to rush up to catch him and signal we need to go up. He always just waved bye and off I went hoping I could find my way back to the boat and if I could find it, I would have enough air to get their. By the grace of God I found the boat or near it every time but believe me, it was all luck.
After a few dives with this guy I moved over to a couple Irish guys who were great divers, really nice fellows and easy to dive with. And the best part was, after a few days I could almost understand what they were saying when on the boat.
On this one trip I got my worst and best insta dive buddies and lessons I will never forget.
And I know this sounds like a broken record but this is the reason I so desperately wish to be a better, safer diver and am pursuing courses to accomplish that. If I have to dive solo even with a buddy, I want to come up alive.

 

[diver 85]

To some guys, I would think a 36-22-34 single-diver (blond of course) would about answer that question......Just my 1st thought on the matter......btw, when you find that one, send me her email adress, I may want to plan my next dive trip around her next dive trip.......lol........

 

[WaterKtn]

I haven't had many insta buddies, but the best one was my buddy in Palau last month. He and I had the exact same diving style and despite him being on air and my being on nitrox, we managed to find the happy middle and have some spectacular dives. At first he didn't understand my hand signals, but after the second or third dive, we were making our own up and having great conversations underwater and giggling like children. It was that much more of an amazing trip because of my great insta-buddy! Thanks Monte!!!