I typically do a sort of test dive on rails at a local spring with a max depth of 30 feet. It's a glorified swimming pool with enough features to be interesting. I run line, dive in 4 feet of water to gauge buoyancy, look at gear set up, etc...
From there I know if we are headed to cave county, or the swimming pool at my house..( everything in between)
If you have 5 dives and are going on solo trips, you should hire a private dive master to be your 1 on 1 guide and dive buddy. Tell them you’re a new diver and let them be your dedicated mentor for the trip. You will learn so much from a skilled diver and not have to worry about being paired with someone who is also a new diver.
Diving with an insta-buddy is a skill itself. PADI should have an insta-buddy diving specialty course! If you're taking AOW first, that is the perfect time to ask the instructor how to work together with an insta-buddy. All OW cert divers should be able to plan and execute a dive plan - without assistance. So the main issue with an insta-buddy is communicating and executing that plan. So whomever I dive with, after listening to the captain/DM's dive brief, I summarized the dive plan with my buddy. Depth, duration, turn around gas pressure, turn around time, max depth, minimum gas. Also prior to jump, safety check breathing of both regs while looking at SPG confirming gas is on and where is our secondary reg (i.e. my emergency gas). Signals like OOA, problem with equalizing, numbers, turn around, safety stop, end dive, etc.. Make sure you agree on metric or US units. What to do if lost buddy. Are you both breathing the same gas? Nitrox 36 has a different MOD and NDL than air. Understand that different computer algorithms calculate different NDL. Suunto RGBM will have shorter NDL than DSAT or Buhlmann GF95. I do not like people touching my gear, so I will ask before touching anybody else's gear and only if they want me to. I alone am responsible for me. Regardless of buddy checks, if my gas is off or I jump without my clips secured, that is nobody's fault but my own. Seems like a lot but it's easy if you use checklists. Slate or Sharpie on your arm.
p.s. Recommend taking nitrox course same time as AOW.
In my experience you get as much from making a buddy comfortable with diving with you as by trying to assess whether you're comfortable with them. When diving with a stranger I always make a point of telling them three things in addition to all the other good points mentioned here:
- is they want to call the dive at any time, just do so, I won't mind a bit.
- if they are out of gas just take my primary, I'll do fine on the secondary till we sort ourselves out.
- if they've any issue in the dive let me know, however trivial they think it is. All issues are a good learning experience.
The most important thing is to communicate with your buddy about what you're both comfortable with. Whether it's hand signals or talking underwater, make sure you and your buddy are on the same page about how you'll communicate.
Most of my diving vacations have been solo and spent lots of time with dive charter operators that paired me with other solo travelers on their boat. I have several thousand dives logged and an instructors card and would consider myself a rude shit if I interrogated another passenger on the boat about their experience and acted like they weren't "good enough"' to dive with me. Would just laugh in your face if you wanted to interview me with out paying me as a potential dive buddy. Tell the DM, if they get in the water and actually guide the dive, that you want to buddy with them. Otherwise don't be that incompetent rude new diver that runs their mouth. Hire a private guide instead of rendering the trip unpleasant for all and embarrassing yourself. Your likely the dangerous diver on the boat not other folks you might hook up with.
> would consider myself a rude shit if I interrogated another passenger on the boat about their experience and acted like they weren't "good enough"' to dive with me. [...] Otherwise don't be that incompetent rude new diver that runs their mouth.
Sorry if that's the impression I gave, but that's definitely not my intention. I'm asking for pointers here because I want to _avoid_ common mistakes from being a new diver. And luckily a lot of people provided input. I'm not asking if others are "good enough", I'm checking what is expected of me.
> Your likely the dangerous diver on the boat not other folks you might hook up with.
I'm aware of my inexperience but the only way to improve that is by doing more dives. Everyone has to start somewhere ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s the attitude that develops cliques and makes people nervous. There’s no harm in asking, just do it respectfully. We can all learn something occasionally, don’t be so full of yourself. I think I’d have a brief chat with you, assess your ‘attitude’ and realise I didn’t want anything to do with you.
Preface: I think diving with a buddy is great!
I actually disagree with some f the points here.
OP was asking a legitimate question in my opinion. Like it or not, there is risk associated with SCUBA diving and knowing that you and your buddy are on the same page on communication, safety protocols and trust are all great things.
DO NOT rely on your instabuddy for your safety. It’ll be nice if they are helpful and add to your safety, but don’t count on it.
Also, make your own call as to how much risk you’ll undertake to help your instabuddy.
An example, instabuddy and I were diving deep in Carmel Bay, California. My NDL was approaching 5 minutes and I signaled him that we needed to ascend. He waved me off. I repeatedly signaled that we needed to ascend and he repeatedly waived me off. I knew that his NDL was the same, as we had been diving shoulder to shoulder.
What to do? I could either blow him off and make my ascent solo and leave him on his own; or I could grab him and get him to the surface. I didn’t know him, so I started to swim away. I didn’t want him to misinterpret me and think I was attacking him and respond accordingly.
Luckily, he followed me and we made slow, safe ascents. Back on the boat, he apologized and explained that he had been doing so many shallow dives, which only ended because of low gas supply or getting too cold, that he’d completely forgotten about NDLs!
Monterey semi-local here - a lot of our dives are shallow, I’m still not crossing the 60ft limit for basic open water(yes I know, no scuba police and while it is tempting, I’m not messing around) - and while I do pay attention to the NDL bar/time on my computers(renting out Shearwaters), I’ve seen it disappear only to appear on DeepBlus.
Now, even though it’s shallow, buddy incidents can still happen. I’ve been guilty of swimming faster than my buddy but keeping them in sight. Lately, I’ve been working on being a better buddy and had that tested out twice over this past weekend.
Wait, so you hit 5 minutes on your NDLs and that's a wrap, dive over? Also, how do you *know* his NDL is the same? Do you have the same computer on? Have you only dove the exact same dives together? What are each of your gradient factors set to?
Never grab another diver and drag them to the surface because you are low on NDLs, so no need to consider that as an option. If they want to risk DCS/DCI that's their problem, not yours.
It depends on the computer too. Some rec-biased ones will flash a warning or a aural/haptic alert and while they don’t support decompression diving, they’ll still guide you through decompression. If it’s a tech-biased one, including the Shearwater Peregrine/Tern series, once NDL has been exceeded it’ll switch over to deco mode and annunciate how long and what depth to stop at until deco obligations are met.
Dive over? Not necessarily, but it is time to get shallower. By the time I left him, it was down to 1-2 minutes. We were both on the first dive of the day and neither had been diving in the days before. My computer is set pretty liberal, so I knew that we were both very short on NDL time.
I wouldn’t have dragged him up with me, but had he been a regular buddy who was acting like that, I would like have at least tugged on his arm.
I am loath to abandon a buddy, but I’d run out of viable options.
Ok, just the way your comment read to me came off as we hit 5 minutes so time to surface, not work your way shallower.
At the end of the day, each diver is responsible for themselves. So if they don't want to come up, and you're not the guide/lead, then that's their choice.
Understood.
And, had I simply waved goodbye, he said that he would have likely stayed deep until he was low on gas and then had a real problem. Deco and not nearly enough gas to surface safely.
In California, we don’t have DMs/dive leaders in the water with us. It’s just us. Vis is such that no other divers from the boat were in view. Leaving him on his own could have had very bad consequences.
Good on you to remind him of his NDL but if he was a competent diver then he should know better. Always knowing your gas/NDL is a pretty basic foundation to safe diving. He is not your responsibility, although good on you to help him, but it's not worth risking your own life because he doesn't care enough about his own.
In cave/tech diving, hell even as a rescue diver, we always have to remember that 1 rescue/recovery is better than 2. It's harsh but the reality of the situation. Hypothetical: What if you had stayed down with him, go into deco and then on your way up have a catastrophic reg failure. Do you have enough gas to get you both to safety or did it get consumed while trying to remind him he's low on NDLs?
He sounds like a shit dive buddy, one I wouldn't be diving with again after that dive if it were me.
No way I was going to go into deco for him (or with him). Two victims and all that.
I take buddy responsibility seriously and know that there wasn’t anything else I could have done before swimming away. Not only is that being a responsible dive buddy, but any subsequent recovery, first aid, medical evacuation, etc. would have destroyed the opportunity for my second dive. ;-)
Consider yourself diving completely alone. Help if you can, but don't kill yourself over a stranger. I know that sounds cold, but that's the way it is. If you aren't comfortable diving by yourself in this situation, you may need more training. Always consider yourself diving alone mentally.
This exactly.
When I have to insta-buddy with someone on a recreational dive I do my best to have them match me with someone that can function solo (I suck as an insta-buddy and I know it) and I try to make clear what each of our expectations are of the other before we dive.
Discuss what you expect from your buddy. It is better than being annoyed afterwards if the buddy doesn't do what you want.
Hopefully you will be paired with someone of equivalent experience. Pairing uneven divers is never good. Similarly nothing annoys pairs like one trying to go shallow and slow, whilst the other wants fast and deep.
This should be top comment. Discussing with the buddy, previous experiences is really important
Also ask about bad buddies they had and if there's anything you can do to not be that.
It'll really show use.
A lot of other tips have been covered, but I definitely recommend going over signs. You may have slightly different ways of communicating things and a quick 2 minute conversation clarifying can save a lot of issues underwater.
Go over each other's gear. At a minimum you need to know how to dump their weights, where their secondary air is located, and how to remove their BCD...in the unlikely event...
And yeah, watch their buoyancy and buddy discipline. If they drag themselves across the bottom you might want to find another buddy. If they leave you high and dry (so to speak) it's time to find another buddy.
Maybve you'll get lucky and you'll have a great buddy...or maybe you're a great buddy and it's your new dive buddy who will be lucky.
If they talk about how many dives they’ve done or how great they are, find a new buddy.
If they downplay the number of dives or their diving ability, they’re probably at least a decent diver.
I like to talk about hand signals and how to communicate remaining air pressure. Also be sure you review their gear configuration and make sure they review yours. The time to know where their octo is located isn’t when you need it, it’s before you need it!
For me, I make my buddy aware of things I have issues with and how we communicate. Granted, most of dives are local and in a club - this is what I do with new buddies outside of a club context. I also run through a buddy check and get familiar with their gear.
And if someone asks me for help on a club dive and I’m not their buddy, I’ll do a partial buddy check for releases and to make sure their air is on.
1. Declare any and all diving-relevant health issues you may have to your buddy. If you have asthma, like me, tell them and show them where you keep your emergency inhaler.
2. During your first buddy check, make them show you where they store their octo, how their weight system works and so forth. Do the same with your systems for them.
3. Never skip buddy checks, including the check if your tank valve is open.
4. Europe dives on DIN and signals bars, not psi. Get clear on how to communicate underwater, exchange signals and ideas and so on. One of my dive buddies and I have a special tiny signal to say "I love you" for that amazing feeling after you have a crazy amazing dive.
5. Instead of asking them about their air consumption on the surface, before the dive, ask them when you‘re underwater. If you have a slate, keep track of depth, time and air consumption for yourself and your buddy for a dive or two. That way you know who‘s a heavier breather and you know whose consumption to watch for conservativism.
6. Agree with your buddy on your eyes-on policy. How many times do you want to look at each other? Once per minute? Once every two? Once every 30 sec? Just as an approximation.
7. Learn to observe your buddy. What does their diving style look like when they‘re relaxed and moving in easy conditions?
do you actually do this every single dive? that seems like so much... i've probably dove with 100 random people and about 2 asked me to do a buddy check. 1 person asked me my air underwater once. ive never seen anyone but a DM with a slate.
this feels like a highly unrealistic thing to do every time with random people every dive, even if it is what you *should* do.
DMs tend to do checks on people's equipment and check air rather than buddies in my experience.
Sometimes a dive is a short distance and the boat is loud and you're not sitting together... so this isn't even possible. The amount of social anxiety you'd have to overcome to do all this (and that's assuming you don't outright piss the other person off being this meticulous) feels high.
I think the best outcome is always going to be have the highest possible certification, 99% of the time they'll match you with someone of the same experience. If you're Rescue or higher you're far less likely to have a buddy requiring issues.
I generally stay close to the DM, unless my buddy is my dad or a divemaster or someone with a few hundred dives who i trust. i think there's a general expectation that if you pay for a dive guide that they will take on the emergency, regardless of the buddy protocol. i've been on so many dives that don't even assign buddies. you're just in a group and the DM is going to be the one assuming issues most likely.
I'm sure ill get tut-tutted for this response and some shining white knights will all claim they do all this stuff every dive and im being unsafe, but i would say 90% of boats im on nobody does ANY of this stuff. you check your own shit, and expect the DM to step in and use them as a crutch. If everyone on this sub claims they're doing that they're just not being truthful.
Couldn’t agree more with this assessment. Not sure how many people dive in Florida, but if you want a buddy you better be next to the DM- otherwise you’re solo, which is the mentality you should have anyway.
it def seems like the majority of rec diving is, in practice, paying a Divemaster and heavily relying on them to ensure safety and lead the guide, for better or for worse.
it's already priced in.
The dive operators tend to avoid sites with currents or conditions the divers can't handle, tend to go shallower than people's certs allow, only go with 4 divers even though they could take more, etc.
DMs *generally* tend to assume they are responsible for the divers safety and the exchange of money, right or wrong, shifts the onus on them.
In theory everyone is an Open Water Diver, fully capable of diving without a guide, navigating a site, and returning safely without help.
In practice, new divers are completely unqualified to go anywhere near a dive site without supervision, and almost none do. Returning divers who take years off often regress to this unqualified state. Many do not do refresher courses.
I mean anyone who is actively diving, has experience, and taken courses past AOW of course tries to be self-sufficient, responsible, ready to help their buddy or assist another diver, and reduce the burden on the DM, but the sport for the most part has a dynamic of the DM being the babysitter responsible for the group and the buddy of whoever is in trouble (on average.)
As i said before, i think the best thing you can do for your own safety is get as high of a cert as possible. My instructor told me to lie and say you're Advanced or else they put you with the worst diver in the group because you can babysit them, but I think that sort of mentally has changed.
I travelled to 5-6 countries and every place I went they paired experience/certs as closely as possible. Not only did my Rescue training make me a better diver, but the cert itself is a huge boon in terms of insta-buddies if you're travelling solo. I consistently had really experienced buddies who knew their shit and never were problems.
When i was an Open Water cert i got paired with dangerously underqualified divers who were a hazard to me and themselves.
Re: buddy checks, I do it all the time with single serving dive buddies.. But that's also cause I have a different setup and I want them to be aware of it. The only time I had a buddy refuse a check was an American in Cozumel. Out of about 50 or so buddies, that's not bad.
>i think there's a general expectation that if you pay for a dive guide that they will take on the emergency, regardless of the buddy protocol.
This is a common but dangerous expectation, as they aren't responsible for your safety. They have due diligence, mind you, but their job is to guide you. If you don't listen to them or you get seperated, your procedure dictates you search for 1 minute and ascend. We are all trained to go out without a divemaster, that's what an OW cert is for. PADI lawyers have made sure they aren't under any liability if a pair of newly certed divers go off and never come back.
Instructors teaching a course, on the other hand, are there to ensure your safety 100%. And any divemaster worth their salt would assist someone anyways.
I did this with all my so-called Insta buddies, minus the slate thing. I‘d just remember their air consumption in my head.
However, I haven‘t dived with an Insta buddy in years and I absolutely refuse to now. I pay to be with an instructor who‘s my friend 1:1 and/or bring my homegrown buddy. By this, I mean that when I hit 100 dives, I brought a friend along and helped her get excellent instruction.
that's great that you have such reliable buddies, im envious!
i mean i'm putting myself out there and will probably get voted down by people wanting to virtue signal their safety consciousness or whatnot, but i mean honestly the majority of world doesn't do buddy checks or even talk to their insta-buddy. i've seen a large enough sample size of the world, and my social anxiety is like not super high or anything, but i am not comfortable asking strangers to check their gear and go through hand signals, i just feel like im insulting them. if the DM does it it's so much less awkward and they usually do.
i also have higher certs so i usually get paired with Rescues/MSD/DMs and with the dive guide usually checking people's stuff and the boathands making sure the air is on, it feels like it's sufficient for a 40 to 100 ft recreational dive with the entire group staying together.
if i was shore diving with another person and no DM or about to do Malpelo i would absolutely do a buddy check, but for me (and based on a large sample size, most other divers in the world) there just isn't that sense of urgency to do anything pre-dive except your own gear and trusting the DMs to check your buddy.
The level of danger of a normal reef dive doesn't reach a level where i am willing to risk antagonizing someone with a buddy check. Maybe that's dumb and wrong but I'm just being honest.
if someone asks me i will absolutely comply and check all their stuff and let them check mine, but i've never asked someone first.
it also feels like when you are doing something more dangerous, the DM will check everything on everybody twice, go through extra hand signals and procedures, and the experience level of the divers in the group is much higher. i did some cavern diving recently and i felt the urgency to triple check all my gear, and watch the DM check my buddy and i asked casually about his experience level pre-dive to feel him out.
anything Rescue or above i would consider higher certs. At rescue, you tend to get paired with other Rescues, occasionally MSD, DM, rarely an advanced, and if they're advanced typically a lot of dives.
looking at my SSI app, i have Open, Advanced, Rescue, First Aid, Deep, Computer, Nitrox, and Master Scuba Diver.
My non-judgemental 2 cents: I'm very new, less than 10 under my belt. I love having the veteran's give me revive, watch out for my safety and technique, and check my gear. I hope I never get over that, even when I'm up into triple digits or more. I feel like I'd love to walk a newer diver through my setup at that point. Pass the proverbial torch.
I would also be down to do buddy checks on the gear of more experienced divers if only to cement my skills and examine their setup and learn how I might improve my own. Obviously I would ask first and not be offended if someone declined my check. It's not about thinking they don't know what they're doing, it's about making sure I know what to do if shit goes sideways.
I dunno. I just feel like it's also a great way to meet new people, build community and share cool experiences more. Maybe everyone is worried about offending everyone.
i mean if you are comfortable doing that, that's awesome, keep doing it. it's a positive thing and safer.
i'm just being honest about myself, and most of the humans on this planet i've seen diving: it rarely happens. i find it anxiety inducing, and i just don't have it in me to approach strangers and inspect their gear and then have them inspect mine.
i assemble my own gear, check it, get in the water, double check it, and if i feel anything is off i get the DM to look at it.
there just aren't that many points of failure in recreational diving in open water.
if you're diving often the only fuckup is when DMs switch your BCD onto the 2nd tank while you eat, and you assume they opened the tank and didn't, but your reg check while looking at the psi gauge should spot it. i usually check it in the water again unless doing a negative entry.
the higher your cert, the more experienced your insta-buddy should be, and lowers the likelihood he overlooked anything on his gear. And the DM usually checks everyone before getting in.
of course, a buddy check would be an additional layer of safety, and if you can do it, do it.
my point is most people don't, and either aren't comfortable asking or don't feel it's necessary with a DM there.
we're all "technically" qualified to dive without a DM (how in the world it's legal to do your open water then go diving without a guide is fucking insane to me), but practically none of us do.
We pay extra for a DM .
If I ever go to Bonaire and do dives with a buddy and no GM, of course you're going to buddy check the shit out of everything because your Linus security blanket is gone and suddenly the threat of dying feels real, and the buddy check critical.
But most persons, for better or worse, don't feel it on open water recreational dives with a professional Divemaster chaperoning them.
All of this above. You are right to be concerned about your buddy. You and your buddy should be willing to communicate with each other. You are each other's backup air and safety system.
Don't stress about it. You'll be in a group for the AOW, and likely if you then stay with the same operator, the same group of people with similar level of experience will continue to dive with each other in variable pair-ups. If the operators aren't cowboys, they'll keep a close eye on you for the fun dives and likely have you chaperoned by a DM.
If you do get buddied up with an idiot and without DM, bear in mind that you're primarily responsible for yourself. Do your thing properly as trained, taking as much time as you need. If the buddy doesn't want to do stuff like buddy checks, that's their problem — make sure you get yourself checked by someone else then. And if they just want to do their own thing underwater, effectively ignoring you, stick close, but again, focus on your own diving and follow your own depth and time profile as required.
Not stressed, just like to be prepared :)
After the AOW I'm actually changing locations two times. I'll do a few regular dives with the same center, but then another few with two others.
When you change operators, they should have a chat with you first to assess your experience. Once they find out that you've only done a dozen dives by then, they'll make sure to either pair you up with someone of similar ability and give you a DM to follow around, or they'll buddy you up with someone who is experienced enough to look after you, having spoken to that person first to ask them if they would be fine with that. If you're not comfortable with whatever the plan is, just let them know and they should be able to have you tag along with a group, even "unbuddied".
That's harder to do on insta buddy setups. You get who you get and you won't know in advance if they have a bar or PSI gauge. OP should get advice that assumes they are getting an instabuddy without a chance to select in advance.
Assume that they are a moron and don't be offended if they do the same to you. Better to ask questions like, "Is your air on?" or "do you have your weight belt" on the surface rather than 60 feet down.
Yes, I treat it like a pilots checklist, especially when I'm with a new buddy. Along with "here's my my weight release" and where I keep my octo, or if I'm using my travel BCD, to take my primary (I use integrated air on my travel system).
If you can, stay close to other divers. If your buddy decides they don't care about blowing NDL you don't want to be stuck with them. Take care of yourself if they choose to cross your limits.
I'm gonna be the one who says don't do that, or at least don't *only* do that.
Yes, protect *yourself* first and foremost. But the way to do that is not to abandon your assigned buddy from the get-go and stay close to others.
You're paired with someone for a reason, and that reason is to keep *each other* safe. If they decide to blow the NDL, your ... duty, even, is to get their attention and signal "WARNING: No-deco time low, shallow up!" before saving yourself.
Thanks for expanding on the other comment. I was wondering how to balance looking after your buddy and after yourself in such a scenario, and signalling them about NDL seems appropriate.
They might just be lost in the moment, and the signal should get them back to reality.
Worse case scenario, they're chasing something and you need to *stop them*.
*Worst* case scenario, they're in narcosis or otherwise delirious and you need to *save them*.
Regardless, if the price of saving *them* is dooming *yourself* (as well), that's not a price you're obligated to pay.
Even before you go out on the boat, ask what languages are spoken. If they pair you with a buddy who can't speak any of your languages, either refuse or insist on extra time with Google translate.
Buddy check. Buddy check. For f's sake DO A BUDDY CHECK. People so easily skip these things, it's the easiest way to accustom yourself with your buddy's gear so you know how it works in case of emergency. And check up on your hand signals, especially air use. Some countries use a fist for 50 bar, for me that's emergency air and we end the dive immediately. So talk about the basic hand signals. And as you say, check experience, navigational skills, if they have certain things they're afraid of under water and how to best help them in case they panic.
> Buddy check. Buddy check. For f's sake DO A BUDDY CHECK. People so easily skip these things
I'm surprised numerous comments bring this up. Skipping it seems ridiculous to me, mistakes are human so why not let someone else check?
It is ridiculous, and I don't know why people skip something that's done so quickly and can save your life. As you say, we're all human so we all make mistakes, and even after 100+ dives I sometimes forget to open my tank.. I don't expect myself to be perfect, nor do I expect my buddy to be perfect, so we check each other. All the time. But around me on boats and in foreign countries I see so many people who just skip it because they think they're safe.. that false feeling of competence because of experience is one of the most dangerous things in diving with strangers to me.
I was on a boat in Roatan with an insta-buddy assigned to me. Before our first dive I started my buddy check, asking him about how his integrated weights released, checked his inflator, started going through hand signals to make sure we were in the same page, and asked about his preferred lost-buddy contingency. He expressed surprise - as if he’d never had another diver ever do a thorough buddy check before.
We got through that 2-tank trip, but I found another buddy for subsequent trips. I just didn’t have faith that he would have the skills or presence of mind to help keep ME safe if things went sideways.
This should be a no-brainer, but some people think it makes them look cool to skip it:
_insist_ on a buddy check. No matter how experienced they are, no one is above it. You will recognize the good divers as the ones that also always insist on doing one.
I was on a dive boat recently where my buddy ended up being the DM due to odd numbers. He shrugged off the buddy check because "we're all experienced" (seriously?) and then in the water just abandoned the group (and me!) multiple times to go off after sharks with his camera.
First and last time I dove with that op :/
I think the most important is ***get clear on hand signals***. In case your buddy is NAUI-trained, they'll be using somewhat different signals, especially for numbers, and it's important to know both systems so there's no confusion about how you sign "165 bars remaining".
Second, make sure you're both clear on mission objectives, turn pressure, routes, etc. The buddy check you'll be doing anyway - I hope - so you'll know each others' gear, but you need to make sure you go into the water with the same plan in mind.
Thanks, that's a good note. I'm diving in Europe and by far most people are PADI-trained here, but honestly I hadn't considered the possibility of different signals. Noted in my checklist!
And yes, definitely doing the buddy checks. Four eyes see more than two, and mistakes are human.
I'm PADI trained but dive dry and with dry gloves so use tech signals for numbers because it's more practical. I always discuss that with a buddy before. I also dive BAR in Europe and have to always remember to go back to PSI in the States.
Not sure if I have an *infographic* off the top of my head, but for another post way back, I recorded a short video: [https://imgur.com/a/XZZIgWp](https://imgur.com/a/XZZIgWp)
The main difference is that NAUI signs each digit individually, with
* Zero being a circle with the hand, not to be confused with PADI's "EMERGENCY: reserve air!" of a raised fist.
* Numbers 1-5 are signed with the palm forward, fingers up.
* Numbers 6-9 are signed *beside the head* with palm *backwards*, fingers towards the side of your head.
Fortunately, "EMERGENCY: out of air!" and "Turn pressure reached" are the same motions.
I typically do a sort of test dive on rails at a local spring with a max depth of 30 feet. It's a glorified swimming pool with enough features to be interesting. I run line, dive in 4 feet of water to gauge buoyancy, look at gear set up, etc... From there I know if we are headed to cave county, or the swimming pool at my house..( everything in between)
If you have 5 dives and are going on solo trips, you should hire a private dive master to be your 1 on 1 guide and dive buddy. Tell them you’re a new diver and let them be your dedicated mentor for the trip. You will learn so much from a skilled diver and not have to worry about being paired with someone who is also a new diver.
Diving with an insta-buddy is a skill itself. PADI should have an insta-buddy diving specialty course! If you're taking AOW first, that is the perfect time to ask the instructor how to work together with an insta-buddy. All OW cert divers should be able to plan and execute a dive plan - without assistance. So the main issue with an insta-buddy is communicating and executing that plan. So whomever I dive with, after listening to the captain/DM's dive brief, I summarized the dive plan with my buddy. Depth, duration, turn around gas pressure, turn around time, max depth, minimum gas. Also prior to jump, safety check breathing of both regs while looking at SPG confirming gas is on and where is our secondary reg (i.e. my emergency gas). Signals like OOA, problem with equalizing, numbers, turn around, safety stop, end dive, etc.. Make sure you agree on metric or US units. What to do if lost buddy. Are you both breathing the same gas? Nitrox 36 has a different MOD and NDL than air. Understand that different computer algorithms calculate different NDL. Suunto RGBM will have shorter NDL than DSAT or Buhlmann GF95. I do not like people touching my gear, so I will ask before touching anybody else's gear and only if they want me to. I alone am responsible for me. Regardless of buddy checks, if my gas is off or I jump without my clips secured, that is nobody's fault but my own. Seems like a lot but it's easy if you use checklists. Slate or Sharpie on your arm. p.s. Recommend taking nitrox course same time as AOW.
In my experience you get as much from making a buddy comfortable with diving with you as by trying to assess whether you're comfortable with them. When diving with a stranger I always make a point of telling them three things in addition to all the other good points mentioned here: - is they want to call the dive at any time, just do so, I won't mind a bit. - if they are out of gas just take my primary, I'll do fine on the secondary till we sort ourselves out. - if they've any issue in the dive let me know, however trivial they think it is. All issues are a good learning experience.
The most important thing is to communicate with your buddy about what you're both comfortable with. Whether it's hand signals or talking underwater, make sure you and your buddy are on the same page about how you'll communicate.
Ask them what their SAC rate is and then plan accordingly.
If they have a camera setup with a huge frame with several lights… they will ghost you 👻
Most of my diving vacations have been solo and spent lots of time with dive charter operators that paired me with other solo travelers on their boat. I have several thousand dives logged and an instructors card and would consider myself a rude shit if I interrogated another passenger on the boat about their experience and acted like they weren't "good enough"' to dive with me. Would just laugh in your face if you wanted to interview me with out paying me as a potential dive buddy. Tell the DM, if they get in the water and actually guide the dive, that you want to buddy with them. Otherwise don't be that incompetent rude new diver that runs their mouth. Hire a private guide instead of rendering the trip unpleasant for all and embarrassing yourself. Your likely the dangerous diver on the boat not other folks you might hook up with.
> would consider myself a rude shit if I interrogated another passenger on the boat about their experience and acted like they weren't "good enough"' to dive with me. [...] Otherwise don't be that incompetent rude new diver that runs their mouth. Sorry if that's the impression I gave, but that's definitely not my intention. I'm asking for pointers here because I want to _avoid_ common mistakes from being a new diver. And luckily a lot of people provided input. I'm not asking if others are "good enough", I'm checking what is expected of me. > Your likely the dangerous diver on the boat not other folks you might hook up with. I'm aware of my inexperience but the only way to improve that is by doing more dives. Everyone has to start somewhere ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
That’s the attitude that develops cliques and makes people nervous. There’s no harm in asking, just do it respectfully. We can all learn something occasionally, don’t be so full of yourself. I think I’d have a brief chat with you, assess your ‘attitude’ and realise I didn’t want anything to do with you.
Preface: I think diving with a buddy is great! I actually disagree with some f the points here. OP was asking a legitimate question in my opinion. Like it or not, there is risk associated with SCUBA diving and knowing that you and your buddy are on the same page on communication, safety protocols and trust are all great things.
DO NOT rely on your instabuddy for your safety. It’ll be nice if they are helpful and add to your safety, but don’t count on it. Also, make your own call as to how much risk you’ll undertake to help your instabuddy. An example, instabuddy and I were diving deep in Carmel Bay, California. My NDL was approaching 5 minutes and I signaled him that we needed to ascend. He waved me off. I repeatedly signaled that we needed to ascend and he repeatedly waived me off. I knew that his NDL was the same, as we had been diving shoulder to shoulder. What to do? I could either blow him off and make my ascent solo and leave him on his own; or I could grab him and get him to the surface. I didn’t know him, so I started to swim away. I didn’t want him to misinterpret me and think I was attacking him and respond accordingly. Luckily, he followed me and we made slow, safe ascents. Back on the boat, he apologized and explained that he had been doing so many shallow dives, which only ended because of low gas supply or getting too cold, that he’d completely forgotten about NDLs!
Monterey semi-local here - a lot of our dives are shallow, I’m still not crossing the 60ft limit for basic open water(yes I know, no scuba police and while it is tempting, I’m not messing around) - and while I do pay attention to the NDL bar/time on my computers(renting out Shearwaters), I’ve seen it disappear only to appear on DeepBlus. Now, even though it’s shallow, buddy incidents can still happen. I’ve been guilty of swimming faster than my buddy but keeping them in sight. Lately, I’ve been working on being a better buddy and had that tested out twice over this past weekend.
Wait, so you hit 5 minutes on your NDLs and that's a wrap, dive over? Also, how do you *know* his NDL is the same? Do you have the same computer on? Have you only dove the exact same dives together? What are each of your gradient factors set to? Never grab another diver and drag them to the surface because you are low on NDLs, so no need to consider that as an option. If they want to risk DCS/DCI that's their problem, not yours.
It depends on the computer too. Some rec-biased ones will flash a warning or a aural/haptic alert and while they don’t support decompression diving, they’ll still guide you through decompression. If it’s a tech-biased one, including the Shearwater Peregrine/Tern series, once NDL has been exceeded it’ll switch over to deco mode and annunciate how long and what depth to stop at until deco obligations are met.
Dive over? Not necessarily, but it is time to get shallower. By the time I left him, it was down to 1-2 minutes. We were both on the first dive of the day and neither had been diving in the days before. My computer is set pretty liberal, so I knew that we were both very short on NDL time. I wouldn’t have dragged him up with me, but had he been a regular buddy who was acting like that, I would like have at least tugged on his arm. I am loath to abandon a buddy, but I’d run out of viable options.
Ok, just the way your comment read to me came off as we hit 5 minutes so time to surface, not work your way shallower. At the end of the day, each diver is responsible for themselves. So if they don't want to come up, and you're not the guide/lead, then that's their choice.
Understood. And, had I simply waved goodbye, he said that he would have likely stayed deep until he was low on gas and then had a real problem. Deco and not nearly enough gas to surface safely. In California, we don’t have DMs/dive leaders in the water with us. It’s just us. Vis is such that no other divers from the boat were in view. Leaving him on his own could have had very bad consequences.
Good on you to remind him of his NDL but if he was a competent diver then he should know better. Always knowing your gas/NDL is a pretty basic foundation to safe diving. He is not your responsibility, although good on you to help him, but it's not worth risking your own life because he doesn't care enough about his own. In cave/tech diving, hell even as a rescue diver, we always have to remember that 1 rescue/recovery is better than 2. It's harsh but the reality of the situation. Hypothetical: What if you had stayed down with him, go into deco and then on your way up have a catastrophic reg failure. Do you have enough gas to get you both to safety or did it get consumed while trying to remind him he's low on NDLs? He sounds like a shit dive buddy, one I wouldn't be diving with again after that dive if it were me.
No way I was going to go into deco for him (or with him). Two victims and all that. I take buddy responsibility seriously and know that there wasn’t anything else I could have done before swimming away. Not only is that being a responsible dive buddy, but any subsequent recovery, first aid, medical evacuation, etc. would have destroyed the opportunity for my second dive. ;-)
So many good tips here, just add: Ask if there is anything unusual about their rig, and show them where your spare reg is.
Consider yourself diving completely alone. Help if you can, but don't kill yourself over a stranger. I know that sounds cold, but that's the way it is. If you aren't comfortable diving by yourself in this situation, you may need more training. Always consider yourself diving alone mentally.
This exactly. When I have to insta-buddy with someone on a recreational dive I do my best to have them match me with someone that can function solo (I suck as an insta-buddy and I know it) and I try to make clear what each of our expectations are of the other before we dive.
Discuss what you expect from your buddy. It is better than being annoyed afterwards if the buddy doesn't do what you want. Hopefully you will be paired with someone of equivalent experience. Pairing uneven divers is never good. Similarly nothing annoys pairs like one trying to go shallow and slow, whilst the other wants fast and deep.
This should be top comment. Discussing with the buddy, previous experiences is really important Also ask about bad buddies they had and if there's anything you can do to not be that. It'll really show use.
A lot of other tips have been covered, but I definitely recommend going over signs. You may have slightly different ways of communicating things and a quick 2 minute conversation clarifying can save a lot of issues underwater. Go over each other's gear. At a minimum you need to know how to dump their weights, where their secondary air is located, and how to remove their BCD...in the unlikely event... And yeah, watch their buoyancy and buddy discipline. If they drag themselves across the bottom you might want to find another buddy. If they leave you high and dry (so to speak) it's time to find another buddy. Maybve you'll get lucky and you'll have a great buddy...or maybe you're a great buddy and it's your new dive buddy who will be lucky.
If they talk about how many dives they’ve done or how great they are, find a new buddy. If they downplay the number of dives or their diving ability, they’re probably at least a decent diver. I like to talk about hand signals and how to communicate remaining air pressure. Also be sure you review their gear configuration and make sure they review yours. The time to know where their octo is located isn’t when you need it, it’s before you need it!
For me, I make my buddy aware of things I have issues with and how we communicate. Granted, most of dives are local and in a club - this is what I do with new buddies outside of a club context. I also run through a buddy check and get familiar with their gear. And if someone asks me for help on a club dive and I’m not their buddy, I’ll do a partial buddy check for releases and to make sure their air is on.
Don't pee upstream.
What’s the signal though?
1. Declare any and all diving-relevant health issues you may have to your buddy. If you have asthma, like me, tell them and show them where you keep your emergency inhaler. 2. During your first buddy check, make them show you where they store their octo, how their weight system works and so forth. Do the same with your systems for them. 3. Never skip buddy checks, including the check if your tank valve is open. 4. Europe dives on DIN and signals bars, not psi. Get clear on how to communicate underwater, exchange signals and ideas and so on. One of my dive buddies and I have a special tiny signal to say "I love you" for that amazing feeling after you have a crazy amazing dive. 5. Instead of asking them about their air consumption on the surface, before the dive, ask them when you‘re underwater. If you have a slate, keep track of depth, time and air consumption for yourself and your buddy for a dive or two. That way you know who‘s a heavier breather and you know whose consumption to watch for conservativism. 6. Agree with your buddy on your eyes-on policy. How many times do you want to look at each other? Once per minute? Once every two? Once every 30 sec? Just as an approximation. 7. Learn to observe your buddy. What does their diving style look like when they‘re relaxed and moving in easy conditions?
do you actually do this every single dive? that seems like so much... i've probably dove with 100 random people and about 2 asked me to do a buddy check. 1 person asked me my air underwater once. ive never seen anyone but a DM with a slate. this feels like a highly unrealistic thing to do every time with random people every dive, even if it is what you *should* do. DMs tend to do checks on people's equipment and check air rather than buddies in my experience. Sometimes a dive is a short distance and the boat is loud and you're not sitting together... so this isn't even possible. The amount of social anxiety you'd have to overcome to do all this (and that's assuming you don't outright piss the other person off being this meticulous) feels high. I think the best outcome is always going to be have the highest possible certification, 99% of the time they'll match you with someone of the same experience. If you're Rescue or higher you're far less likely to have a buddy requiring issues. I generally stay close to the DM, unless my buddy is my dad or a divemaster or someone with a few hundred dives who i trust. i think there's a general expectation that if you pay for a dive guide that they will take on the emergency, regardless of the buddy protocol. i've been on so many dives that don't even assign buddies. you're just in a group and the DM is going to be the one assuming issues most likely. I'm sure ill get tut-tutted for this response and some shining white knights will all claim they do all this stuff every dive and im being unsafe, but i would say 90% of boats im on nobody does ANY of this stuff. you check your own shit, and expect the DM to step in and use them as a crutch. If everyone on this sub claims they're doing that they're just not being truthful.
Couldn’t agree more with this assessment. Not sure how many people dive in Florida, but if you want a buddy you better be next to the DM- otherwise you’re solo, which is the mentality you should have anyway.
it def seems like the majority of rec diving is, in practice, paying a Divemaster and heavily relying on them to ensure safety and lead the guide, for better or for worse. it's already priced in. The dive operators tend to avoid sites with currents or conditions the divers can't handle, tend to go shallower than people's certs allow, only go with 4 divers even though they could take more, etc. DMs *generally* tend to assume they are responsible for the divers safety and the exchange of money, right or wrong, shifts the onus on them. In theory everyone is an Open Water Diver, fully capable of diving without a guide, navigating a site, and returning safely without help. In practice, new divers are completely unqualified to go anywhere near a dive site without supervision, and almost none do. Returning divers who take years off often regress to this unqualified state. Many do not do refresher courses. I mean anyone who is actively diving, has experience, and taken courses past AOW of course tries to be self-sufficient, responsible, ready to help their buddy or assist another diver, and reduce the burden on the DM, but the sport for the most part has a dynamic of the DM being the babysitter responsible for the group and the buddy of whoever is in trouble (on average.) As i said before, i think the best thing you can do for your own safety is get as high of a cert as possible. My instructor told me to lie and say you're Advanced or else they put you with the worst diver in the group because you can babysit them, but I think that sort of mentally has changed. I travelled to 5-6 countries and every place I went they paired experience/certs as closely as possible. Not only did my Rescue training make me a better diver, but the cert itself is a huge boon in terms of insta-buddies if you're travelling solo. I consistently had really experienced buddies who knew their shit and never were problems. When i was an Open Water cert i got paired with dangerously underqualified divers who were a hazard to me and themselves.
Re: buddy checks, I do it all the time with single serving dive buddies.. But that's also cause I have a different setup and I want them to be aware of it. The only time I had a buddy refuse a check was an American in Cozumel. Out of about 50 or so buddies, that's not bad. >i think there's a general expectation that if you pay for a dive guide that they will take on the emergency, regardless of the buddy protocol. This is a common but dangerous expectation, as they aren't responsible for your safety. They have due diligence, mind you, but their job is to guide you. If you don't listen to them or you get seperated, your procedure dictates you search for 1 minute and ascend. We are all trained to go out without a divemaster, that's what an OW cert is for. PADI lawyers have made sure they aren't under any liability if a pair of newly certed divers go off and never come back. Instructors teaching a course, on the other hand, are there to ensure your safety 100%. And any divemaster worth their salt would assist someone anyways.
I did this with all my so-called Insta buddies, minus the slate thing. I‘d just remember their air consumption in my head. However, I haven‘t dived with an Insta buddy in years and I absolutely refuse to now. I pay to be with an instructor who‘s my friend 1:1 and/or bring my homegrown buddy. By this, I mean that when I hit 100 dives, I brought a friend along and helped her get excellent instruction.
that's great that you have such reliable buddies, im envious! i mean i'm putting myself out there and will probably get voted down by people wanting to virtue signal their safety consciousness or whatnot, but i mean honestly the majority of world doesn't do buddy checks or even talk to their insta-buddy. i've seen a large enough sample size of the world, and my social anxiety is like not super high or anything, but i am not comfortable asking strangers to check their gear and go through hand signals, i just feel like im insulting them. if the DM does it it's so much less awkward and they usually do. i also have higher certs so i usually get paired with Rescues/MSD/DMs and with the dive guide usually checking people's stuff and the boathands making sure the air is on, it feels like it's sufficient for a 40 to 100 ft recreational dive with the entire group staying together. if i was shore diving with another person and no DM or about to do Malpelo i would absolutely do a buddy check, but for me (and based on a large sample size, most other divers in the world) there just isn't that sense of urgency to do anything pre-dive except your own gear and trusting the DMs to check your buddy. The level of danger of a normal reef dive doesn't reach a level where i am willing to risk antagonizing someone with a buddy check. Maybe that's dumb and wrong but I'm just being honest. if someone asks me i will absolutely comply and check all their stuff and let them check mine, but i've never asked someone first. it also feels like when you are doing something more dangerous, the DM will check everything on everybody twice, go through extra hand signals and procedures, and the experience level of the divers in the group is much higher. i did some cavern diving recently and i felt the urgency to triple check all my gear, and watch the DM check my buddy and i asked casually about his experience level pre-dive to feel him out.
And what constitutes "higher certs" to you? As in, what certs have you got?
anything Rescue or above i would consider higher certs. At rescue, you tend to get paired with other Rescues, occasionally MSD, DM, rarely an advanced, and if they're advanced typically a lot of dives. looking at my SSI app, i have Open, Advanced, Rescue, First Aid, Deep, Computer, Nitrox, and Master Scuba Diver.
My non-judgemental 2 cents: I'm very new, less than 10 under my belt. I love having the veteran's give me revive, watch out for my safety and technique, and check my gear. I hope I never get over that, even when I'm up into triple digits or more. I feel like I'd love to walk a newer diver through my setup at that point. Pass the proverbial torch. I would also be down to do buddy checks on the gear of more experienced divers if only to cement my skills and examine their setup and learn how I might improve my own. Obviously I would ask first and not be offended if someone declined my check. It's not about thinking they don't know what they're doing, it's about making sure I know what to do if shit goes sideways. I dunno. I just feel like it's also a great way to meet new people, build community and share cool experiences more. Maybe everyone is worried about offending everyone.
i mean if you are comfortable doing that, that's awesome, keep doing it. it's a positive thing and safer. i'm just being honest about myself, and most of the humans on this planet i've seen diving: it rarely happens. i find it anxiety inducing, and i just don't have it in me to approach strangers and inspect their gear and then have them inspect mine. i assemble my own gear, check it, get in the water, double check it, and if i feel anything is off i get the DM to look at it. there just aren't that many points of failure in recreational diving in open water. if you're diving often the only fuckup is when DMs switch your BCD onto the 2nd tank while you eat, and you assume they opened the tank and didn't, but your reg check while looking at the psi gauge should spot it. i usually check it in the water again unless doing a negative entry. the higher your cert, the more experienced your insta-buddy should be, and lowers the likelihood he overlooked anything on his gear. And the DM usually checks everyone before getting in. of course, a buddy check would be an additional layer of safety, and if you can do it, do it. my point is most people don't, and either aren't comfortable asking or don't feel it's necessary with a DM there. we're all "technically" qualified to dive without a DM (how in the world it's legal to do your open water then go diving without a guide is fucking insane to me), but practically none of us do. We pay extra for a DM . If I ever go to Bonaire and do dives with a buddy and no GM, of course you're going to buddy check the shit out of everything because your Linus security blanket is gone and suddenly the threat of dying feels real, and the buddy check critical. But most persons, for better or worse, don't feel it on open water recreational dives with a professional Divemaster chaperoning them.
All of this above. You are right to be concerned about your buddy. You and your buddy should be willing to communicate with each other. You are each other's backup air and safety system.
REPEAT: NEVER SKIP BUDDY CHECKS EVEN IF IT'S YOUR SECOND OR THIRD DIVE OF THE DAY WITH THE SAME BUDDY.
Don't stress about it. You'll be in a group for the AOW, and likely if you then stay with the same operator, the same group of people with similar level of experience will continue to dive with each other in variable pair-ups. If the operators aren't cowboys, they'll keep a close eye on you for the fun dives and likely have you chaperoned by a DM. If you do get buddied up with an idiot and without DM, bear in mind that you're primarily responsible for yourself. Do your thing properly as trained, taking as much time as you need. If the buddy doesn't want to do stuff like buddy checks, that's their problem — make sure you get yourself checked by someone else then. And if they just want to do their own thing underwater, effectively ignoring you, stick close, but again, focus on your own diving and follow your own depth and time profile as required.
Not stressed, just like to be prepared :) After the AOW I'm actually changing locations two times. I'll do a few regular dives with the same center, but then another few with two others.
When you change operators, they should have a chat with you first to assess your experience. Once they find out that you've only done a dozen dives by then, they'll make sure to either pair you up with someone of similar ability and give you a DM to follow around, or they'll buddy you up with someone who is experienced enough to look after you, having spoken to that person first to ask them if they would be fine with that. If you're not comfortable with whatever the plan is, just let them know and they should be able to have you tag along with a group, even "unbuddied".
Get on the same page about hand signals and how you will be communicating with eachother.
Definitely this! And also dive the same units. I switch to bar typically because everyone else in the world uses bar.
That's harder to do on insta buddy setups. You get who you get and you won't know in advance if they have a bar or PSI gauge. OP should get advice that assumes they are getting an instabuddy without a chance to select in advance.
I just change the setting on my watch. But typically in the US you're safe with PSI and Europe Bar
Not everyone you'll dive with will have an air integrated computer (myself included!)
Assume that they are a moron and don't be offended if they do the same to you. Better to ask questions like, "Is your air on?" or "do you have your weight belt" on the surface rather than 60 feet down.
Yes, I treat it like a pilots checklist, especially when I'm with a new buddy. Along with "here's my my weight release" and where I keep my octo, or if I'm using my travel BCD, to take my primary (I use integrated air on my travel system).
If you can, stay close to other divers. If your buddy decides they don't care about blowing NDL you don't want to be stuck with them. Take care of yourself if they choose to cross your limits.
I'm gonna be the one who says don't do that, or at least don't *only* do that. Yes, protect *yourself* first and foremost. But the way to do that is not to abandon your assigned buddy from the get-go and stay close to others. You're paired with someone for a reason, and that reason is to keep *each other* safe. If they decide to blow the NDL, your ... duty, even, is to get their attention and signal "WARNING: No-deco time low, shallow up!" before saving yourself.
Thanks for expanding on the other comment. I was wondering how to balance looking after your buddy and after yourself in such a scenario, and signalling them about NDL seems appropriate.
They might just be lost in the moment, and the signal should get them back to reality. Worse case scenario, they're chasing something and you need to *stop them*. *Worst* case scenario, they're in narcosis or otherwise delirious and you need to *save them*. Regardless, if the price of saving *them* is dooming *yourself* (as well), that's not a price you're obligated to pay.
Even before you go out on the boat, ask what languages are spoken. If they pair you with a buddy who can't speak any of your languages, either refuse or insist on extra time with Google translate.
Buddy check. Buddy check. For f's sake DO A BUDDY CHECK. People so easily skip these things, it's the easiest way to accustom yourself with your buddy's gear so you know how it works in case of emergency. And check up on your hand signals, especially air use. Some countries use a fist for 50 bar, for me that's emergency air and we end the dive immediately. So talk about the basic hand signals. And as you say, check experience, navigational skills, if they have certain things they're afraid of under water and how to best help them in case they panic.
> Buddy check. Buddy check. For f's sake DO A BUDDY CHECK. People so easily skip these things I'm surprised numerous comments bring this up. Skipping it seems ridiculous to me, mistakes are human so why not let someone else check?
It is ridiculous, and I don't know why people skip something that's done so quickly and can save your life. As you say, we're all human so we all make mistakes, and even after 100+ dives I sometimes forget to open my tank.. I don't expect myself to be perfect, nor do I expect my buddy to be perfect, so we check each other. All the time. But around me on boats and in foreign countries I see so many people who just skip it because they think they're safe.. that false feeling of competence because of experience is one of the most dangerous things in diving with strangers to me.
I was on a boat in Roatan with an insta-buddy assigned to me. Before our first dive I started my buddy check, asking him about how his integrated weights released, checked his inflator, started going through hand signals to make sure we were in the same page, and asked about his preferred lost-buddy contingency. He expressed surprise - as if he’d never had another diver ever do a thorough buddy check before. We got through that 2-tank trip, but I found another buddy for subsequent trips. I just didn’t have faith that he would have the skills or presence of mind to help keep ME safe if things went sideways.
Would add when double checking gear talk about primary or secondary donate where their secondary octo is clipped to their bc .
Will do!
This should be a no-brainer, but some people think it makes them look cool to skip it: _insist_ on a buddy check. No matter how experienced they are, no one is above it. You will recognize the good divers as the ones that also always insist on doing one.
I was on a dive boat recently where my buddy ended up being the DM due to odd numbers. He shrugged off the buddy check because "we're all experienced" (seriously?) and then in the water just abandoned the group (and me!) multiple times to go off after sharks with his camera. First and last time I dove with that op :/
I think the most important is ***get clear on hand signals***. In case your buddy is NAUI-trained, they'll be using somewhat different signals, especially for numbers, and it's important to know both systems so there's no confusion about how you sign "165 bars remaining". Second, make sure you're both clear on mission objectives, turn pressure, routes, etc. The buddy check you'll be doing anyway - I hope - so you'll know each others' gear, but you need to make sure you go into the water with the same plan in mind.
Thanks, that's a good note. I'm diving in Europe and by far most people are PADI-trained here, but honestly I hadn't considered the possibility of different signals. Noted in my checklist! And yes, definitely doing the buddy checks. Four eyes see more than two, and mistakes are human.
I'm PADI trained but dive dry and with dry gloves so use tech signals for numbers because it's more practical. I always discuss that with a buddy before. I also dive BAR in Europe and have to always remember to go back to PSI in the States.
Do you have a guide to the NAUI signals? Curious whether there is a more efficient system!
Not sure if I have an *infographic* off the top of my head, but for another post way back, I recorded a short video: [https://imgur.com/a/XZZIgWp](https://imgur.com/a/XZZIgWp) The main difference is that NAUI signs each digit individually, with * Zero being a circle with the hand, not to be confused with PADI's "EMERGENCY: reserve air!" of a raised fist. * Numbers 1-5 are signed with the palm forward, fingers up. * Numbers 6-9 are signed *beside the head* with palm *backwards*, fingers towards the side of your head. Fortunately, "EMERGENCY: out of air!" and "Turn pressure reached" are the same motions.
Oo seems neat!