Buddy Diving

[javelindan]

Thanks for this post. I'm amazed at how many instances I've read or heard of people diving alone (on forums, in discussions, etc.). Personally, I feel very strongly that SCUBA diving should always be done with a buddy. Specific to this string, it's critical that buddies plan, discuss and agree upon how a dive will be done. This includes how they will communicate, how close to stay, etc.

Diving is a great pastime but it's one that requires a lot of respect of mother nature and of the rules/guidelines of diving. Bottom line: dangerous situations can develop unexpectedly and having a buddy with you can make the difference in being able to deal with the situations.

A personal experience:
I was diving on Looe Key in the FL Keys in Oct 1986. I was with a couple of dive buddies and there were a couple of other groups on the dive boat including a group of 5 guys of which one was a snorkeler. It was an incredible day of diving. After the 2nd dive of the afternoon, the snorkeler didn't respond to the underwater siren to get everyone back to the boat. He was 100ft from the boat and was apparantly still snorkeling...

It turns out the guy had been snorkeling over his diver friends and free dove down 20ft or so to briefly hang with them on the bottom. One of his friends shared air with him... well, the snorkeler didn't know the basics about diving (not to hold your breath, etc.), suffered an air embolism on his way back to the surface and drowned. When the snorkeler didn't return to the dive boat and the boat pulled up to pick him up, I was one of 2 guys who jumped in and helped get him out of the water. Although there were 2 doctors on the dive boat, the guy didn't respond to emergency treatment. We were about a 1/2 hr out and the Coast Guard met us halfway back to get the guy to a hospital...

So, what does this have to do with Buddy Diving? First of all, unexpected things can happen and the results can be fatal. Having a dive buddy with a mutual plan gives you a strong chance to deal with most unexpected situations. In the case of this story, I would have hoped that with more than 1 diver present that more common sense could have prevailed and either 1) no air would have been shared with the snorkeler so the situation wouldn't have presented itself, or 2) if realizing that air had already been shared with the snorkeler that the divers could have communicated the potential concerns with the snorkeler (using a slate to explain never to hold your breath, esp. when ascending) and have accompanied the guy back to the surface...

I love diving but I understand it can be very dangerous. Heck, when I did my Ice Diver cert this March and was renting equipment for my check out dive, I learned that the last guy who wore my harness had died when solo ice diving on Superior. He had tied a safety line to the harness and his wife and teenage daughter had been at the surface tending (divers but with no ice diving experience). Evidently the line froze to the ice and any attempts to communicate by line were negated... so what happened? Bill at Scuba Daddy's said he didn't know the specifics but that the guy had a knack for diving alone which obviously contributed to his death. The guy's wife sold some of his equipment to Scuba Daddy's after the fact and that's why Bill had the harness. Kind of creepy to put it on knowing that the last guy to wear died while wearing it...

Anyway, enough carnage for now. Diving can be dangerous. Dive properly and do so with a buddy. Besides being safer, it's usually a lot more fun as well. Everyone tends to experience things a bit differently and it can enhance the experience. On many dives my buddies have spotted things I would have otherwise missed and vice versa...