Diving in threes

[Lou]

Originally Posted by Fiona

The common denominator being Mr Oliver perhaps he just wants to be alone

However I had a lovely dive with Paul last year.

Was it just the two of you?

[Paul Oliver]

OK, OK so it was all my fault i knew it would boil down to that

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by Lou

Was it just the two of you?

Well on the Shirala dive it was, on HMS Sapper we were joined by a 3rd diver who was rather lucky Fiona took pity on him

[Scubee]

One way of 'diving as a three' when it comes to inexperienced divers is for two inexperienced (e.g. OW)to be a pair. The third (eg DM) then essentially oversees the pair. The inexperienced divers only have to worry about one other person. It gives them experience in diving with an equally qualified/experienced buddy in a non-training situation, but also gives them a 'comfort blanket'.

All three need to be happy with the situation, and all three need to know the roles of the others. In a separation situation, if the pair lose the blanket, they can carry on if they are happy to, but if either of the pair disappear, then normal missing buddy procedures apply.

NB this will only work if the experienced diver is self sufficient enough to get themselves out of a problem, and is on a fairly 'easy' site i.e not a roaring drift or deeper than about 15-18m. and within all the parameters of the least experienced of the pair.

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Ian@1904

Could someone please point me in the right direction. I am about to become my BSAC clubs Diving Officer. BSAC is not terribly keen on diving in three's. I happen to do a fair bit of threesome diving, but do so with fairly experienced divers-usually YD diving.
I am considering introducing some club guidelines so that I can "approve" divers going down in three's. (I don't want to be rigidly BSAC pairs only, neither do I want three newly qualified Sports Divers doing the Kyarra.

What is the rational being three as the team.
How does the team operate.
Experience levels required.

I have searched on here, but not really found what I'm looking for. So useful advice and links appreciated.

Ian, this is more of a request than any useful information. When you get this sorted, I for one would be really interested to hear what you come up with.

My club here in Tassie frequently does thjis, with no clear guidelines and it's a bloody nightmare (for me at least) as on a number of occasions, I've found myself piggy in t'middle trying to link two divers each going their own way, sooner or later, I have to pick who I'm going to stick with so it's usually the one who owes me petrol money or else the one who's car I came down in. And that's in waters where we commonly have 15-20M visibility.

Yes I know, I know. But unfortunately the buddy culture is fairly weakly imbued here, athough everyone pays it lip service. People here train with a local or interstate PADI/SSI school and then that's it. It's pretty free enterprise and most club members, not to mention committee/DM feel fairly inhibited from openly discussing/criticising the practices of others.

Thing is, I've been told that I'll likely be nominated to our Committee this year, and I'm already involved in putting together a comprehensive diving SOP (something we've never had). Our club is somewhat different from most UK clubs, it's a bunch of individuals who dive (and socialise) together but no training, other than providing liaison with local schools offering courses is provided.

Anyway, I'd be really grateful to see how you deal with this. When you've sorted it, well if you remember, could you PM me.

Richard M.