Diving in threes

[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.

[Lou]

Ian - don't know if it is the sort of thing you are after, but what i took from the TDI course with Mark P is that when diving a three ensure that everyone knows their "position" and their jobs. There is a leader and a tail-end charlie, and the guy in the middle The middle is the best position for the least confident/experienced as they have contact in front and behind.

Awareness of the next person in line to you is crucial, so I guess taht the level of experieence required is one where that awareness can be maintained without concentrating hard?

The team moves at the speed of the slowest person, so teams should be matched intheir objectives. No point agreeing a team that has a potterer and the guy who wants to get round the wreck twice.

Someone is in control of dive time and deco, and usually someone else does the SMB.

HTH

Lou

[Steve S]

Hi Ian

Interesting question, in the first instance decide in advance which diver will be left on their own seriously though AFAIC it depends on the dive and experience level of the divers, a known wreck or site shouldn't be a problem so decide beforehand who will lead, tell them to make sure that everyone else is aware of any signal given/recieved, who will fire the blob etc.

A problem that I can foresee with one person nominated to call the deco/dive is that they may be better on air than their buddies so good monitoring of each other is essential, also consider a limit on mandatory deco' and depth, other than that just use your best judgement that said I wouldn't be happy [depending on experience again]for a trio on a strong drift dive or in zero viz.

Good luck.

Safe diving,
Steve

[MattS]

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.

Hi Ian

You may need to be careful not to impose techniques suitable for techie trained divers onto club trained divers. It really comes down to the divers themselves and their capacity for task loading, which comes down to practise and experience. I cut my teeth diving with an archaeology group so moving onto the techie team approach was a relatively small step. Keeping a team together is mainly a matter of being methodical but it needs everyone to be methodical.

In a club scenario I prefer the 2+1. In so far as you have a pair diving as regular buddies and a more experienced diver, equipped to be self sufficient, happy to ascend alone, keeping in touch (usually following). Another (unpopular) option is to clip two of the divers together with a buddy line and have the third leading or following. If at all possible I would stick to pairs on a club dive.

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by MattS

In a club scenario I prefer the 2+1. In so far as you have a pair diving as regular buddies and a more experienced diver, equipped to be self sufficient, happy to ascend alone, keeping in touch (usually following............ If at all possible I would stick to pairs on a club dive.

Have to say I would agree with this.

Ian I also think this is probably in the wrong section, sorry, surface interval would be more appropriate. My experience of threesomes has nearly always ended in someone slitting off and I think you probably need to be trained in the disciplines required for this type of diving.

I think if you want to go down the DIR route you are going to be diving with two hats, one as DO and the other when diving with suitably qualified people. Also and I have only ever seen one DIR team diving but I would not be a fan of inexperienced club divers diving in a line, I much prefer to have a buddy to one side where I can see them.

[MATTBIN]

Ian my own personal experience of diving in a three is to try and not get a buddy pair to add one extra. I find in this situation the third diver just tags on and isnt really aware of their "respnsibilities". I enjoy diving in a three if everyone knows their roles, as Lou said above.

Matt

[Adrian Kelland]

BSAC don't teach threes, so there is a potential SDP issue. There is not team approach in normal club diving. I only tend to dive threes when each one of us is capable and confident that they can make their own ascent inc deco/redundancy in case of separation.

One to be avoided if at all possible.

Adrian

[JAG]

As has been previously stated, so long as you know your roles within the 3 and you are all singing from the same hymn sheet, with practice it works just fine. I've been part of a 3 for about 2 years or so now. If it's just me and one of my regular buddies, I have no qualms with bringing in one "outsider" into a three, so long as the dive plans, team roles, objectives and signalling are discussed. Would be apprehensive about diving with two new faces though, but am self reliant if the need arose.

[ardhill]

How about diving in 3's if you are DIR trained or if it is a buddy pair with an instructor?

That way you don't have to teach people how to dive in 3's they already know if DIR. An instructor with a buddy pair isn't really a 'team' as such, but someone teaching, guiding, overseeing etc the buddy pair.

Though, I have also dived in 3 when two pairs couldn't be made up, it wasn't nice and organised DIR style, but it all worked out safe and fine. One person lead and the other two followed - the one who lead was more experienced both in diving and of that site. The one who lead, also 'called time'.
.

[Twinsetmad]

Originally Posted by JAG

As has been previously stated, so long as you know your roles within the 3 and you are all singing from the same hymn sheet, with practice it works just fine. I've been part of a 3 for about 2 years or so now. If it's just me and one of my regular buddies, I have no qualms with bringing in one "outsider" into a three, so long as the dive plans, team roles, objectives and signalling are discussed. Would be apprehensive about diving with two new faces though, but am self reliant if the need arose.

I'll agree with Jag and Lou....never had any worries about a 3 as long as we all know where we are going.