Do your buddy check

[uwila]

On a recent dive a fellow YDer and I took the p1ss out of the buddy check on our 2nd ever dive together:
Buddy check - are you there buddy? Check!

Jumping in my buddy experienced a slight difficulty going down and a short while later scribbled on his slate the following message:

I confess I'm a complete tosser. I've forgotten my weight belt!

We were lucky because he found a kilo on the bottom and anyhow, most of his lead was in his integrated pockets. He managed a 40 minute dive 3Kg light before he had to surface, which is a pretty superb achievement considering he was correctly weighted with the belt!

I ended up taking almost as much stick for not checking my buddy as he did.

Anyhow, not naming names, but you may identify this person if he changes his tag to "Lead is for loosers" as he promised.

Seriously though, nothing dangerous happened, but if we had been on a deeper dive and had gone into stops, we might have had problems. Needless to say, we checked our kit a little better the rest of the trip!

Cheers, Chris

[Harlequin]

Good one and a classic. I've had to walk back to the car a few times for weight, shout at skippers to toss some lead overboard and every time have had the piss thoroughly taken out of me.

[Stesh]

Originally Posted by uwila

Anyhow, not naming names, but you may identify this person if he changes his tag to "Lead is for loosers" as he promised.

Cheers, Chris

It's alright Chris, ____'s secret safe with me

[B]

There is also the one about not doing the buddy check and therefore not remembering to check if the air is turned on.. it is not great when you are in the water and find out that the negative entry you are doing is just about to be positive because you forgot to turn your air on and your buddy forgot to check...

dahhh...

B x

[tom]

With respect, some of these things (e.g. checking you have a weight belt, gas is on etc) are really self-checks rather than buddy-checks: it's my responsibility to make sure I am safe to dive, not my buddy's.

Not intending any criticism of anyone, or to devalue buddy checks - but I see those as being more about making sure you're sufficiently familiar with your buddy's setup to rescue them if required. Of course, having someone to verify your self checks is always a good thing too.

[Sakara Drinker]

I heard a story about an instructor from Sharm who was up in Dahab for the day diving the Bells to Blue hole. The entrance is a giant stride and is about 5m down to the ledge. Apparently he hadn't turned his air on or inflated his BCD when he jumped, and sank like a stone. He had to fin like hell to reach the surface, cling to the rock and ask one of his students to turn on his air. No idea if it is true but it sounds plausible. And amusing.

[ardhill]

If I am with someone who doesn't do buddy checks, then I do my own and take a quick look at their kit to see how I get them out in an emergency (assuming it's not someone I dive with frequently).

[onthetrain]

Originally Posted by uwila

Jumping in my buddy experienced a slight difficulty going down and a short while later scribbled on his slate the following message:

I confess I'm a complete tosser. I've forgotten my weight belt!


Anyhow, not naming names, but you may identify this person if he changes his tag to "Lead is for loosers" as he promised.


Cheers, Chris

Ahem,

Twas me.

The joys of complacency!!

Clear water, experienced buddy, easy diving = its only easy if you keep your wits about you. No harm done on this occassion, but if it had been a deco dive I would have had to bin it

[uwila]

Originally Posted by tom

With respect, some of these things (e.g. checking you have a weight belt, gas is on etc) are really self-checks rather than buddy-checks: it's my responsibility to make sure I am safe to dive, not my buddy's.

I agree entirely - it's my opinion that you dive 'solo' on every dive and should therefore always take responsibility for yourself. A buddy is great for many reasons, but ultimately the responsibility for the dive is yours alone. However, the buddy check is a good way to get you into the habit of taking positive action to self-check. This particular dive, we were both in high spirits after having had a good first dive together and were complacent.

Originally Posted by tom

Not intending any criticism of anyone, or to devalue buddy checks - but I see those as being more about making sure you're sufficiently familiar with your buddy's setup to rescue them if required. Of course, having someone to verify your self checks is always a good thing too.

Exactly - and this is what we did on the first dive.


The 'moral of the story' is simply that no matter how experienced you are, no matter how 'easy' the dive conditions, checks before the dive are essential.

Cheers, Chris

[Titanic]

Far be it from me to question you guys given my very limited experience but (there had to be a "but" didn't there... ) while I agree with taking responsibility for yourself, people do get complacent and can make mistakes.

So I think the buddy check is a good discipline as I don't want my buddy to spot something I've missed so it makes me more careful. It also makes your buddy concentrate (hopefully) as they do take some responsibility for you. And finally, it hopefully catches mistakes anyone might make...

I was diving in Sharm recently and on one dive the buddy checks were cursory to non-existent. We were getting ready to jump when I noticed one diver, (not my buddy ) who was (apparently) completing his 100th dive, had not attached his cylinder correctly and it was hanging on by not much more than a unfastened strap.

Bottom line, why wouldn't you do the check and take the 60 seconds to do it properly?