Diving with strangers

[Jules]

Originally Posted by Fiona

However when I joined YD everyone was a stranger, in fact the first dive saw me on a RIB with Jay, 2Tanx and Bren - you can't get stranger than that

Yes you can, my first YD dive had Bren, JAy, 2 tanks AND Davey willo.... that's at least one Davey Willo stranger...

All my regular YD buddies were strangers when i first met them.

[Sipadan]

Originally Posted by Twinsetmad

I was on a Plymouth trip with a guy from our club, which I'd never dived before....

Buddied for a 30m dive on the Percier.... he'd just sorted out his twinset and was eager to get in... 2 single 12lt cylinders... banded together with one old style Scubapro band and then cam band, attatched to cam band wrapped around them onto his Buddy Commando.... then 2 single sets of regs... complete with all the extra BCD, Drysuit hoses and both with Octopuses....

I said no way.... and sat it out.. I won't be responsible for a guy that was irrisponsible.

i think i've dived with the same guy, there can't be more than one can there?

[Mick F]

Originally Posted by scuba steve irl

over here we are encouraged to dive with independant twins before progressing to full twins with stage . is that not the same over there

Hmmmm. Who encouraged you to do that then?

I ask because I don't know of any agency* locally who advocate independent twins over manifolds.

*I exclude CFT from this as they appear to think that twins are the work of the devil;rebreathers are for demons and madmen only!

[Twinsetmad]

Originally Posted by Sipadan

i think i've dived with the same guy, there can't be more than one can there?

It wasn't the fact he had independant twins... it was the way he'd attatched them to his BCD and then having 2 1st stages... and 4 2nd stages... along with 4 BCD/Drysuit hoses on the same set up... his tanks looked like the'd got dredlocks..

A few month later he ended up on an Advanced Nitrox course... with us..

I was watching him deploy or rather try and deploy an SMB from 6 meters...

It was like watching an underwater tennis match... first he was above us, then he was out of sight below us.... then above again...you get the idea.

[John63]

Originally Posted by Twinsetmad

It wasn't the fact he had independant twins... it was the way he'd attatched them to his BCD and then having 2 1st stages... and 4 2nd stages... along with 4 BCD/Drysuit hoses on the same set up

Now that's what I call redundancy !

[DanTam1]

Just came back from Egypt from doing a liveaboard on the Blue Fin. Dived in two buddy pairs down the shot line on the Thistlegorm and found a lone diver pointing that he'd lost his weight belt. Off went the lot of us down to 30m to try and find it to no avail and signalled the diver to return to surface. Now, 10 minutes into the dive, found his buddy busily taking photos in the mid section of the wreck. After asking him where his buddy was, he just shrugged his shoulders, so i opted to buddy with him for the remainder of the dive, leaving my original buddy with the other two. Got to the bow, asked him for a check his gas, (I was diving twin 12's so I had plenty), he just signalled he had loads of time left by looking at his dive computer. After insisting on checking saw that he was on 60 bar!!

Gave him my spare reg and almost dragged him to the stern to go up the line to the surface. Once at the line he dropped my reg, bunged his back in, and started the swim to the surface. All Good at this point, until we reached the safety stop, again checked his gas, Zero Bar!!. Again, gave him my gas again to the surface.

After dive debrief, he wondered why I’d given him the reg and wondered why I wanted to get him back to the boat so quickly. After sounding him out about why he had no air at the end, he just responded that he’s never run out of gas yet.

On a dive the next day (I wasn’t buddying with him), his inflator hose failed, so he gave his weight belt to his buddy (which has 2Kg on it), then gave his integrated weights to another diver, and then rocketed to the surface taking another diver with him.

My normal buddy just told me to leave him next time. How should I have handled it better? As he was on air, me on nitrox could he have been narked, baring in mind that he had total dis-regard for his original buddy on the first dive, and total panic on the subsequent ones. ?

Its certainly changed my attitude when diving with a camera in my hand – what I’ve learnt from this is I’m a diver, with a camera! Not someone who takes pictures and has a blatant dis-regard to his and everyone safety.

Any hoo, rant over. Took some lovely pictures, met a great bunch of people. And am looking forward to doing another next year !

[TerryH]

Originally Posted by GTRJazz

A few years back my dive club used to get calls from skippers to make up the numbers on half empty dive boats sailing out of Brighton, Eastbourne, Shoreham. This worked well but you could never tell who else you would share the boat with. On one such voyage the numbers were odd so I offered to dive with two other divers from another club, we set off to dive the wreck in around 30meters.
We were first in and the three of us dropped down to the wreck without issues. At the bottom I secured the shot on the wreck and moved off however my buddies had swam off without me so I joined the next two down.
As I had less bottom time than my new buddies at the end of my dive I signalled I was going up the shot line, they gave the Ok signal and I started the assent alone.
At 15 meters I could feel my ears needed to equalise which was very strange as I was going up? The water had also started to get dark again, a few more feet of shot line passed through my fingers and I checked my gauges again 20 meters, so I put more air in my suit and fined harder, another check 25 meters, more air more fining 27meters. Not a good feeling
Then something strange the shot buoy was with me at 27 meters still attached to the line had it taken on water and sunk.
It was then I looked down, the first divers from the other club were fining hard and pulling on the shot line but without adding any air to their jackets they had pulled the shot down.
I guess with all the silt they had kicked up they could not see the rope all over the sea bed or that they had risen only a couple of meters at most.
A little worried that they may let go of the shot and fire me to the surface I let go and drifted off using my deployed my SMB when close to the surface.
When they eventually got back on the boat my buddies could only say how much they enjoyed the dive with no mention of any problem

Needless to say I passed up the opportunity to do a deeper dive with the same group later in the year

I can understand that it wasnt you that caused the shot to be pulled
down, but a little confused as to how you went with it? We all know that
the idea is to be slightly positive to aid the ascent and not to "hang" on the
line, but to use it as a guide.

If you went down with it, then you must have been hanging on at some
point. I'm not knocking you for doing that, but just pointing out that there
is a better conclusion of "I learned diving from that".

It's not "dont dive with strangers", it's "dont always rely on a shot line to
stay put".

[Dave Crampton]

As have no regular buddy (all together awww!!) & usually always dive with strangers, or at least people whom I have not dived with before. It sometimes ruines a dive, i.e. if they screw up the dive, but usually I learn something new from them or them from me (hopefully). This I hope has made me a more self sufficient diver and better off for it. I now plan my dives as if I am diving with someone less able and expect it, and its a plesant dive if they turn out to be a decent diver.

Dave C

p.s. Ian1904 is a decent diver, as is Adrian Kelland. Just two of my most recent YD buddies.

[Twinsetmad]

Originally Posted by Dave Crampton

p.s. Ian1904 is a decent diver, as is Adrian Kelland. Just two of my most recent YD buddies.

What about Derek and Gary then...?

[Ian@1904]

Up in Mull Sept 2006 we had a dutch diver with two shoulder dumps on his suit, one on the wrist. He went down underweighted, became inverted, and also used shed loads of gas. Bright chap, as much common sense as a lemming at a cliff top. I did quite a bit of solo diving that weekend.

Narked diver that informed us in the water that she could hear the great white shark approaching. We were at 40m and off Gozo.

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

Ah yes, you've dived with me. There's none stranger

I really enjoyed diving with you. It is peaceful and quiet, unlike at the surface.