Diving with strangers

[Kev]

That is a shame - it is a cracking dive.

[Jay_Benson]

Originally Posted by mixmiff

A few years ago myself and my buddy were in Plymouth to dive the JEL. There were a few lone divers on the boat and the skipper asked if we would mind making a threesome with a welshman in a semi dry who regularly dived the wreck.This was fine as we had never been on it before and were pleased about our new guide who said he would show us all the best bits. We descended the shot to the sea bed,where our guide shot off like a short fat rubberised torpedo ,inches above the sea bed! We followed his silt stream at break neck speed waiting for him to show us his "best bits". It soon became clear as our NDL approached that we had virtually circled the wreck ,still inches above the sea bed.
To this day we still have no idea what the JEL looks like!

Wrecky.

I am probably the muppet you don't want to dive with. I still get moments of angst underwater - last time I was in Stoney my dry suit decided that air retention was a fun idea - OK going down but not so good coming up. Luckily Stoney is stony. I have got to sort that undersuit out by ditching it and using my thermals (which to be honest I prefer - I thought that the undersuit would be a clever idea given the water temp).

So I will apologise now if I upset any future buddy.

[Captain Calamity]

Originally Posted by Hickdive

The Belgian with the "Class B Licence" who could fin at four knots and generally did the instant his head was underwater.

Must be a Belgian thing. I remember sharing a boat with a load of Belgians. Halfway through the dive they all came steaming past in tight formation and kicked the brown stuff out of the vis. Ditto for dive 2.

CC

[Simon Lamb]

I hate being buddied by operators. They never seem to get it right. I pick my buddies on the grounds of similar kit, attitude, diving style and air consumption.

One memorable day in Sharm I got a girl on the first dive who did not breath. At all. I'm no guzzler, but after 45 minutes I'm on 60 and signalling up (at 10m) and she shows me her guage at 120. Unbelievable. And she just wouldnt surface. Last 20 minutes of the 'dive' me swimming on the surface above her still at 6m. Give me credit for staying in touch with my buddy.

Second dive, after remonstrating with the DM about no-breath-girl, I get an older guy, hideously overweighted, who was on 50 bar after 20 minutes.

Its ok for that to happen at home, but travelling is expensive! I would expect to enjoy most of my dives!


Si

[Simon Lamb]

Originally Posted by 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 !

I know its a bit generalist, but I will not, ever, dive with a stranger if they have a camera. I've had too many bad experiences like this one. I am convinced that there needs to be more training / experience before a diver is allowed in the water with a camera. Its kinda like driving and mobile phones for me.

S

[ScubaSue]

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

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

I've dived with you too, but what was stranger was when I dived with some northern bloke who ended up being 'Jonathon' that you did your OW course with - and we didn't find out till we were chatting post dive!

[Buoyant Babe]

Originally Posted by ScubaSue

I've dived with you too, but what was stranger was when I dived with some northern bloke who ended up being 'Jonathon' - and we didn't find out till we were chatting post dive!

That was Funny. I met Jonathan 'Rubber Man' through work quite coincidentally, when we were both AOW qualified. He christened me 'Buoyant Babe' and we did some no-hassle-stick-your-head-under-rocks-bimbles together.

After a few years of slightly losing touch I get a call from Sue on holiday in Malta to say 'Rubberman says hello'. They had got talking about an incident at St Mary's and both discovered they knew me. What a small world. He's not on YD to my knowledge either, despite me trying to encourage him

[ScubaSue]

Originally Posted by Buoyant Babe

That was Funny. I met Jonathan 'Rubber Man' through work quite coincidentally, when we were both AOW qualified. He christened me 'Buoyant Babe' and we did some no-hassle-stick-your-head-under-rocks-bimbles together.

After a few years of slightly losing touch I get a call from Sue on holiday in Malta to say 'Rubberman says hello'. They had got talking about an incident at St Mary's and both discovered they knew me. What a small world. He's not on YD to my knowledge either, despite me trying to encourage him

Apologies, thought you did OW together - regardless, it was bl**dy freaky!!!!!!!!!!!

[steelemonkey]

[quote=ratcliffe;898832]In terms of YD I have done around 130 dives with YDers either on trips or independantly organised dives through the "find a buddy" part of the forum, and I guess I have been lucky as I have never had a bad buddy.

Can you still say that? I hope so.

[Jay_Benson]

Originally Posted by ScubaSue

Apologies, thought you did OW together - regardless, it was bl**dy freaky!!!!!!!!!!!

Nah - the freaky bit is admitting to it!