Buddy system flawed?

[Dewit2it]

Solo for me is not going deeper than I could make an emergency OOA ascent from.

I have done river dives in Neenah with <= 5' viz.  At that point, it's surface every five minutes to find your buddy, and head in his direction.  You more or less have to learn to be proficient at dealing with problems yourself, as your buddy may be 50' away, and will not see you having problems.  Good training for divers is essential!  That's why I would rather see the 10 week courses make a comeback!

I've seen newbies flake out during their open waters and/or pool sessions.  The 10 week course weeds a lot of these out, that the 3 hour cruises certify.


Yes I do need help with my drysuit! Over the shoulder neoprene suits suck for that!

[Jay]

I need new friends, but I can't run the boat myself.

For the record an AL 80 makes a better buddy than you.

[systematic.entropy]

Maybe, but an AL 80 won't tell your when you KISS has a bubble leak. Well, maybe from now on, you should just assume it is leaking. 

[jeffberry]

All buddies should have to do a mask off 50ft swim with no reg!  Then they might realize how close they should be if sommthing ever happens!

[scubafreek864]

No "buddy" is useful unless they are within eyesight of you.  No matter what the vis is like.  If the vis is very poor, the closer the "buddy" should be.  If the vis is great, like in the ocean, I wouldn't go any further than twenty feet away from my "buddy".

[jeffberry]

Do the above post an you might even want to shorten the 20'  idea!

[mnbulldog]

It is amazing how "far away" your buddy seems in the event of an emergency. It sometimes takes the real situation to make folks more aware.

[ScubaDo]

I prefer solo diving in certain situations.  First I want to say solo diving is not for everyone, you need to have confidence in your abilities and your equipment and know how to deal with situations.  For my limits, I don't go below 40', only dive sites I'm familiar with.  Most of my dives are in Devil's lake or Lake Mendota(low budget dives).  If I dive a solo dive at Wazee, it's in the shallows only playing with fish.  When I do get to dive in the big puddles or the ocean, I'm definately diving with a buddy( hopefully someone I'm familiar with).  I enjoy solo diving when I want to play with fish or shooting them with my camera.  With the camera I like to stay still and let the fish come to me, this could be boring for a buddy.  Also local low viz dives I prefer solo, the dive gets real boring for me if I have to keep a constant eye for my buddy unless there is a planned objective to the dive.  On the other hand I do enjoy diving with other people and newbies to share the fun of local diving and I avoid talking about solo diving because it's not for everyone.