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What makes a good dive? It’s an interesting question. One person once told me that any dive was a good dive if you came to the surface still breathing. I think most of us would say we have had a good dive when we have had warm water, good visibility, no current and seen lots of colourful fish and invertebrates. What about your dive buddy? What makes a good dive buddy? Is it a person who will hang in there with you no matter how good or bad the conditions? Is it a person who will say, “Yes, I am really uncomfortable down here, but for the sake of my buddy, I’ll hang on for a few more minutes.”? Is that a good dive buddy? I began thinking about this after my last dive. It was at Whytecliff in West Vancouver. We arrived at Whytecliff as the tide was going out. The surface water was brown, no doubt a mix of Fraser River runoff and dozens of divers in the bay stirring up the sand and silt. To make things even more interesting, it was overcast and raining. Those who had been in the water two days previously told us that visibility was very, very poor down to 30 feet. After that it got better. Not your perfect dive day. My dive buddy for the day was a newer diver with only a few dives spread over a couple of years. Watching my buddy get ready for the dive I could see that although she didn’t have a lot of experience, she had no problem with her gear. She knew where everything was supposed to go and could put everything together herself. She was comfortable with her gear. That is a good indication of diver competence. Watching a newer dive put on their gear tells you a lot about them. You can often see whether or not the diver has a potential for problems. Usually if a diver is calm and comfortable putting on their gear, they will be comfortable with it under water. That means they will probably be calm under water which usually translates into a good dive experience. My dive buddy and I walked down to the beach, climbed over the mountains of washed up logs, and walked to the waters edge. Watching my buddy as we walked, I noticed that she got over the piled up logs without problem. Again, a good sign that she was comfortable with her gear. We waded into the water, put on our fins, and were ready to dive. The water was truly horrible. It was so muddy that visibility near the surface was measured in inches, not feet. The descent down to 30 feet was not going to be much fun. Since she was a newer diver, I knew this would be tough for my buddy. As a matter of fact, I was wondering if she would even want to try it. We had the usual long swim out of the bay and around the point. When we arrived at the place where we would descend we stopped for a rest. My buddy was tired. Those of us who have been diving for a long time often forget that long surface swims are tiring for new divers. They haven’t yet learned all the subtle ways of moving on the surface that comes only with experience. They use more energy than do experienced divers in a surface swim. After a rest of a few minutes we were ready to
descend. We would go down next to the rock wall, a few feet from
shore, so it would be right beside us to give us a reference point.
Since the visibility was zero near the surface, we decided to hold on to
each other while we descended. That is a good idea for anyone if
surface visibility is very poor. After an “OK” signal we started
down. As we sank into the brown silty water my buddy disappeared
from view even though we were holding on to each other. We had to
be right face to face in order to even see one another. Not exactly
wonderful conditions.
At 33 feet we had passed out of the worst of the mud and visibility was up to about four feet. I could see the wall just to my left. But, it was almost totally dark. Although it was 12:00 noon, this was a night dive. I was really concerned about my buddy. If on my seventh dive I had unexpectedly had a night dive, I would have been pretty upset. How was she going to handle this. And it was not only now a night dive, it was a night dive with very poor visibility. My dive light was hanging on my BC and as I went to turn it on, two other divers passed us shining their lights directly at us. I looked at my buddy’s face. There was no panic in her eyes. I made an “OK” sign in front of her face and her reply was an instantaneous “up.” Up we went. Still holding on to each other we rose very slowly. Not being able to see my buddy clearly, I decided it best to rise slowly. We took about one minute to rise the 33 feet to the surface. We were about eight feet from the rocky shoreline as we broke the surface, and immediately swam there to have something on to which we could hold. Dive time? About two and a half minutes. What makes a good dive buddy? My buddy had just shown me. In my opinion, one of the characteristics of a good dive buddy is the willingness to admit to themselves and say to their buddy, “I’ve had enough. I’m not comfortable here. Let’s end the dive.” My buddy had done that. If we are all willing to do this, we will go a long way to making sure we don’t have any serious diving incidents. Our dive had been short, but safe, because my buddy had the good sense to know when she was too uncomfortable to safely continue a dive. This is the kind of person I want to dive with. Someone who is not afraid to say it is time to abort the dive. Whether we are experienced divers with hundreds of dives, or new divers with only a handful, we need to be willing to tell our dive buddy, “I’ve had enough.” There may be lots of reasons - cold water, poor visibility, the first tinges of nitrogen narcosis on a deeper dive or something else. Whatever it is, if I am uncomfortable, I need to let my buddy know it is time to return to the surface. That makes for safe diving. Diving is fun, and when it isn’t, we shouldn’t be in the water. My Whytecliff diving partner was a good, and safe, dive buddy, the kind of person I want to dive with again.
More Diving - Galiano
Snapshots
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