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Partner in dirty water

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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patbrassil

New Member
Oct 27, 2011
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Recently i've had several discussions with people over diving alone. I live in New England where we rarely get more than 10ft of viz, and average 3-7ft of viz. A friend mentioned that he dives alone fairly regularly, always within his limits, and feels that a partner is no added benefit to him. I don't completely believe his motto, but he brought up a good point; even when diving with a partner here, you can rarely see them once they have dove, even in the shallowest of dives. So if, god forbid, something were to ever happen, the partner spotting at the surface would be too late by the time something happened.

I guess i just want to hear people's insight into this matter, and maybe hear some strategies or tactics people have used to overcome this situation. My partner and i usually use a '1 up 1 down' pattern, where the surface diver doesn't dive until the other diver has surfaced and signaled OK.
 
Argument #1: the vaste majority of blackouts paradoxally does not happen underwater, but on the surface. So even with no visibility at all, the buddy is a great added safety anyway. Of course, it is not sufficient to wait just for the surfacing. You should observe the buddy for some 30s, before going down yourself.

Then, when you just train, you should use a decend line and a lanyard. Also torches or flashers are not a bad idea. In such situation the buddy is very useful despite the bad visibility.

And when snorkelling or spearfishing, using a float is a good idea too, and ascending along the line. The buddy can then easily sense where the diver is, and descend a bit to meet and acompany him. And even if he does not, it greatly facilitates the recovery of a blacked out diver.
 
Very good point, i should have specified that this argument was over spearfishing. My only question is why wait 30 seconds after your partner surfaces? Will a blackout come that far delayed?
 
The most critical moment from the point of hypoxia is 10-20s after surfacing, hence waiting a few seconds longer is definitely better. If the diver quickly signals OK, he can still easily black out and sink later.
 
I would never consider diving without a float attatched to my gun. Not only do I use a float when fishing some spots with others I often dan bouy the start of the drifts if there is current or its klm's from land without much referance. A couple of times we have had anxious moments when a diver is lost. The dan bouy is a visual referance which is more reliable than a GPS. I have found divers by going back to the starting point & driving the drift again. The dan bouy is priceless. Fortunately I've always found the divers. Their own float is spotted first, very rarely would a diver alone be sighted. I have some very scary stories where I have picked up divers from another boat & I have been lost/left myself & picked up by a fisherman also. The orange/red float is a life saver.

Many years ago I played around with a reel where I would releses the gun from the line, anchor the line to the bottom & dive around it. The idea being I could burley/chum around the line with out loosing the spot & use the reel. It was slow & not practicle.

Use a float. With a flag it's even better.

Cheers Sharkey
 
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