What to teach a person that you´re going to hire as your diving safety "buddy" ?

[ultra-life]

Let me explain...

I´m currently on a long holiday in Bali, learning how to surf. About a week ago I started reading about freediving, and now I´ve become obsessed with it. People scuba dive a lot here, but there´s no proper freedive scene(that I´ve found, anyway).

To start training properly, I need a buddy. I go into every new project of mine with full force and dedication, and finding a buddy who is as into it as myself, wont be easy. So I´ve started thinking about hiring a person to be my safety buddy. Average monthly wages here are only about 40 euros or so and I´m sure there are lots of people who need a job. With some training that person could seriously lessen my risk of drowning...


Question is, what should I teach him/her?

 

[alexrom1207]

1. How to swim.
2. How to perform CPR
3. Some very basic information on CO2 and O2 interaction and what causes blackouts both deep water blackouts and shallow water blackouts. This way he will be able to know at which points in your dives or training you are at the highest risk.
4. How to spot distress (like letting air out during your dives etc...)

Also a concern here, if you were to blackout in deep water (where are you not buoyant) he will have to be able to swim down and get you so you should make sure he has some decent diving capabilities.

Anyway, just my thoughts. I wish I could afford a diving partner for 40 euro a month...for that price it's worth it.

 

[Marwan]

1 - how to deal with you in the event of a blackout, which is different from CPR..
2 - Understand your diving profile, time depth etc.. to be able to spot when things are not looking normal
3 - Freedive himslef. as its better to go down and "meet" you at a certain depth (normally the last 10 meters) and come up with you
4 - Rescue skills, such as towing you to a beach or boat in case

I think these are the very important basics that a buddy has to know, but yu probably wont have the skills to teach as you seem to be new yourself..i would recommend that you look at freediving courses being offered there and start on the right foot, its pretty serious the hazards involved i mean so you really need to know what youre doing..hopefully during a course youll be able to find a more qualified buddy...
have a happy vacation

 

[ultra-life]

Thanks for the info, keep it coming!

There are no courses here. If there were, things would be a lot easier. I´m going to do a course when I go back to Norway.

I´ve been thinking about deep water blackouts. Is it feasible to be constantly connected to a line, so my buddy can just pull me up if I don´t surface on time? Don´t know what kind of line one would use, though. I guess there´s alway a risk of entanglement, but if it´s connected to me with a carabiner, I can just unclip.

 

[azapa]

a good buddy should be able to dive your depth, should you get tangled or start sinking after a BO. that may be hard to find? try local spearfishermen.

 

[ultra-life]

Finding a spearfisher would be ideal, but I don´t know how many of them there are here. I´m moving out to Nusa Lembongan very soon so I can both surf and dive at the same spot. Going to stay at a diving operator´s cheap losmen. Their divemasters are all local guys, so maybe they have some friends they can recommend. I´m hopeful!