I dunno if this is the proper area for such a thread (I´m sure a mod won´t be shy of shifting it if need be).

I have only been diving for 6 months, In this time I have logged 48 dives.

Looking thru my comments in my logbook I have noticed that in the last 10 dives 4 have been with ´Instabuddies´ and those 4 dives have been ´interesting´ to say the least..

One of them had recently ´passed´ OW but needed me to swim them up and dump air for them..(dunno WTF was going on there.. just stayed down when I signalled to ascend).

One of them (a DM candidate) couldn´t control their position in the water column. and was terribly underweighted once their tank was down to about 50 bar resulting in them needing me to hold them down at the safety stop (I still had 120 bar so was still significantly negative). The DM candidate had 50 bar at the start of the safety stop and just as the 3 mins was up made a funny face at me and bolted for the surface as they had just run out of air (sure she was working hard at trying to hold position but 50 bar in 3 mins at 5 metres!!!).. I was not impressed getting back on the boat with about 110bar

Yet another insisted (despite my remonstrations) on attaching their catch bag to their BC for a cray dive, we didn't get any but I then waited patiently for them to remove their bag before climbing the boarding ladder guess how long it took for them to get an empty bag off a clip? 2 min 30 secs

And the last one decided to piss off and have a wee lookaround on the bottom as soon as he got in the water while I was about to do an entry, not a nice feeling.. The rest of the dive was fine but I was feeling a little gun shy..

So I´m yet to have a good dive with an instabuddy

Thankfully it is rare for me to be looking for buddies as my partner has been diving for many years and is fantastic to dive with.

So the point of this is to ask you all whether this is typical of the sort of situations you find yourselves in when being instabuddied..

I avoid IBs like the plauge. Would much rather go solo. I feel its much safer for me. If i do charters I only go with buddies I know.

There's a lot of serious muppets out there who are a danger to themselves and everybody around them. My favourite is the '..I did my open water (or even worse, advanced) when on hoiliday at a resort a year ago, and haven't dived since then...' punter. I've seen some scary things in NZ,, but I saw some far worse ones in Rarotonga.

Having a DM demonstrate a SAC rate of around 30L/M at a deco stop is pretty impressive; I was with an ex russian military diver in Raro who managed to average 40L/M over his (ever so brief) dive (now I know why they didn't win the cold war!).

In line with PH - I'd rather go solo than get a muppet instabuddy. At least that way it'll only by *my* f-ups that get me bent or killed.

Being a nubie, I am not up with all the technuckle words, but I suppose an Instabuddie is a bit like a blind date? I had best see if I can survive my first 40 solo dives before I see if anyone wants a virgin. (:>)
Why would you not clip a catch bag to a BCD? The DM in Raro did!

Yeah your spot on with the instabuddy definition.

Clipping off you catchbag or in fact anything you are trying to bring up is adding to the complexity of what you will have to do in the case of things going badly. There have been alot of cases of divers being found drowned at depth that when freed from their catchbags have had enough bouyancy to float to the surface.

If you hold it then you can easily get rid of it or better still what I do when I have a large catch is I shoot an SMB, tie the reel to the bag ascend then haul the bag up once on the surface.

Alot of people fall into what are called Heuristic traps, that is doing something once or twice, getting away with it and assuming a level safety based on the previous outcomes, as was probably the case with the DM in Raro, you can do it like that for decades without a problem but........

Mate - nothing wrong with being a nubie - we've all been there, and I'm sure there's nobody here who'd have any issue diving with someone who's new to diving,,,, just so long as they know in advance, and haven't spend all week planning on a 90minute wreck exploration!

Clipping a catch bag to a BCD is common practice amongst many, as was driving without seat belts in the good old days when people didn't consider the consequences of physics. Try doing an emergency ascent with a bag firmly attached to you that's full of scallops - it won't be easy, and in fact with a full bag it may be impossible to ascend at all with a regular BCD. Also imagine if the bag got tangled in fishing line / a wreck / rocks / anything else - if attached, you've got an instant issue. If it's in your hand, well, you just let go of it...

PS -> welcome to the forum. Where abouts are you based - Auckland??

Welcome to the forum

As Flipper said, nothing wrong with being a noob....we have all been there. Would be great if you came out for a dive with us some time.

Occasionally I attach my catch bag to my bcd but not when it is full. Usually just while I am doing something then I unclip and carry it.

well i hardly ever carry a catch bag - as there is nothing to catch where i susally dive.

plus i already have so much sh$^# attached to my breather that i can do without quite happily.

As Phil sad on Saturday - seeing us breather guys carrying all that gear makes him feel glad about his twin set
On the other hand doing a 50 meter dive with 50 minutes b-time - difficult on twins

But seriously trraining standards in NZ are not too high, have seen quite a few shoking stuff on charter boats myself.
Totally agree with Ph and Flipper - i rather dive solo. I find it is in actual fact much less complexity.
On the other hand it is nice to look into someone else's face when doing a lets say 1 hr deco, can get very lonely otherwise.

Ahh well, Iv'e not got a catch-bag yet, but can see the rational of not attaching it to the BCD. Good call. I am keen to go out with some hunter-gatherer sometime though.
I am in Mellons Bay, Howick

As an instructor/guide I often get to see the results of other instructors feeble attempts at open water training, often in conditions where I'd like to have had a bit of retraining done before diving with the people concerned. Often the only way is to find out what they don't know when talking to them before the trip, however we'd never team a newbie and techie up together - it's not fair to either of them.

As far as training standards in NZ - there are good instructors and bad instructors - often the bad ones never had a good mentor to help them out... Group training with a lot of participants is also a challenge - the smaller the group, the better divers it is better to produce. For me personally, if I don't want to dive with them after they're certified, they don't get certified!

As far as catchbags are concerned SMB's or Liftbags rule - better that than your life...

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I do agree with what you're saying, however;;;



..from what little I've seen out there, it appears to be extremely difficult to fail someone on a PADI course (I assume you're a PADI instructor - apologies if this is incorrect). I've been out on a dive trip before with a friend of mine who's a very good PADI instructor. She had the student from hell who quite simply shouldn't have been in the water, but because she's paid for the training, she wanted her open water card. From what I saw, there wasn't a 'fail' option. There was a 're-do it over and over again until each skill was eventually achieved' option, and this was what was taken. The student got her ticket. I wish all the best to anybody unfortunate enough to be any where near this person if they ever get into the water again.

So is it possible to give a 'you failed, don't come back' under PADI as is under GUE?
Can't say I've ever heard of this happening before.

I think its more of a " You failed and we have made all appropriate steps to teach you. If you want to try again Put Another Dollar In!"

should it not be - you've failed, you can try again, but you have to pass all the skills requied in one go - ie, do the whole thing again? Bit like driving, after all, you can't expect to get it all at the start.
With Gue - they don't take you from a standing start, so they too should be like - you've failed, go away - get skilled up and come back when you're ready and we'll take you to the next level.

Shouldn't they???

I think in GUE fundies its.....

Tech pass
Rec pass
Did not pass go away and practice before you come back ( and get rid of that snorkel)
Fuck off, you have the wrong attitude and will never get it right.