Buddy diving is the use of a friend system by scuba divers and is a set of safety procedures intended to increase the chances of divers to avoid or survive in-water or underwater accidents by diving in groups of two or sometimes three divers. When using a friend's system, group members dive together and work with each other, so they can help or rescue each other in an emergency. This is most effective if divers are equally competent in all relevant skills and sufficiently aware of the situation to be able to respond on time, which is a matter of attitudes and competencies.
In recreational diving, a pair of divers is usually the best combination of diving friends; with threesomes, one of the divers can easily lose the attention of the other two. Groups with more than three divers do not use buddy systems. This system may be effective in reducing emergency situations outside the home, medical emergencies non-diving and trapping in ropes or nets. When used with a friend's check it can help avoid the omissions, misuse and failure of the scuba gear.
The buddy system is a situation that occurs when two divers who share the same interests and experiences as well as the same diving skills, continue to monitor each other along the entrance, dive and exit, and remain in great distances so that they can provide direct assistance to each other if required.
In technical dive activities such as diving in the cave, threesome is considered an acceptable practice. This is usually referred to as a dive team to distinguish it from a paired diving buddy.
When professional divers diving as friends pairs their responsibilities to each other are defined as part of standard operating procedures, codes of practice or governing legislation.
Video Buddy diving
Destination
Buddy diving is intended to improve the safety of scuba diving by having two or three competent divers who act as safety dives with each other during diving under conditions of deep ability, and use equipment that is familiar to all team members. In principle, each diver can provide assistance to others in any predictable possibility, and is willing to do so within the scope of acceptable personal risk.
Maps Buddy diving
History
Scuba diving sports took root among many snorkelling clubs and enthusiastic little spears in the decades before and after the Second World War. Following the discovery of "aqualung" by Cousteau and Gagnan, the first commercial underwater breathing apparatus became available for sale for sports purposes in the late 1940s. As scuba diving sports only grew rapidly during the 1950s, some sports organizations - notably the YMCA - started a program to train pool enthusiasts in this new water hobby and began to codify what is believed to be the right practice needed for this growing amateur sport.. The buddy system has been regarded as a useful consequence for "never swimming alone" from the YMCA pool and survival program. Cousteau independently implements a friend system from the early days of exploratory dives after a number of dire diving incidents. The buddy's system does have some very useful aspects: cross-checking equipment before diving, facilitation of assistance for possible winding problems or equipment failures, and improving the nature of diving. The YMCA continues as a major force in the development of dive certification during the first 50 years of the new sport. When these programs are adopted by emerging scuba certification agencies such as NAUI, PADI and BS-AC, the practice of buddy diving is compacted into one of the two main sports mantras: "never hold your breath" and "never dive alone".
The official terminology of recreational dives only defines two extremes: Buddy/diving team, and solo dives. In fact, many, or most dives, are between these two extremes, on a continuum with some informal descriptions, and many behaviors are seen as deviations from the standard dive of friends.
Requirements
In order for the friend's system to work effectively, every friend must be competent enough to provide the required services. There are several conditions that must exist in order for the friend system to work optimally:
- Divers should know and accept dive plans.
- The equipment to be used should be in accordance with the dive plan, and possibly any possibility that may occur.
- All divers should be fit to dive in the expected condition.
- All divers should be competent to make diving plans, and procedures that may be needed to deal with predictable possibilities.
- Divers should be familiar with the operation of their own equipment and their friends, as they may need to operate it under stressful conditions.
- Divers should be willing to accept increased personal risks if they need to help a depressed friend, and must understand when the risk becomes unacceptable.
- Divers should remain around the entire dive, close enough to communicate adequately and provide timely help.
- Divers should monitor and communicate as necessary to remain aware of their status and other team members, their decompression status and life support equipment throughout the dives, from the moment of entering the water until the last diver has left the water.
Most recreational divers never advance to a high level of competence that may be demonstrated by certification and experience, and furthermore, many divers do not dive quite often to retain their skills. Nevertheless, they are routinely expected to provide assistance to their dive buddies in an emergency, and are also routinely allocated for diving with foreigners who may be using foreign equipment. This is a standard practice for many, if not most of the diver's charter organizations to allocate partner mates among divers who have never been assessed for competence based on certification and their claimed experiences. Optimal conditions are rarely met in open water recreation dives.
Procedures
Pairing friends
There is a difference of opinion on how best to form a team of friends among a group of divers. One school of thought is that friends should always be balanced with the skills, experiences and interests so that one diver will not hold his buddy in achieving what will personally be a really fun dive. This is especially true when a diver is on a trip or a very expensive or unique dive vacation. This is a suitable setting for pure recreational dives. The problem with this approach is that it also matches experience - which can be dangerous if emergency dives emerge (fortunately, this is not statistically very frequent). The alternative is to save a more experienced diver with an inexperienced friend to fight this "experience gap." It also helps advance diving skills by having a friend essentially act as a "teacher". The British Sub Aqua Club strongly encourages and practices this approach, which is appropriate in club environments where members who do not instruct aid in post-certification training. The problem with this system is that they can limit the chance of more experienced divers to make the dive they want, and that inexperienced divers is not an ideal companion for more experienced divers who should take on unbalanced responsibilities, informal training scenarios. Compatibility issues are magnified when divers who do not know each other are paired as friends by dive operators. Many horrible stories about diving with "tail-end-Charlie" or "friends from hell" from such practices. A "perfect friend" is a long-term friend or acquaintance, a partner who matches his own high-level diving skills, who share the same interests, stamina and fitness, and who enjoy friendships in sharing a fun diving experience. Although the main reason for instituting a friendship system is the mitigation of diving risks, sharing diving experiences and enjoyment coupled with friends, family members, or peer enthusiasts while on the dive level is very high on the grounds many divers enjoy scuba diving recreation.
Use of Diving Tools and Duties in your team
The friend's system is expected to provide a degree of redundancy in the diver pair, as a security backup in case of equipment failure. In buddy pairs as a whole almost all equipment can be seen as part of a combined "redundant system": two tanks, two depth/dive gamers, two lamps, two blades or a line cutter - even two brains. During dives, measuring instruments (gauges, dive computers, compasses etc.) Available for cross-checking with each other, second life support equipment (ie gas supply) exists in reserve in case of failure on one of the dive systems. Sometimes a special but non-critical piece of equipment is shared by a team of friends, such as a surface marking buoy that can be used to climb and mark the position of an underwater metal team or detector. But one key point, that the team of friends always shared is the diving plan - and the responsibility to implement it. The main principle embroidered by divers is "plan dives and dive into the plan". Before diving, the team of friends approves the plan, which apart from the basic parameters of the dive itself - e.g. depth, of course, time, who leads and who follows, - also includes the purpose of diving: is it a public outing, is it the way a diver intends to see a shipwreck, whether it is photography, is it a game type hunt. In technical dives, these goals often become more complex and very specific - the penetration of certain parts of the cave to a certain point. Many diving destinations require the allocation of specific roles and responsibilities. For example, in the hunt for lobsters on the west coast of America, friends' teams are often divided into roles set by game hunters and catchers, and riders and carriers, and overall dive success is largely dependent on teamwork from friends who carry assigned roles.
Emergency respiratory gas requirements
One of the most important aspects of a friend's function is the provision of respiratory gas in the event of an emergency (OOA). This can happen if a regulator fails or uses most of the respiratory gas when not paying attention, disturbed or dealing with an urgent problem.
In the early years of scuba, each diver carries a second stage organizer, and in case of air emergency, the partner will make an emergency ascent to the surface while the two divers alternately wait for him to breathe from the funnel of the remaining functional scuba sets. Although this system works quite effectively in swimming pools or in open water training sessions, and sometimes works for skilled and disciplined divers in real emergencies, in some cases the stress and physical difficulties of the situation cause the system to fail. To simplify the air-splitting procedure, the recreational leisure industry switched to a configuration that provided each additional second-stage regulator divers, as a backup for the main one; The reserves are known in various ways as "stage octopus", "reserve", "secondary" or "safe" (obsolete). The term octopus arises because with some regulators and other hoses depending on the first stage, the unit begins to look a bit like an octopus. Two common systems have evolved to carry and deploy reserve check valves - one more common in recreational dives and the other commonly found in technical dives (although there are multiple crossovers). In both systems, each diver carries two valve requests. They may be attached to the first stage regulator of a single tank or two first-stage twin cylinder regulators. The main regulators are used for normal breathing during diving and the secondary regulator ("octopus") is a reserve for yourself or for an outdoor friend.
Two basic procedures are commonly used: Donate the main and donate the octopus.
Donate principal
A system recommended by some organizations, most of which are involved in technical dives (GUE, CMAS-ISA, technology groups and other diving caves) are to supplement regulators that are typically used across all dives ("main") with long intervals, usually long meters (7 feet). This is a donated regulator for an airless diver. "Secondary" or "reserve" regulators are then supplied to donor divers and are in short intervals, hanging under the chin by "necklaces" that can be freely removed in an emergency. The main advantage is that troubled divers will receive a regulator that is known to work, and provide appropriate respiratory gas for the current depth, and is likely to be much faster than if the cut octopus should be donated. Long hose donations are very useful for diving cave penetration and accidents where air-sharing divers may have to pass through small holes, since long hoses allow them to swim in one file if needed. The length of the hose also allows the diver to swim side by side or one above the other in all possible settings. Another advantage is that secondary regulators are kept in a position where it is out of the way, protected from strong water flow, contamination and obstacles and where divers will see if leaking, but accessible to divers without requiring the use of hands, as it is possible to take a funnel by dipping the chin. These settings are a bit more complicated to use and require greater skills to use, use, and recover. The benefits may not exceed the losses for open water divers in relatively low hazard conditions.
Donate octopus
The octopus is usually clearly marked, the convention is the second yellow and yellow stage hose even though luminescent green is sometimes preferred. Many dive equipment manufacturers provide secondary regulators that are marked exactly by this standard and "set" them specifically for the role of octopus. The second stage of the octopus is usually stored in an easily accessible position and easily removable from the device that holds it. Most recreation agencies recommend or specify that this position is in the "Golden Triangle" drawn between the chin and the nipple of the diver. The octopus hose is usually made long enough (1.2 meters (4Ã, ft)) so the divers are not comfortable jostling each other when the octopus regulator is in use. The procedure for providing the octopus is that the donor divers handed over the octopus - but if he does not see the distress of his friend, the air divers has been taught to take the stored octopus. The advantage with this method is that donor handover is consistent both in octopus handover and for handover from independent bailout devices such as removable pony bottles. As part of a pre-diving check, the procedure of handing or accessing an octopus outside of an emergency and octopus location should be reviewed by the team. In recreational dives, if good gas management practices have been followed, both friends should have enough air to enable them to make safe climbs to the surface, even if an emergency occurs at the end of the dive. This may not be the case where an unplanned decompression obligation exists.
Standardize configuration as security advantage
It would be helpful if divers use their equipment in a way that follows a standard convention so that friend's partners will know where to access the equipment if they are called to help their friend. Because there are several conventions, and divers that do not follow local popular conventions, it is important for divers who plan to dive as friends to familiarize themselves with the configuration used by others in pre-diving checks.
Communication between friends
The diving occurs in what Cousteau is so poetically labeled "The Silent World". The relative silence of the sea is one of the most enjoyable aspects of scuba diving, but it does not help develop a natural way of communication within a team of friends. Unless significant investments are made in a costly full face mask that combines the ability of voice transmission over water, divers's friends have to communicate through some other inaudible way. There are two main approaches to providing such communications in recreational recognition - standard hand signals and submersible whiteboards.
Hand Signal
In an effort to ensure the creation of a universal and understandable signal among divers, the Board of Scuba Recreation Training co-ordination establishes a series of hand signals devoted to universal use, taught to explore students at the start of their initial dive course. Hand signals may also have more than one variation that can be useful when one hand is occupied, or in limited visibility.
Underwater sequence
Underwater whiteboards are useful when there is more detailed information to communicate or remember. A wide variety of designs are available - some are for BCD divers, some that fit the pockets, some are integrated with other units such as compass and some are held on the wrist or forearm with bungee straps. The bottom only consists of an underwater pencil attached to a plastic board with short damping to prevent accidental loss, and a way to connect it to a convenient point on the diver's equipment. Rows are useful if information needs to be written before dives and referenced during diving elements of the dive plan (depth, duration, decompression schedule) or maps drawn from the area to be dipped.
Lines Buddy
The friend line is a line or rope that binds two divers physically underwater to avoid separation under low visibility conditions. A pal is usually a short length of about 2 meters with floating elements between divers to reduce the risk of getting stuck at the bottom. A friend's channel is a communication tool and does not need to be very powerful or secure, but should not perform under a medium load while in use. Divers can communicate with rope signals, but usually use more lines to attract attention before moving closer and communicating with hand signals. The disadvantage of the friend line is the increased risk of crane and entanglement. Divers may need to disconnect quickly at both ends in an emergency that can be done using a quick discharge mechanism or by cutting a line, both of which require at least one hand to be free. The velcro strap does not require a tool to be removed and can be released under pressure.
Other communication methods
In advanced dives (especially penetration dives) additional methods of underwater communication are sometimes used - among these are signaling using torches, pulling along paths/straps, or through tapping on the tank.
An ultrasonic signal device that attracts friends' attention with vibration has been marketed and may have some limited utility.
Giving a lack of auditory communication media, it's surprising how easy it is to use and effectively this type of underwater communication tool it can be for a team of friends when they are fully utilized.
Responsibility
With a dive of friends, each diver is considered to have responsibility towards the other. The actual legal liability can vary between jurisdictions and rarely if ever clear. Friends are expected to monitor each other, to stay close enough together to be able to help in an emergency, to behave safely and follow a plan approved by the group before the dives. When the system fails, it is generally because one of the divers does not fulfill its responsibilities as a friend. If one of the divers is unable to provide the expected help, the buddy system has failed.
The responsibilities of each friend during the diving recreation are generally accepted:
- Establish an agreed dive plan (diving destination, path to be followed, depth and distance from exit point), agree on the air pressure at which the dive will be stopped and the climb begins, who leads and who follows, and reviewing the emergency measures to be taken
- Helping a friend to get in and out of their equipment, especially in helping to wear heavier diving gear and adjusting hard-to-reach items
- Check your friend's equipment before dive settings to make sure that it's complete, in the proper order and work configuration before the dives
- Keep track of other friends and stay together for all dives - keeping a closed separation in just a few seconds.
- Keeps active communication throughout the dives by using hand signals and periodic monitoring of each gauges during the dive. Also, check if buddy is okay with the conditions and progress of the dives through such hand signals.
- Manage the duration and the profile of the dive by following the most limiting conditions indicated by the measuring device and the dive computer from a friend's partner
- If the separation occurs, look to rebuild contact with a friend for one minute, and if it fails to safely return to the surface to rebuild contacts in this way
- In the case of emergency dives, help a friend get away from danger. This is especially true for winding hazards and for situations outside the air, and includes providing rescue assistance to a buddy who is immobile or unresponsive if this is proven necessary.
This responsibility may not be legally binding. Recreational divers are usually not expected to take unacceptable risks for their own safety to help other recreational divers.
The US Navy does not require buddy dives in all circumstances, but this specifies that the friend's divers are responsible for the tasks assigned and the safety of each. They must:
- maintains contact by keeping the dive partner visible or if the visibility is bad, using the friends line.
- know the meaning of all signatures and line-draw signals.
- acknowledge the signal immediately and assume that a friend's failure to respond indicates an emergency.
- monitor the visible activity and conditions of your friends, and if it looks abnormal, investigate the cause and take the appropriate action immediately.
- never leaves a friend unless the buddy is stuck or trapped and can not be released without additional help. In this case the diver must mark the position of the diver suppressed with the line and float or other locating device.
- have a missing diver plan for every dive, and follow the plan if the contact is broken.
- if one of the diving team members canceled the dive, for whatever reason, the other member must also cancel and both should appear, and
- know the right method to breathe a friend.
The responsibilities of other professional divers tend to be the same.
Disadvantages of friend's system
With the increasing popularity of solo dives as a possible alternative to friend systems, there is debate about what is actually a safe diving practice and how divers can control the risks associated with their sport. Statistically, scuba is a fairly safe activity, with injury incidents under some other "risk" sports such as soccer, horse riding or even tennis. But unlike other sports, scuba divers is in a hostile environment where humans are not adapted, breathing from life-sustaining portable and limited capacity systems. Under these conditions, fatalities are always a possible outcome, because even simple equipment or procedural problems can be mismanaged. In the face of this reality a number of major concerns about possible attachment weaknesses or negative impacts that can exist in a friend's system have been identified. Some, if any, this problem is a flaw in the concept of a friend's system, they are problem with the application of the system.
Every time I read, in an accident report, that a friend's system failed, I became angry. The friend system does not fail, the people who use it have problems. The system is good, it is a falling implementation.
Ineffective system implementation
The amount of discipline, effort and attention required from both divers in a friend's partner, and the greater input required in the three diver teams, does not appeal to the confident divers who has other things to do during a direct, low-risk, recreational plunge , and the system is marred when one of the divers fails in effort, putting the burden on the remaining diver who takes the responsibility more seriously. Familiarity with the environment, and a very low incidence of mental accident are likely to lead to the belief that there will be no problem with any particular dive, so divers may pay less attention to good friends practice, and this can become commonplace. This can be exacerbated by divers who become strangers thrown together by chance and divemaster desire, who have no real interest in each other, and the reasons for diving may not be appropriate. Pairing an explorer with a macro photographer will interfere with at least one, maybe both, if they adhere to the recommended dive of friends. Many divers who are nominally saving effectively become single dives soon after entering the water, with friends occasionally checking for each other's existence and often outside the direct view of each other. Apart from this, very few of these divers died as a consequence.
Incorrect security error
The main allegation made to a friend's system as practiced is that it has been overdone as a means of risk mitigation. Critics say that the friend's system acts as a bridge to provide unjustified confidence to divers who individually lack the skills or discipline to adequately deal with the problem of diving. This creates a situation where the diver becomes dependent on the "security blanket" with other divers. The fact may be that the diver's many diver-dependent friends are often unable to handle emergencies better than dependent friends. These false security guidance by divers agencies that overemphasize the effectiveness of the system, develop a sense of complacency in the divers about their ability to deal with these problems, a capability they often lack. This self-satisfied attitude keeps divers from focusing on improving their life-saving skills and abilities.
Malicious friends
Critics claim that proponents of the system project the image of a "truly reliable" friend who is in fact absent in reality. Some friends have no skills or experience and some are not worth it. The main problem is that certain diver personality types are a real danger; these species have been described as "untrained divers", "high flyer", "confident divers", "angry diver", "friend of hell" and some others. The problem of bad friends is exacerbated by training that forces divers to "stay with friends" no matter what, leading to the situation that it is a bad friend who sets the criteria for how (bad) the dives are done.
Both solo diving and community rescue friends have come to the same conclusion on how best to address safety concerns in both systems - self-sufficiency. In a friend's system, this means that both dives are able to take care of themselves and solve almost any problem, but they still dive together as a backup to further enhance their security as well as to share and enjoy the diving experience.
Peer pressure
Divers are more likely to try uncomfortable dives if they feel they will let the friend fall if they cancel.
dependent friends
Given the emphasis placed on the need for all diver friends to fully be able to help their friends in an emergency, over the past decade there have been some diving practices approved by the established institution where certain types of friends do not really meet these criteria.. This is evident in the practice of scuba diving for children. Initiated by PADI, in an effort to expand scuba diving into the world into "family activities" such as skiing, certification of children has been adopted by most other recreational diving agencies with their own dive programs for children. This usually includes two levels, depending on the age of the child. PADI has six courses/levels for children, where a child of 10 years old can become a friend diver in open water situations. Other friends on this team can become certified parents or professional divers. Serious concerns have been expressed about the general policy of having child friends, among the concerns are mental suffering and psychological damage that may be caused by a child who fails to save your parent. The first child deaths in British waters occurred in 2008. The first double death of a pair of friends where one diver was still small occurred with the father and son of England at Gozo in 2006. Advocates of diving training for children showed great enjoyment. and the sense of awe felt by children when introduced into the underwater world and show that other family sporting activities also have unfortunate incidents of serious injury to children.
Responsibilities of diving friends
The issue of liability greatly affects the structure of the dive industry, its organization, and even the application of suggested dive practices - and this is very similar to friends' dives. Diving is a risky sport, where a very serious accident will occasionally occur. In an increasingly law-conscious world, accidents trigger the search for "mistakes", and suspicion of blame often sparks subsequent court proceedings. It is natural for those who may face the potential risk of litigation to take steps to mitigate this risk. Divers certification agencies should always ensure themselves against the risks of liability, and must act to minimize the cost of this insurance both for themselves and for their operators. The buddy system, useful as it can enhance the safety of divers, has the legal effect of creating intermediaries involved between the certification body and the aggrieved party, the intermediary who can easily be identified as not providing "maintenance obligations" if an accident occurs. This may provide a legal pad for the agency, or coach, or boat - but that is not good news for someone who acts as a friend. The more skilled the friend's partner, the more these maintenance tasks are assumed to increase.
The waiver of responsibility is signed whenever a diver interacts with a dive industry operator, e.g. training agent or submarine. No such waiver is common to friends in a team of friends. As law of the law grows, more precedents are established for situations where the actions of friends can cause them to be very responsible. Recommended now that friend divers brings insurance that provides protection against legal action by friends, especially if dives occur in countries where a culture of litigation may exist. It is indispensable for scuba diving professionals who make a living in the recreational diving industry, when they are "buddy ups." More experienced/qualified dives are also assumed to assume higher care responsibilities for their less qualified friends, and by because it's a serious burden can be placed on holiday divers who are required to make friends with strangers, especially in legal jurisdiction.
Alternative
Three alternatives, solo dives, diving in a team of threes, and diving as individuals in large groups, may have disadvantages when compared to friend systems, especially for beginners:
- Although diving alone is done by some recreational divers, it is only considered safe if the diver is completely independent. This usually requires a completely redundant gas supply, such as a horse bottle or insulating manifold. Self-preservation is not possible in some cases, such as cases of severe entrapment in ropes and webs and during medical emergencies where divers are either consciously or deeply disturbed in their ability to respond appropriately.
- Three divers teams can be very effective for safety and backup, as generally only one diver will have problems and need help, and having two divers to help can be very helpful in difficult conditions. However, this procedure requires a much greater degree of concern for group coherence. These are typically used by technical divers in the cave and damage penetration, where the profits are sufficient to compensate for the loading of additional tasks
- Group dive system, where a group of travelers are taken on a diving tour by dive leaders and assistant "sheepdogs", who carry the back and graze stragglers, are often practiced when sufficient visibility is practical. Divers in such groups may not know each other at all. In this system, especially in large groups, poor visibility or strong currents, weak, inexperienced, or inattentive divers can easily escape the group and lose the protection of a stronger or more competent diver within the group. Communication is often difficult in these groups which leads to increased risk.
See also
- One-third rule (diving)
- Diving solo
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments