Question

What do you do if the buddy assigned to you is lame?

Answer 1

What do you mean by lame? If i'm guessing correctly you mean one thats incompetent. I choose my dive buddy myself and take them with me. Its usually my wife or an instructor that I work with, Wives make the best dive buds.

Comments

Correct, I agree bring your own buddy!

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Sometimes there is an odd number of divers so we have added an additional buddy.  So far, it has worked pretty well.

Answer 2

After your first dive (for a two tank dive) if you find that your buddy didn't stick with you, or didn't follow the plan, then I would talk to them about it, if they don't seem to care, then it may be wise to let the divemaster on the boat know, if they are diving too, they may let you stick with them if you are worried your buddy will ditch you again. However, if possible, it is always the best to bring a buddy with you, Husbands or Wives make great dive buddies!

Answer 3

Determine experience level and knowledge, make a dive plan plan, insist on sticking with it.

Answer 4

I was in a situation like this once, with a mother-father-preteen son trio. As a solo diver, I ended up paired with one person from this trio, and it happened to be the mother. There was no way for me to get a good buddy out of the trio because A.) the mother didn't want a single female diving with her husband, B.) neither parent wanted a stranger diving with their son, and C.) the mother wanted to keep an eye on her son, even with his father watching over him. I'd be looking for my buddy (the mother) and see her swimming away to check if her son was doing okay. He was fine of course, but she kept mother-henning him. It was incredibly annoying, and I should have said something to her about it, but I didn't. (Also annoying: none of the trio had either a dive computer or dive tables, so they relied on my computer, which was dangerous for all of them.)

   I've been diving enough to know not every dive is going to be a good one, due to any number of reasons such as bad dive conditions, or a bad dive site, or a lame buddy that was assigned to you. In those circumstances, I find myself working on other aspects of diving to improve my skills, like my buoyancy, my navigation, or in the case above, watching out for my buddy and making sure a casual (and in my opinion, careless) diver didn't end up harmed.

Answer 5

Actually, I usually get the newest and most nervous buddy's anyway. I stay within touching distance, and dive as conservatively as reasonable. I keep track of their air, and on ascent I try to stay in front so they can see me. On the safety stop I'll link arms or hold their first stage. If I get a buddy that ( after we set a dive plan) totally forgets it when we descent and takes off, I'll just tool along and try to keep an eye on them. On the boat I'll suggest they stick to the dive plan. If they do the same on the next dive, and there are subsequent days of diving, I'll suggest they buddy with the divemaster. I have no interest in underwater marathons.

Answer 6

For the most part my wife is my dive buddy. But when I was diving my rebreather I was a solo diver. As an instructor your pretty much on your own. The divers we have had join us for the most part were good divers. But if someone needs help or has a problem that we see could cause a problem we will help correct them.

Answer 7

I usually dive either with my wife or alone. I always pay attention to other divers who are setting their gear up. You can pretty much tell what kind of diver they are by watching them.

Answer 8

I talk to them beforehand to get a handle on their level of skill. I will stick by them and watch out for them.