Good Buddy Stories Wanted!

[Cephlah]

I've been poking around on different threads here and on scubaboard, and has been making me think about the importance of being/diving with a reliable, safe dive buddy. I also thought it would be interesting to read other divers' "good buddy" stories.

When thinking about your diving experience, have you ever had a time when your dive buddy really saved the day? Since this is my post, I will tell you my story first

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About 6 months after my husband and I started diving, we were staying in California for a couple of months and decided to take an Advanced O/W class. One of the class dives was a wreck dive - the wreck of the Yukon in San Diego. I was very excited about diving my first wreck and looked forward to it for weeks before it was time to go. However, the day of the dive turned out to be a pretty rough day on the water and we were both seasick by the time we made it to the site.

We decided to dive it anyway and followed our instructor down the anchor line to approx. 80 ft, where we THOUGHT the surge would be less pronounced. Well, we were wrong. We ended up at 80' in bad vis, with the surge continually washing us up against the ship and throwing our buoyancy off (neither of us were used to diving in surge at that time, because we had done most of our prior dives in the Puget Sound). Our instructor was oblivious to the problems we were having and swam out of view with the other student. We tried to catch up with her, but when the surge sucked my feet into one of the openings in the wreck, I started to feel panicked and just grabbed onto a part of the ship to hold myself steady and try to calm down.

Thankfully my buddy (Tony, who is go_nudi on this site) was very aware of my fear and stayed right next to me, holding onto me the whole time to give me reassurance. Even when we had to do an 80' free ascent (having lost the anchor line), his constant eye and physical contact kept helped to keep my fear in check. I think I returned safely to the surface that day largely because of his attentiveness and support.

Thank you, good buddy!

:wav:

[GillyWeed]

Hey Cephlah..

That is a very good buddy story. It was good that Go-Nudi was there for you as I am sure you would be for him if it was reversed.

My good buddy story isn't nearly as dramatic, but never the less I have had a buddy save the day for me. I was diving with a guy at Alki cove 2 with whom I don't dive with usually (I am trying to remedy this). He is a great diver and also a nice guy above water. Which in my opinion is almost as important as to how nice they are below. With us that day was my typically dive buddy (TDB) so we were doing a sort of threesome.

Anyway, we had taken the compass headings before the dive and it was my job to remember them because I am better with memory than the others. I did my routine with how I memorize numbers and off we went to do the dive. (At the time none of us had a slate we have since remedied). My TDB was doing his typical things and swimming all over the place. We went to the I beams and it was a particularily high tide so we ended up at 90' at the south end of the beams. I was concerned with deco time so we didn't stay too long there. Even though it was tough to convince my TDB that we needed to go.

Then we meandered our way to the Honey Bear. Which is a 130 heading from the white bouy. We found the bear fairly easily and took our time around it.. Then we decided that we should take the 300 heading back to the yellow bouy markers and start thinking about ending the dive. This was the plan so that's what we were doing. I tried to find 300 on my compass but for some reason it wasn't working for me the way I thought it should. So the good buddy (GB) took over and off we went. I started to realize that maybe my reactions weren't exactly up to par but thought no big deal we're almost done. We got almost to the pilings (a little before the yellow bouy line) and I realized that I was getting kind of low on air. We took a short break while I tried to convey this to either buddy. No surprize but I was Narc'd. I couldn't remember the heading home (210) nor could I make my fingers move the way they should in order to get anyone to know what I wanted. And I was starting to get freaked because I knew I was running low and couldn't figure out how to tell them (I was reallly narc'd). My GB looked at me and new by the worried look on my face what was wrong. He didn't have to even look at my air pressure to know I wanted to go home. He quickly motioned 2-1-0 with his fingers pointed up slope and gave me the "OK".. "OK" I said back and he stayed close to me all the way to the safety stop and up to the shore.. TDB was swimming around up and down all over the place and followed because he didn't have a choice.

I have found that it doesn't matter what depth I am at. I can get really narc'd at any depth and then the next time not narc'd at all. We all need good buddies who can tell when there is something wrong, even when we cannot convey it ourselves. I hope to dive more with my GB in the future.

[Joshua Smith]

When Calvin gets scared I let him hold my hand until he calms down (if nobody's watching). Does that make me a good buddy?

[GillyWeed]

That depends on if you are holding his hand above or below the water.. Above water makes you more than a good buddy... And I have to ask are you the one that's scaring him? Because you are scaring me with that clown!!!!!

[Pinkpadigal]

Here is my best buddy story...

Greg Towne and I are up in Canada 4 years ago diving in Nanaimo. It is the last dive of the day, on the Saskatchewan. First, we dropped to the bow and moved our way up the ship. At about 100', and close to the end of our dive, I motioned to him that we should swim to the line and start ascending. He starts swimming and all of a sudden, he feels this sharp, cold pain on his ankle. Then he realizes, he can barely move.

I reached the line and I look back to see him slowly moving towards me. He has this horrible look on his face. We were at about 80 feet and he was miserable. We start to go up the line and I ask him what is wrong. On his slate, he writes the words "flooded". Greg was diving an Apollo drysuit and one of his ankle valves popped off. Water was flooding in through his ankle and he was getting cold, very, very quickly.

Did I mention we were diving in January?

Once on the surface, I got on board the small boat first and the skipper and I drug him on board. By this time, he had flooded all the way to his waist.

As we pulled into the dock, I told him I would take care of the gear. He didn't hear me. He leaped off the boat and all I heard was him "sloshing" up the dock. We laugh about it now, but at the time, it was a bit scary. Had we not had the line to get us to the surface, I would have had to drag him up. Greg was amazing about the whole thing. He didn't complain at all until after he got into a warm shower. I am pretty sure that was the last time that drysuit saw the water...he bought a new suit a few days later.

[Zen Diver v1]

Good topic by the way.


I have two good buddy stories. The first happened last week, while diving in Roatan with Wyler Bear. I'd been having trouble with my ears/sinuses, feeling pressure and having trouble equalizing. I was feeling distinctly nauseated as a result, and at 30-40 feet found myself retching and puking thro my regulator, several times. She heard the sound, saw me doubled over and immediately came to my side, stayed close by and then when I indicated I had to clear my mask of the green barfy snot that was filling it (:pale: yuck!) she held on to me until I was cleared and okay. Now that's a true friend!

The second story happened several years ago when I was still a newer diver. It was in Nanaimo, on the Saskatchewan (I think) and involved my following divers who were more experienced and more aggressive than I was. As a result, I got horribly narced, a "dark" narc, and if I had not been with a group I truly think I may have died. I remember dropping into the engine room and then having a thought, while traversing a passageway, "I think I'll just stop here..." It was all black, despite my having a dive light, as I had such tunnel vision it was like diving in thick, black jello. At the time I wasn't scared, I was too narc'd for that, but as we ascended I got scared/frightened retroactively, as I realized what had happened and things really sunk in. Jackie was there for me, recognized how terribly narc'd I was at the time, made sure I got back safely and even was okay when I expressed doubt about diving the next day. No questions, no pressure, just support.

Thank God for good buddies.

-Valerie

[Sounder]

And after Zen's first story, we're all ready for lunch!!! Mmmmm split pea soup!!!

I've heard the "puke through your reg" more than once, but I've never actually known someone who has!

This is a great thread... even if I'm eating while reading it!

[BASSMAN]

Great Thread!
At first I thought "Good - Buddy stories"
But then realized it was "Good Buddy - stories