Here’s an easily-digested article about dive buddies. After touching on whether diving with a buddy is more fun or not, the piece moves on to try to answer the (more important?) question: Is diving with a buddy safer or not. Despite one diver’s proclamation that his dive buddy nearly killed him (think: panic); to some tough-guy talk from a typically-solo tech diver; to Porg’s tacit suggestion that a bad buddy is usually better than no buddy at all, most of the divers believe that diving with a buddy is a solidly good idea. I’m on board with that opinion – for both safety and fun reasons – 100%.
But what about you? How do you compare diving solo with diving with a buddy? Is there even a comparison? Is it more fun? Is it safer? Do you feel constrained? Let us know.
1. All of my diving is with a buddy, however some of my scientific diving barely skirts what you'd call "buddy diving." Some of our tasks are independent so we're not sticking close, in fact, so "not close" that I'd call it solo diving.
I'm comfortable with my skills (and overall cardiovascular health) to be OK with solo diving in this capacity. Would I grab my gear and beach dive alone? No way. Nor would I dive alone if the conditions included currents and other difficult conditions.
I prefer diving with a buddy but I'm OK without. Besides, I find most buddies aren't very good at staying close, therefore what's the point?
Posted at 6:14PM on Aug 29th 2005 by Eric Brodeur