Scuba Diving Safety and the Importance of a Diving Buddy

By Thijs Hottenhuis

Scuba diving has always been a "buddy-sport," an activity that you did with at least two people. You learned how to dive together, and help each other, should the need arise. Lately, some divers move first to technical diving and then to solo-diving. There are now even books and official courses promoting solo-diving on the market.

Solo-diving as an alternative to buddy-diving does not make a lot of sense. It is another way to promote diving, to make some extra money, that may be interesting for the marketing department of some scuba diving organizations, but it is a dangerous development. The main danger lies in the fact that most players in the scuba diving industry have the tendency to copy one another, when there is money to be made.

Scuba diving has always been a "buddy-sport" for a reason. For some people solo-diving may be more attractive, considering the freedom you have when solo-diving. But there is a price to pay, and this price is a higher risk of having accidents. Every scuba diving safety organization can confirm that solo-diving is a higher risk activity than buddy-diving.

One reason for this is the buddy-check. When you perform a good buddy-check your equipment receives a double-check before the dive: once by you, when you build it up, and once by your buddy, who does a systematic check of your diving equipment. This means that the chance that you enter the water with faulty equipment is much smaller.

But it does not stop there. During the dive your buddy can help you, when you become entangled, or when you have an equipment problem. And in extreme cases, like when you have a heart attack or a deep water blackout, your buddy can bring you to the surface. When you have these extreme problems when you dive on your own, it means that this dive was your last dive.

You not only need a buddy in these extreme cases. It is good to have someone who reminds you about the time and depth limits of the dive, or who asks you if you still have enough air. A buddy who can point you in the right direction when you are lost underwater. Or tow you during a long surface swim, when you are very tired.

These examples show that it is safer to dive with a buddy than without a buddy. It does not matter whether you have double equipment, like double dive-computers, or double knives. They do not replace a good buddy, who cares about you and is willing and able to help you should the need arise.

It may be a personal preference whether you dive solo or with a buddy, but the accident statistics do not lie: buddy-diving is safer than solo-diving. So when you adhere to the principle "safety first," you always dive with a buddy. For most people this is not just safer, but more fun too.

Thijs Hottenhuis,

Scuba Diving Instructor, Web-writer and Webmaster of:

http://www.safediving.org

"The Online Encyclopedia Of Scuba Diving Safety."

http://www.scuba-diving-links.com

"The Biggest and most Up-To-Date Scuba Diving Links Directory on the Internet."

If you love scuba diving, you will love these two websites!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thijs_Hottenhuis
http://EzineArticles.com/?Scuba-Diving-Safety-and-the-Importance-of-a-Diving-Buddy&id=1218305

Share/Save