How to Be A Good Dive Buddy?

A dive buddy is someone with whom you share your diving experience and to prevent emergencies and solve problems when they occur. The buddy system is used to make sure that there is always there, helping to maintain the safety of the other buddy throughout the entire dive.

What It Means To Be a Good Dive Buddy

Whenever you go diving, it is important to have a dive buddy that you can trust from the you dive into the water and then return to the boat or shore at the end of your dive. You want to have a buddy with you, to share the fun with you and be there in the event of an emergency.

In the same way, you need to learn how to be a good buddy too because you want to be able to help someone in need and make sure that you can help him/her enjoy his/her dive.

Here are some tips on how to be a good dive buddy.

A dive buddy is always willing to help. Photo credit

Being a Good Dive Buddy

A good dive buddy takes safety seriously and is someone who is knowledgeable about scuba safety, knows how to use diving safety devices, and is willing to perform the Pre-Dive Safety Check before each and every dive.

By being concerned about safety, a dive buddy will put his buddy at ease and will create a level of confidence that will lead to a better overall scuba dive experience.

Another characteristic of a good dive buddy is someone who communicates well both on land as well as underwater.

Discuss and practice the use of hand signals that you both can use before you head down into the water. By doing this, you will be able to follow each other’s gestures more easily and not be left confused by each other’s hand signals.

A good buddy is someone who communicates how close or how far he or she is willing to be from his or her buddy, and this will also be important to know during the dive.

Before a dive, a good buddy will establish what he or she prefers while diving. For example, a buddy should state whether he or she likes to drift along from a distance or get closer to a site. A dive buddy will also be around the same skill level as his or her diving partner. In this way, one will not be held back or forced to go too quickly by the other.

Having a similar skill set will allow both divers to experience the dive from similar perspectives, and it can lessen the odds of conflicts regarding how fast or how far to swim during the dive.

What makes you a good dive buddy? Let us know in the comments below

This article is written by Rutger and published by The Scuba Page, the online magazine for Scuba Dive lovers around the world. The Scuba Page is part of RUSHKULT: the online booking platform for adventure sports. Visit the RUSHKULT platform to book your next Scuba Dive training, guided trip and accommodation.