The buddy system: Its great importance in diving

CEBU, Philippines - Last Sunday, August 14, my article “The Police in the Water” discussed about the recent dive training we had with select officials and personnel of the Philippine National Police in the province and region. Expectedly, the successful trainees were excited to have their experience told in the newspaper. A little glitch in the writing caught their attention, though.

The sentence “No buddy can save a diver’s life” contradicted what was emphasized to them during the entire diving course. It should have read: “Nobody can save a diver’s life quite like a diving buddy can.” Obviously, about half of the actual sentence did not see print – and the thought altogether rendered in the opposite.

It was a minor editing slip, but a slip nonetheless. Of course, such gaffe happens at times in newspaper publishing. Yet the fact that the “buddy system” is of utmost importance in diving makes this follow-up article on the subject necessary.           

The practice of adhering to the buddy system by scuba divers is sometimes called buddy diving. The whole discipline is a set of safety procedures intended “to improve divers’ chances of avoiding or surviving accidents underwater,” by diving in pairs of two or sometimes three divers. The dive buddies dive together and cooperate with each other, so that they can help or rescue each other in the event of an emergency.

The book “Line Dancing and the Buddy System” by Bob Halstead states: “The buddy system is the situation which occurs when two divers of similar interest and equal experience and ability share a dive, continuously monitoring each other throughout the entry, the dive and the exit, and remaining within such distance that they could render immediate assistance to each other if required.” Exactly.

Again, the buddy system is intended to raise the safety of scuba diving. The diving buddies who are both competent divers act as safety divers for each other during a dive. Time and again, the system works in conditions that are within their capabilities, and with the use of safety equipment that they are both familiar with. Both divers are capable of providing assistance to each other in any reasonably foreseeable contingency, and each of them willing to do so within the scope of acceptable personal risk.

The general principles for the effective functioning of the buddy system in diving are published at en.wikipedia.org.  First and foremost, each buddy must sufficiently be up to these. Several conditions, which must exist for the buddy system to succeed optimally, are cited:

• The divers must all know and accept the dive plan.

• The equipment to be used must be compatible with the dive plan, and the reasonably foreseeable contingencies which may occur.

• The divers must all be fit to dive in the expected conditions.

• The divers must all be competent to perform the dive plan, and the procedures that may be needed to deal with reasonably foreseeable contingencies.

• The divers must all be familiar with the operation of their own and their buddies’ equipment, as they may be required to operate it under stressful conditions.

• The divers must all be willing to accept increased personal risk in the event that they need to assist a distressed buddy, and must understand when such risk becomes unacceptable.

• The divers must remain in the immediate vicinity of the others during the entire dive, close enough to communicate adequately and to render assistance in time.

• The divers must monitor and communicate as needed to remain aware of the status of themselves and the other team members, their decompression status and their life-support equipment throughout the dive, from the time of entering the water until the last diver has left the water.

Equally crucial for diving enthusiasts is training under a qualified diving instructor. Perhaps hereabouts no instructor could beat Sir Emi Bonghanoy. Backed by extensive diving experience in various conditions, Sir Emi has a lot of practical lessons to share apart from general dive safety principles.

Sir Emi is the Scuba Diving Course Director for Visayas and Mindanao of the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques or CMAS, an international federation engaged in training and licensing scuba divers. I have trained under him, and we have since been together in conducting divers’ trainings and doing outreach projects for underwater ecology.  (FREEMAN)