Vetting buddies

[diveconjeff]

Exciting, tenuous, hopeful, & high expectations
Bruins, Celtics, Red Sox & Patriots

Pretty good sports town.

[Submersion Dreams]

I am very new to cave diving and have enjoyed reading this thread. It occurs to me that those of you who have been doing this a while have developed a "list" of good and bad cave instructors? I am not sure how experienced cave divers have developed this list, but being in my early training, just certified as basic cave, this information could serve me quite well, both in my continued cave training, and later as a diver looking for buddy's. Where do I as a new caver come up with this information? Further more, you know of instructors who are as others on this thread have said, 'CARD PEDDLERS', then why don't some of the more seasoned individuals on this site alert the approprite agency to take action against this type of individual. Or is the cave community incapable of policing itself? If anyone knows of an instructor doing this, then are you not complicit in the possible death of others who unknowingly receive training from this individual. Some may say, that a student should ask other certified individuals for references. If you reflect on this, you can find someone to say anything positive or negative about anyone. Even Hiler and Stalin had droves of fans. Just my two cents as well.

[Jaydubya]

I said baseball. The Red Sox play some convoluted game that uses ten players per side.

LOL! I'm a National League guy, too.

[Benthic]

Well, I'm personally grateful that your wife is more liberal!

She's not. You passed the interview.

Brian

[Benthic]

I just got my Intro cert in Feb and registered here then to lurk a bit and learn. The first thing that surprised me was the buddy forum. I first thought to myself, these guys are nuts, I dont want an instabuddy on a boat in OW, nevermind in a cave.
<snip>

You have a point there, and generally I agree with you. I would never go searching an internet forum for a buddy.

But keep in mind, we're only seeing part of the process here on CDF. Eventually those divers meet at a site somewhere, chat and get to know each other, and then decide that they still want to dive together (or not). Then after the first dive or two, they're deciding again if they still want to dive together (or not).

In short, they're going through the same process that many of us are describing here. It's just that we don't see it because it doesn't get posted. I'm sure that sometimes it works out, and new friendships are made, and sometimes it doesn't.

Brian

[csmarsh188]

I agree with some of the previous posts, but if you are not a local, and your regular dive buddies are not into caves how do you meet new people? I posted looking for buddies, and I had a couple replys. My plan is a nice easy dive that I would be ok doing solo. I am also new to caves, so I dont really know anyone from the area. Should all my dives be guided? If thats the case I still wont meet many new people to have as future buddies. So what am I supposed to do?

Scott

[FW]

I agree with some of the previous posts, but if you are not a local, and your regular dive buddies are not into caves how do you meet new people? I posted looking for buddies, and I had a couple replys. My plan is a nice easy dive that I would be ok doing solo. I am also new to caves, so I dont really know anyone from the area. Should all my dives be guided? If thats the case I still wont meet many new people to have as future buddies. So what am I supposed to do?

Scott

Don't give up on the buddy forum. It could be you just picked days when nobody was available.

[csmarsh188]

Oh, I'm not giving up, I was wondering what people expect in my situation.

Scott

[FW]

Oh, I'm not giving up, I was wondering what people expect in my situation.

Scott

We expect you to tell us your training and experience, and what types of dives you want to do. It is much easier to get the dialog started with email/PM, than standing in the hot FL sun

[Gary]

I agree with some of the previous posts, but if you are not a local, and your regular dive buddies are not into caves how do you meet new people? I posted looking for buddies, and I had a couple replys. My plan is a nice easy dive that I would be ok doing solo. I am also new to caves, so I dont really know anyone from the area. Should all my dives be guided? If thats the case I still wont meet many new people to have as future buddies. So what am I supposed to do?

I find that good buddies are not "found" already in existence on the internet - they are developed over time. You find a friend/person with similar schedule and interests and you go diving with them until they become a good buddy.

I don't generally find people randomly picking up with different buddies. Buddy teams develop skill, trust and comfort together over time. If buddy swapping is going on it is often only until the members find someone that they mesh with well.

I guess the buddy forum is a start but you may want to towards buddies that are looking to meet more than once.

As a new diver I wouldn't recommend solo as a development plan. If teams develop skills and trust together then diving solo would prevent meeting and developing. Skills developed in a vacuum with little or no feedback. No ideas other than your own. Nothing wrong with an occasional solo dive if one is properly prepared for it (which is twice as hard as being prepared for normal buddy diving) but absent a potential buddy a dive guide is a reasonable choice - and a potential in towards meeting others (more so than solo which I find is not conducive to meeting people.)