Quote Originally Posted by rddvet View Post
Communication in a new buddy team is usually the biggest issue. You don't find adding all the switching around signals confused people, esp in cases where you haven't discussed it ahead of time

I'd wonder why the hell you kept flip flopping us around when I'm trying to enjoy a dive if you didn't tell me ahead of time.
Never been an issue in practice, either when a buddy has motioned for me to go ahead of him or when I have motioned for a buddy to go ahead of me. Frankly, if you and I were diving together and I motioned for you to go ahead of me, I doubt that you would be confused or have any issue.


Just recently, a back-mount buddy and I made our way to a progressively smaller area of cave. Myself diving side-mount, *and without discussing it beforehand*, I decided it was time to let the back-mount guy go in front to decide when the cave was small enough for him to turn the dive. After a momentary hesitation, he got it.


In practice, even with newbie buddies, when I have motioned for them to go ahead - no muss, no fuss. YMMV.