Buddy vs solo

[MORGAN]

Wrong again. DIR stipulates a hot dog on Wonder bread with ketchup and mustard.

Is there no end to the perverse and unclean practices being promulgated on this forum?

Who would pollute a perfectly good hot dog with chili (great by itself, but keep it away from the hot dogs!) or (shudder) cole slaw?

And anything including wonder bread can't be thought of as "right" in any context!

Now I'm going to get two hot dogs (I'm a caver - redundancy is important) with brown mustard and sauerkraut! And extra napkins.

Mike

[sskasser]

Wrong again. DIR stipulates a hot dog on Wonder bread with ketchup and mustard.

We'll have to work on properly re-educating you next week in Cozumel. There's simply no way I can eat hot dogs with someone who would adhere to such craziness! It ain't fittin'! If it ain't fittin', it just ain't fittin!

[wingman]

The buddy fallacy has long been promelgated without much real thought behind it. An interesting way to look at it is from an insurance perspective where perversions, adverse selection and moral hazard for example, arise as a result of information asymetries. I like, especially, the moral hazard argument that the presence of insurance (your buddy) results in a risk displacement so that your dive might become more risky. Similarly, the wearing of a motor cycle helmet might be less safe because you then ride with less care then you would if you were helmetless. The presence of insurance in many instances results in behavior that would not be forthcoming in its absence. How many would build homes on barrier islands in hurricane prone areas if they were self insured...examples of this abound and there is a rich literature on it...now back to the regularly scheduled solo discussion. Bill

[cavediver256]

Obviously none of you have ever eaten a hotdog out of "SKINS" in Anderson, SC !!!!

[LiteHedded]

Wrong again. DIR stipulates a hot dog on Wonder bread with ketchup and mustard.

nope. wheat bread.
and you have to wash it down with a wheat grass shake. that's day one stuff guys. come on.

[jj1987]

In manifolded BM a buddy definitely makes sense, unless you bring a buddy bottle that you do not touch, for redundancy.

A completely hypothetical complete loss of backgas is real low on my reasons for taking a buddy.

[w ripley]

I came to the personal decision a long time ago that "extreme diving" was solo diving. Extreme diving may be depth related or it may be the complexity/length of the penetration - cave or wreck. There is just so much a buddy can do for you in those "extreme" circumstances, IMO.

When you are soloing (even if you are with a buddy) you bring everything to the dive that you need to get out alive - should everything go south. I think that is how most experienced divers on this forum dive anyway.

My last 50 hours under water this year have been solo dives, some ranging up to 6 hours. I no longer feel "safer" with a buddy than without one. I do, however, strongly respect any serious diver, whether he or she in the water alone or with others.

[Cleavitt]

I was thinking about this today, is the buddy concept really that much safer?
I may be wrong but it appears to me that in all accidents were a team of one or more were involved the fact that there was a buddy or buddies made no difference in the outcome.

You make some excellent points, but your opening statement is flawed in my opinion. If you only consider dives that were classified as "accidents" then clearly the buddy or buddies were not able to help change the final outcome. That is why it was an accident and not just a good dive. However, I'm sure there are quite a few "good dives" that might have been incidents/accidents if it were not for a good buddy. You can't use accidents to determine when the buddy system worked because by definition of an accident, it didn't.

Of course there is no way to determine how often a buddy (or lack thereof) changes the outcome of a dive without a crystall ball.

[jeandiver]

Heretic! The only right way to eat a hot dog is with sauerkraut!

Mike

YOU GOT THAT RIGHT (SMILE)...

Btw: Now that I have switched to Sidemount , I will still choose to dive with buddy/buddies. I don't like diving solo because I just prefer the company along on the dive. I like to share the memories etc. My basic personality just doesn't like solo. Nothing to do with whatever is better/worse etc.
Agreed , we are all diving SOLO anyway.
To each their own , I say. (SMILE)

Besides , it's LUNCH/SUPPER afterwards with the gang to hang out with that I LOOK FORWARD TOO!!!!! (rofl)

Tanx for letting me add my .000001 cents worth
Beano Baggins

P.S. GADS , I just saw the ketchup/Wonder bread one. (UFFDA)
Has to be mustard (spicy brown) and Kraut , if it has to be had.
NO ONIONS before diving though.
My nickname isn't ***** for nothing (ROFL AGAIN)

[OutlawCaver]

As I sat in front of my cavern and basic cave instructor, Mark Lenard, back in 1986, in an effort to sound "well informed" of the current debate at that time about solo diving, I asked him what he thought about solo versus buddy diving. Here was his response:

"Well Vince, it depends upon who I am diving with. If I am diving with Lamar (referring to Lamar Hires), I would prefer to have a buddy than be solo since he would be an assest to me in time of need. If I was diving with you however, I would be better off solo since you would be a liability at all times during the dive."

After 24 years he probably has not changed his mind about diving with me....LOL