THE BUDDY
by Josep Pegueroles

ny day in any diving center. People begins to arrive, friends from your club and from other clubs, known and unknown people, men and women. It is forming the typical meeting before the dive.

There are comments of all types, about new material and old equipment. Anecdotes are commented and trips are related, it is the previous ritual of the dive.

Suddenly you yourself realize that someone has not arrived yet. This disquiets you a little, you know that soon will arrive the time of boarding the boat, in fact your air tank and your equipment are already loaded in the old jeep.

It's the time, one must go to the boat. Once onboard, you choose one place to sit. Your anxiety increases, you think you forget something but you continue preparing your dive. Suddenly someone touches your shoulder, you turn yourself and here it is that forgotten part of your equipment, that anxiety has completely disappeared, and your buddy has arrived. The dive can begin.

Who is the buddy ? What is his purpose ? For me, my buddy is a very important piece of my equipment. With him I can decide where and how to dive. He is the one who I can confer and discuss on the topic that more enthuses me, the SCUBA diving, and over all he is the person in which I rely more when I'm underwater.

It is proven that to practice this activity without a buddy is an unnecessary risk, and it can convert a pleasure into a nightmare; a good experience into some nasty moment that you will never forget.

I have been very lucky because since I obtained my certification, my buddy has always been the same, something that makes our dives fantastic, since our mutual understanding is total. A look, a gesture, is (almost) enough to understand what the other wants to say.

I would say that to choose a good buddy, the golden rule is to rely fully on him, to know that in a given moment you can trust him one hundred per cent, and most important, he must feel the same about you.

The service that a good buddy can give to you is astonishing, beginning by deciding what are you going to do in the next dive, programming the depth, the time, if you are going to take underwater pictures or not, etc. Your buddy is the one which will help you in the ship and the one that will help you with your diving gear. He is also the one who will check your equipment before jumping into the water.

Under the water he will be watching you at all times, and you will be watching him as well. Since one must consider that you are his buddy, the confidence and responsibility has to be mutual.

Having a good buddy is what gives you enough confidence to dive without fear, not forgetting the compulsory respect to the sea, since you know that your back is covered and that what you cannot achieve, he will for you. You know that always you will have an spare regulator if yours breaks up. You know that if you get hooked in a fishing line, his knife is the best that you could have.

In fact he is as an intelligent, redundant part of your equipment and that gives you much more confidence and safety, to the point that it is indispensable to dive with him.

During a dive there are edgy moments produced by lots of causes, in those moments, if you can see the figure of your buddy, you get the necessary calmness to continue. Even in case of an accident, he is the best doctor you could have, until necessary specialized help arrives.

Summarizing, a good buddy in a dive is a good life insurance and he represents the guarantee that you will be able to return to surface. As my instructor and friend said: "Out of the water you look for your own pocket and you find it, but under the water you cannot find it", your buddy will find it for you.

For me, my buddy is the most important part of my equipment.

Devoted to all those buddies on who our live depends in a dive... and especially, to my buddy.

© Josep Pegueroles 1996
© Proofreading by Kelly Harden 1996