Team Diving, Success & Safety
Posted By Dave Ross on 1 October 2002
The terms team diving and technical diving tend to go hand in hand. Any training manual from any agency will give you that.
The question I wanted to throw out is whether many technical divers have ever actually participated in a truly functional dive team, or even fully grasped what the term actually means? Sad to say, from observance of the many people that pass through my hands for training and diving, the answer to the question can quite often be 'No'.
This is a real shame. Quite apart from the obvious loss of a genuine safety benefit, they are losing out on the tremendous power of a team to make things easy for themselves, to achieve success, and thereby experience a vastly enhanced sense of satisfaction, reward, and of fun. Lets remember that fun is a goal not to lose sight of when operating at the technical levels. Unfortunately again I seem to see technical divers not enjoying it anymore. Maybe they got into it for the wrong reasons, their expectations were off to start with, but often times they seem to be making things just that bit too difficult for themselves to get the results and therefore the fun, out of their dives. Then they drop out. Good teams don't seem to have that problem. By teams here, I'm talking in the broadest sense, everything from a buddy team on straightforward deep reef, to assemblies of maybe dozens of highly focused exploration level divers.
Some reading this will understand exactly the issues I am raising. You've been there yourselves. Others might be just a little hazy on the benefits I'm pointing to, so I'll attempt to illustrate by example.
Take success of a dive as a benefit of team work. At one end of the spectrum we have examples like the recent extensions of the Doux de Coly in France. Just eleven volunteers, lead by Michael Waldbrenner and Reinhard Buchaly, in a mere seven days, set up and push a coldwater, 60m deep cave to a distance over 5400metres. Somewhere in there, was some very, very slick teamwork, and with the results achieved, some very proud and happy men. Rightly so as these are repeatable, incident free performances. The procedures are down pat.
Most of us will never get near a dive like that, though we can measure success in similar terms -- we were happy about our dive, we had a good time. Countless dives I've made with regular buddies, we broke no new ground that day but the dives were perfect. Clockwork, completely relaxed. Even the inky black winter ones were smooth as silk. No separation issues, the same directional decisions, finding ourselves interested in looking at the same things, edging shallow at the same time with barely more than a nod of acknowledgement, and feeling the security of a partner watching, giving full attention through the whole of the deco. The way it should be. Those who have had the pleasure of diving with a buddy like that know the mood the dive creates, even if there wasn't much going on, you dived well, you knew it, and felt good about it afterwards. The teamwork created the atmosphere and the team grew stronger.
With partners like that you have what it takes to break some new ground when the opportunity arises, to extend yourselves a little. I have clear recollections of visiting wrecks here, where many have dived before, we dropped in, tied off, reeled down three sets of stairwells, Bingo! Engine room hatch at 70m. Nobody had seen it yet but we got it first dive. It's so easy when you work and think together, and attach importance to watching each others back. The same sense of satisfaction came from recent diving in Truk. Routinely getting back on board with video footage of parts of the ships that even the liveaboards crew didn't know existed. Again, knowing each other, each others gear and how to help, each others thoughts. Down go the stress levels and up comes the ability to focus on the dive, and out comes, not a world record by any stretch of the imagination, but an experience that makes it worth every penny you've spent on getting to that level.
Contrast that to diving with a non-buddy. One who keeps you on edge wondering what they're up to next, that you weren't happy with how they set up or checked their gear ( ie/ your gear if something goes wrong ), who had different ideas on deco schedules, on gases and how to mark them, who wasn't paying attention to you during the oxygen stop. How on earth are you going to enjoy a dive like that? How are you ever going to break new ground and feel yourself growing as a diver when you are on your toes the whole dive watching 'buddy' , rather than buddy making it easier by being on the same page? No team spirit, no fun, no progress.
Success and reward aside, another benefit of good teamwork is safety. Examining this issue can lead us to look at what is, and what is not, a team, and into some quite contentious areas. My opinions come from things I have witnessed in years of being around the water, but they remain opinions. Make of them what you will.
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