Jussi(Offline)

Friend of mine wanted to know how DIR/GUE team does diver
positioning in clear, high vis water, non overhead situation,
for example, on holidays on Bahamas, single tank, max depth 18 mtrs,
vis 20-30 meters.

He wanted to know how you decide who leads the dive, where's
buddy situated to the "lead diver" (on the left, on the right, behind)
He also wanted to know in what formation to do dive when there are
more than 2 divers.

JohnKendall(Offline)

There is no 1 correct answer, it depends a lot on the conditions. If the divers don't have lights, or conditions are too bright for lights to work properly, then the divers will have to swim "wing to wing".

As to who leads the dive, and where are the rest of the team, that all depends on the divers, and the dive plan.

I know this doesn't actually give you an answer, but sometimes you just have to think

HTH

John

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Fiona(Offline)

Surely this isn't practical on say a reef wall though.

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GLOC (Online)

In that case you can probably shine the light onto the wall and you will see it

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Fiona(Offline)

What in 20 - 30m viz, surely the light wouldn't penetrate the light conditions.

Not trying to be obstructive just trying to work out what is practical, I am off to the Redsea soon and won't be taking a canister light.

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GLOC (Online)

Okay, I haven't dived Red Sea conditions before but if the vis is that good, you will be able to see hand signals fairly clearly. Wing to wing might not mean wings touching, more that you are in a relative straight line so that you can see your buddy and they can see you. There will be no passive signalling and as such you are going to have to spend more time checking each other.

Also distance apart is how far you and your buddy are comfortable about swimming out of air to each other

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Fiona(Offline)

The Redsea was just for me, but Jussi mentioned Bahamas in 20 - 30m viz

anyway I have promised to be a good buddy but you know what 2 people with cameras are like

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cmalinowski(Offline)

Depends on how deep you are.

But, essentially, if there is a point where you don't know where your team mates are, then you are not in the correct formation. If you swim single file along the wall where you don't have light communication, you better be danged sure that the person in the rear can get to the person in front of them quickly. It's up to the person in front to be responsible for the person behind them; It's not up to the person behind to be "able to reach" the person in front.

Good conditions aren't really a good reason for poor team skills.

Just my thoughts.

Chris

dsteding(Offline)

I recently spent some time in Maui in 20m-50m vis. Took my Salvo 21w because, well, I couldn't imagine diving without it.

Managed to get a few dives in with another DIR diver, here is how we worked it:

Dive 1 was a sunken pier where single file was the norm due to some narrow areas we were swimming through. I had my light, but we were only in 10m of water and ambient light really washed things out. The solution was vigilance in terms of both the lead diver checking on the trail diver and the trailing diver staying in contact with the lead. Worked fine. We'd get through an area and the lead would often turn and check. Where we could be wing-on-wing, I'd work to get into that position in order to make life easier on the lead diver.

Dive 2 was a reef where wing-on-wing worked really well.

Dive 3 was Molokini Crater. 50m+ of vis, max depths probably 25 meters. At depth, my Salvo worked really well, it would cast a bright spot on the reef that I could use to communicate with my buddy. At times we were wing-on-wing, but the end of the dive was on a wall where that doesn't work so well. Again, vigilance among the team members made not constantly being able to see each other a non-issue.

Dive 4 was more of the same, times for wing-on-wing and times where single file worked well.

I guess the point of all this is that positioning really is a matter of what the environment will dictate. Some formations require a bit more effort to keep track of teammates, and when that is necessary, you put the effort in. That, at least, was the lesson for me on these dives.

When it comes down to it, I view team positioning as a way to minimize the stress imposed on the team. When positioned correctly, keeping track of your teammates becomes almost a non-issue, either because you can see them directly by slightly turning your head, or you can see their light. The environment sometimes won't allow that, in which case you need to adapt team strategies.

Fiona(Offline)

I am struggling to see the point of diving with one in 20+ metre viz and even on a night dive they will just be too bright to appreciate the night life.

I have no problem with the concept of team/ buddies what ever you want to call them and I agree you just need to be aware of where they are, it was that John mentioned wing to wing and I really couldn't get my head round this on a reef and I was really referring to a wall type dive.

I shall let you know how we get on next month

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