Team Diving Beats the “Buddy System” When the Buddy System Gets Vague

Benjamin Hadfield   Apr 08, 2026

Team Diving Beats the “Buddy System” When the Buddy System Gets Vague

By Benjamin Hadfield, Technical Instructor Trainer, Stuart Scuba

I’m going to say something mildly controversial:

The buddy system sucks.

Or, more accurately, the watered-down, vague, resort-brochure version of the buddy system sucks.

Too many divers hear the buddy system and translate it as:

“We splashed from the same boat.”
“We entered the same ocean.”
“I saw Steve once at 42 feet.”
“Unless that was a barracuda. Hard to say.”

That is not buddy diving. That is two separate vacations happening near the same reef.

And the problem is not just philosophical. It is statistical.

DAN’s fatality analysis found that running out of breathing gas was the leading trigger in 41% of cases, and a DAN case summary notes that 40% of fatalities involve buddy separation. DAN’s broader breakdown also listed entrapment at 21%, equipment problems at 15%, rough water at 10%, trauma at 6%, buoyancy at 4%, and inappropriate gas at 3%. Their conclusion on gas management is about as subtle as a tank dropped on a deck: running out of breathing gas underwater should “simply never happen.”

That should make every diver pause.

Because those are not mostly dramatic, cinematic, shark-with-a-personality emergencies. Those are ordinary problems that become very serious because divers are too far apart, not paying attention, not communicating, or not functioning as a real team. DAN has also reported that in its review of nearly 1,000 dive fatalities, there was an obvious increasing trend of fatalities in technical and especially rebreather diving, and DAN has highlighted that breathing the wrong gas at depth remains one of the most common preventable causes of death in technical diving. Complexity does not forgive vague teamwork; it punishes it.

 

“Same Ocean, Same Dive” Is Not a Safety Plan

A lot of divers think “within sight” is close enough.

Sometimes it isn’t.

DAN explicitly notes that divers may be within sight in good visibility and still be too far away to help. In the buddy-separation case DAN discussed, the diver’s companions were visible but too far away for him to reach an alternate second stage after communication failed. That is the entire issue in one ugly little nutshell: a diver can be visible and still be unavailable.

A real team is different.

A real team has a shared plan, shared gas limits, shared signals, shared expectations, shared awareness, and — this part matters more than divers like to admit — shared proximity.

Not “I can kind of see him.”
Not “I think she went that way.”
Not “we’re both technically underwater.”

Close enough to help.
Close enough to donate.
Close enough to notice a problem before it turns into a cascade.

That is team diving.

 

What About the Diver Who Shows Up Without a Buddy?

This happens all the time. Someone books the trip, shows up excited, geared up, ready to go… and does not actually have a buddy.

That does not mean they should immediately freestyle their way into becoming a lone satellite somewhere off the starboard side.

At Stuart Scuba, the answer is simple: stay with the dive guide, or stay with the person dragging the flag.

Every recreational dive we run includes someone from our crew in the water, leading the way. And 99.9% of the time, that diver is also dragging the dive flag. That matters because the flag is not just a decoration. It is a reference, a surface marker, a point of orientation, and a direct link to the boat captain, who is watching it diligently from above.

In other words, our in-water crew is not just there to look handsome in neoprene and point out fish that look mildly offended. They are there to lead, manage the dive, maintain orientation, and give divers — especially the unpaired diver — a moving, visible safety anchor.

So if you board without a buddy, your first job is not to become Jacques Cousteau with worse trim. Your first job is to stay with the guide and stay with the flag.

Because at least then, even if you are technically “unpaired,” you are not functionally alone.

 

Every Diver Needs Their Own Safety Gear

This is another place where divers get weirdly optimistic.

They assume someone will have the surface signaling gear.
They assume someone will bring the DSMB.
They assume someone else will be ready if the dive separates, the current picks up, the drift gets sporty, or the ascent does not happen exactly where everyone expected.

That mindset needs to stop, here and now.

At Stuart Scuba, every diver should be carrying their own DSMB and spool or reel.

Not “my buddy has one.”
Not “the guide probably has one.”
Not “there’s one in the boat somewhere near the old zip ties and mystery fin straps.”

You carry one.

DAN describes SMBs and DSMBs as common and essential safety devices and notes that they help surface support personnel and other boats locate divers on the surface. DAN also flatly calls them critical pieces of equipment that divers should take on dives.

And yes, the spool or reel matters too. A DSMB without a line is just an inflatable opinion, and maybe better than nothing at all, but it is still not as useful as it could be with a simple and inexpensive spool.

This is especially important for the diver who came without a buddy. If you drift off the main group, if you surface away from the boat, if visibility drops, if current carries you farther than expected, or if you need to make yourself obvious in any kind of boat traffic, your safety kit cannot be theoretical. It needs to be on your person.

Not rented from a vague communal pile.
Not “probably in my save-a-dive kit.”
Actually, on you. Tested and functional.

 

Solo Diving Is a Real Thing — But Accidentally Solo Is Not

Now we need to talk about solo diving, because this is where divers like to get very clever.

Solo diving is real. It exists. It is taught. Major training organizations treat it as a specialty requiring additional planning, additional skills, and additional equipment. SDI’s self-reliant guidance includes practicing with a DSMB, carrying and switching to a redundant air supply, and planning gas very deliberately. SDI’s solo-diver framework likewise centers on redundancy, planning, and independence rather than just swimming off by yourself because you feel confident and bought a flashlight.

That distinction matters.

There is a huge difference between:

TRAINED in self-reliant diving, and
“My buddy got distracted by a turtle, and now I guess I’m solo.”

Those are not the same thing.

One is deliberate, trained, equipped, and planned.
The other is what happens right before somebody says, “Well, that escalated quickly.”

So yes, solo diving can be done. But nobody should confuse being alone with being prepared.

 

If You Dive Solo, You Need Redundancy — Real Redundancy

Anyone diving solo needs to be carrying redundant life-support equipment, full stop.

That includes a redundant gas source, and for many recreational solo divers, that means a pony bottle — or, in the more honest vocabulary, an oh-shit bottle.

And I actually like that nickname, because it reminds divers what the bottle is for.

It is not a “stay down longer because the reef is pretty” bottle.
It is not a “just one more lobster hole” bottle.
It is not a “the shark was finally posing correctly for Instagram” bottle.

It is an emergency bottle.

SDI’s self-reliant guidance explicitly includes carrying and switching to a redundant air supply, and SDI/TDI guidance on redundant air sources is blunt: redundant gas is for emergency use only and should not be used in calculating the depth and duration of your dive.

That means if you go onto your pony bottle, your dive is over.

Not “we’ll wrap up in a minute.”
Not “let me just get one last photo.”
Not “since I’m already breathing it, I may as well finish the drift.”

No.

If you have gone to your pony bottle, you have already crossed the line from normal operations into emergency procedure. That means begin a controlled ascent immediately.

Because the only thing dumber than needing your emergency gas is deciding that now is the perfect time to keep sightseeing.

 

Running Out of Gas Is Not a Minor Oops

Let me be very clear on this one:

Running out of gas is not some cute little driver's inconvenience. It is one of the leading ways a dive starts turning into a fatality report.

Again, DAN’s fatality work found that running out of breathing gas was the leading trigger at 41%. DAN also stresses that divers should decide before the dive how they will communicate remaining gas, when they will begin the exit or ascent, and how much reserve they will preserve. They specifically point to the logic of keeping a meaningful reserve and note that anything short of total gas management puts the diver, the buddy, and nearby divers at risk.

So no, we do not normalize this.

We do not shrug at it.
We do not laugh it off.
We do not pretend that surfacing with fumes is just part of being adventurous.

It is bad diving.

 

Air Sharing Is an Exit Strategy, Not a New Dive Plan

This is another one that needs to be said loudly enough for the people in the back, cleaning masks with spit.

If you are in an air-share situation, the dive is over.

You are not now a two-person, one-tank sightseeing unit.
You are not continuing the dive in a cute little paired-breathing configuration.
You are not finishing the wreck because “we’re basically already there.”

You are ascending.

DAN’s guidance on gas-sharing emergencies is direct: in a gas-sharing emergency on a dive, it is best to ascend immediately rather than spend precious gas trying to get back to the ascent line. Their emergency-ascent guidance also notes that the most frequent trigger for an emergency ascent is running out of breathing gas, and that this is entirely preventable.

So let’s put it plainly:

Never continue the dive in an air-share configuration. Surface now.

Or more precisely, because I still enjoy a controlled ascent and functioning lungs:

Terminate the dive immediately and begin a controlled ascent to the surface.

Air sharing is not a workaround for bad planning. It is the temporary bridge between a problem and the surface.

 

What Team Diving Looks Like in the Real World

A real team is not just nearby. A real team is useful.

That means the team knows:

• the route

• the turn pressure

• the max depth

• the ascent plan

• the lost-diver procedure

• the hand signals

• the gas strategy

• What counts as “thumb the dive”

• Who is carrying what

• Who is responsible for what

• and what the plan becomes when the original plan goes sideways

That sounds obvious, but underwater, the obvious is often surprisingly rare.

The most dangerous phrase in diving may not be “I’m low on air.”

It may be:
“I thought you knew.”

 

Why We Hammer This in Training at Stuart Scuba

This mindset is one of the biggest things we reinforce at Stuart Scuba, especially as divers move into more advanced classes.

More depth, more current, more navigation, more task loading, and more decision-making only work well when divers stop thinking like tourists and start thinking like a team.

And that includes the diver who arrives without a buddy.
That includes the diver who assumes somebody else has the DSMB.
That includes the diver who thinks solo diving just means confidence and expensive gear.
That includes the diver who believes a pony bottle is there to squeeze another ten minutes out of the reef.
And that definitely includes the diver who thinks an air share means, “Cool, let’s continue.”

No.

The ocean does not care about your optimism.
It cares about your preparation.

So yes, I’ll say it again:

The buddy system sucks when it becomes vague.

Team diving is better.

Because team diving means proximity.
It means planning.
It means communication.
It means usefulness.
It means every diver carries the gear they need.
It means a solo diver is either properly trained, properly equipped, and deliberately self-reliant — or they are not solo diving at all; they are just making bad decisions in open water.

And bad decisions underwater tend to get expensive quickly.

At Stuart Scuba, we would much rather build divers who are boringly prepared than excitingly surprised.

Because the best dives usually end the same way:

Everybody comes back up.
Everybody still has gas.
Everybody knows where the boat is.
And Steve is no longer “somewhere in the Atlantic.”

I get it. I’ve been a diver for a long time, and I love the ocean. I love diving, exploring, getting incredible shark photos, and bringing home a limit of lobsters or grouper. This isn’t meant to discourage anyone from enjoying all the amazing experiences the ocean has to offer.

The point is simple: the best way to handle an emergency or problem is to avoid having it in the first place. The best way to do that is to have a solid plan and follow the rules.

I want as many people as possible to have an amazing time diving, but more than anything, I want every one of them to come home safe and be able to tell the story of their adventure.