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I received a large response from people regarding the article on
safety divers, so I thought perhaps it warrants more discussion here
on the list.
The article, by the way, is called "The Strong May Not Survive" by
Butch Hendrick. It was printed in "NE Dive Journal", in the October 95
issue.
Basically, the premise of the article is this: Too often, the
assigned backup or safety diver is the weakest diver available;
someone who is not skilled enough or comfortable with making the
"real" dive. They're delegated to be the backup diver, because they
probably won't really have to get in the water at all.
For the sake of this discussion, let's call a BACKUP diver the one who
bails your butt out when you need help. A SAFETY diver is one who is
in the water with the primary diver (or above the primary diver),
there to assist. The backup and safety divers MAY be the same person,
depending on the operation. A TENDER is someone who is not diving,
not driving the boat, not cooking, taking pictures, or barfing over
the side. That person is the diver's personal gofer, lifting tanks,
holding a weight belt, protecting the diver from getting knocked over
in heavy swells, etc. If the dive is surface supplied, or surface
supported, the tender has added responsibilities.
I know that in public service diving, the strongest divers are often
the ones who make the dive, and the newest or weakest (least
experienced) ones become the backup divers, or safety divers.
Obviously, this is a bad practice. The same holds true for extended
range recreational diving.
Our protocol at NOAA states that a dive team must be composed of no
fewer than three divers, with the third diver standing by at the
surface. That's our employer's rule, so that's how we do it. In
practice, however, it is sometimes safer for the third diver to "stand
by" underwater. For example, if one or two divers are working in an
area where the risk of entanglement is present, it would make sense
for the third diver to be present, observing the divers engaged in the
job at hand. If a diver becomes entangled, the safety diver should
see the problem, and provide assistance. In that case, a backup diver
sitting on the boat sweating in a drysuit can't provide assistance
until she (1) is informed of the problem, (2) dives to the scene (3)
identifies what action is needed, (4) fixes the problem.
Safety divers in the water can provide a variety of assistance,
besides emergency aid, such as carrying tools, attaching stage
bottles, etc.
On the other hand, don't confuse a safety diver with a tender. A
tender, ideally, is a person who is NOT going in the water, but
someone who's job is strictly to assist the diver at the surface (or
during the dive, if it's surface supported). Having a tender's
assistance takes lots of stress off the diver. We use tenders
whenever we have someone present to do the job, and often rotate that
duty to a diver who is taking a surface interval. The tender always
has a hand ON the diver, which has prevented lots of tweaked backs and
bruised knees caused by an untended diver knocking around a small boat
with 150 pounds of gear on.
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