There is a risk of injury from playing any kind of sport. I had many bruises and scratches from roller skating. I tore my ACL alpine skiing. I twisted my ankle hiking. And I had been careful to avoid these injuries but at just a brief moment of mindless and careless, it happened. I only blame it on my carelessness when I hurt myself because I believe I could have avoided it.
Now that I am playing a new sport, scuba diving, I am again trying hard to avoid any injury from this sport. I am afraid of falling over the slippery rocks while carrying heavy equipments. I am afraid of banging my head or my tanks in the narrow caves. I am afraid of the sharp objects at the bottom that will penetrate my gears at a careless moment. I am afraid of running out of air while I am deep under. I am afraid of the bends. I have been trying my best to avoid these injuries and so far I have been succeeded and I hope more experiences and more carefulness will help me enjoy the sport more and more. With all that worry, they all seems insignificant to what I afraid the most. What I afraid the most is not seeing my diving buddy.
To many divers, buddy is a must, it is something that diver is required to have, it is a regulation, it is a practice, it is something that everyone does and it is weird if you don’t conform. To me, buddy is what it means, to be a buddy. At my early diving times, I alone was hardly able to take care of all complex diving tasks; I appreciated all the helps from my buddies. I am now more familiar and comfortable with the tasks and I am even able to pay attention to others, I realize it is a great pleasure and a responsibility to be a dive buddy. It does not matter if my buddy is someone I just met on the boat or someone I dive with regularly. I am not sure what or how each diver defines and considers responsibility to your buddy but I simple take it as “If anything happens to your buddy, it is your fault”.
That explains why I panic when I do not see my buddy under the water. Every few seconds pass without seeing my buddy increases my uneasiness, expands my concern, and intensifies my worry. Many times it turned out I was over worry since if I just concentrated a little more looking for the buddy bubbles, or just a little more patient looking for a slightly dark silhouette, I would have easily located my buddy. It is the “not seeing my buddy” makes me jumpy.
Regardless of how sensible I am in this matter, and regardless how I am to deal with matter (may be another blog?), I still want to state my point, what I afraid the most is not seeing my diving buddy while diving.