Buddy Assignment Sheet
Buddy assignments sound simple but get lost in a busy dockside briefing. A buddy assignment sheet states pairs (or buddy groups, for larger teams) clearly and in writing, shared before the dive, so nobody's confirming it for the first time at the entry point.
Everyone in the pair or group, written down
Any certification or experience relevant to the pairing
Within the pair, if any -- e.g. navigation
Split into small buddy groups, not one loose team
What to include per buddy pair or group
- Names of everyone in the pair/group
- Any relevant certification or experience notes for the pairing
- Assigned role, if any, within the pair (e.g., navigation)
Larger teams and buddy groups
For teams larger than a single pair, group divers into small buddy groups rather than one large loose team -- it's easier for a group of two or three to stay together and account for each other than for a whole boat's worth of divers to.
DAN's incident research consistently flags buddy separation as a contributing factor in dive emergencies -- not because buddies stop caring about each other, but because nobody stated clearly who was diving with whom before the descent. Writing pairs down removes the ambiguity a rushed dockside conversation leaves behind.
Dive Backup organizes information entered by the dive team. It does not calculate whether a dive is safe or replace training, certification, professional judgment, dive computers, agency standards, or a live predive briefing.
Filling this in on paper works until conditions change or a diver drops out. Dive Backup turns it into a shared, reviewable plan your whole team can see, so nothing gets decided verbally and forgotten.
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