Predive Briefing Checklist
A dive briefing is the team meeting that happens right before you get in the water -- and a rushed one is how easy-to-prevent problems happen: a diver who didn't know the turn-around signal, a buddy pair that never confirmed their air-share procedure. This checklist is a running order for that briefing, not a substitute for it.
Stated out loud, not just written down
Re-confirmed, not assumed from last time
Especially any non-standard ones the team uses
The limit itself, and who calls it
Specific to today's conditions
Assembly point and surface contact
Before everyone gets in the water
- Confirm the objective and route out loud, not just on paper
- Re-confirm buddy pairs and any assigned roles
- Review hand signals the team will actually use, especially any non-standard ones
- State the turn-around/thirds trigger and who calls it
- Point out entry/exit points and any hazards specific to today's conditions
- Confirm the lost-buddy/lost-diver procedure
- State the emergency assembly point and who's the surface contact
Conditions specific to today
Conditions change dive to dive -- current, visibility, and surface conditions on the day should always be stated fresh, even if the site is a familiar one. A briefing that only repeats generic site information misses what's actually different today.
After the briefing, before the dive
Give the team a chance to ask questions before anyone's in the water, not once they're already descending. A quick round of "anything unclear?" catches more than it seems like it should.
Divers Alert Network's Annual Diving Report has repeatedly found that serious incidents build from a chain of small, preventable factors -- a skipped predive check, a procedure nobody actually confirmed out loud -- more often than from one dramatic equipment failure. A two-minute briefing is cheap insurance against that chain ever starting.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a predive briefing take?
Long enough to cover the checklist above clearly -- for a familiar site with an experienced team that might be two minutes; for a new site, new team combination, or more complex dive, it should take longer. There's no fixed correct length.
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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