Well said Fernando

+1 Karma..

Diving buddies or 1 up 1 down is the "sensible" way to dive.

BUT, and a very big but: diving deep for the sake of diving deep is not only senseless, stupid and dangerous, it is alot less productive than diving shallow (i.e. less productive = less fish).

When we dive deep, we do so at targeted spots with targeted fish in mind. No top level spearo simply hops in at 30m and thinks, what the hell, lets see what we get?

We go to certain spots in specific conditions where experience tells us what we are likely to find. e.g. In summer I'll dive the deep pinnacles on No 1 expecting Amberjack and in winter Kob. My approach will be unique to each fish as they behave differently.

Diving a one up, one down system in a case like this is almost impossible as you generally have one chance on a drift as these spots usuaully have current and/or fish are concentrated in one area.

"Novice" divers wanting to dive deep simply to say "I dived 30m all day" are decreasing their effort vs catch return. In the SWB article I wrote, the section about deep diving I illustrate this with a simple comparison the number of dives one can do in say, an hour. Obviously this model doesn't take fatigue into account which is another variable that further decreasing productivity.

Each diver must know their limits and more importantly, be "man" enough to admit when they are out of their league and sit ont he boat until shallower depths are dived

The 1-up, 1-down method as described here is great in theory and an ideal way to dive, sure, but how many of you honestly dive this way?

Sure, if you and your buddy agree on diving like this, then great, but I can almost guarantee in most cases it won't last longer than the first drift or until the fish turn on.

Every situation should be assessed on it's own merit and I think communication is key. Also, diving with buddies whom you've dived with before and are comfortable with makes the situation much easier to assess. Talk to one another - if you've got a fish stuck in the bricks and need to retrieve it, or you've seen a Kakaap in the deep and you want to push a deep dive to get it, tell your buddies to check/help/meet you halfway.

Everyone should be aware of each other in the water and have a sense of the circumstances vs everyone's abilities but I've personally never seen spearo's religiously diving this way. One of the reasons I love spearing so much is the sense of isolation it brings - where one is completely alone with one's thoughts and your only focus in the world is on the water, the fish and yourself. I wouldn't appreciate someone hovering over/around me all the time.

Safety in an extreme sport such as spearfishing starts with you. You can't always rely on other people to save you when the shit hits the fan - Dive within your abilities and don't be a cowboy and dive with people you trust.