Diving team

A diving team is a group of people who work together to conduct a diving operation. A characteristic of professional diving is the specification for minimum personnel for the diving support team. This typically specifies the minimum number of support team members and their appointed responsibilities in the team based on the circumstances and mode of diving, and the minimum qualifications for specified members of the diving support team. The minimum team requirements may be specified by regulation or code of practice. Some specific appointments within a professional dive team have defined competences and registration may be required.^[1][2][3][4]

There is considerable difference in the diving procedures of professional divers, where a diving team with formally appointed members in specific roles and with recognised competence is required by law, and recreational diving, where in most jurisdictions the diver is not constrained by specific laws, and in many cases is not required to provide any evidence of competence. In recreational diving there may be no team at all for a solo diver, a dive buddy is the default arrangement, a three diver team is fairly common for technical diving, and a major technical dive or expedition may have a fairly complex team including surface support personnel made up to suit the requirements of the dive plan. Recreational diving instructors often use an assistant to increase the number of learners they can safely manage in the water, and dive guides may use an assistant to help keep the group together and assist the customers in an emergency.