Are you a flyer or a looker?

[memorex77]

Certainly a flyer. Especially in winter sometimes weeks go by without seeing even one fish in our lakes, yet I still love to go diving.

Very often people ask me "what do you see down there (in the lakes)", and my answer is... nothing, a nice wall, rocks, sand, but it's really good.

 

[TMHeimer]

Though I usually like to cover as much area as possible, being a shell collector I am definately a looker at all times.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

(with apologies to Steve Miller) ...

Some call me a deco cowboy, yeah
Some call me gangster of the sea
Some people call me obsessed
A drysuit-wearin’, nitrox-breathin’ junkie

People talk about me, baby
Say I'm doin' it wrong, doin' it wrong
Well, don't you worry baby, don't you worry
‘Cause I'm right here underwater where I belong

Well, I'm a flyer
I'm a looker
I'm a scuba hooker
A diving bum from Puget Sound

I'm a caver
I'm a reefer
I'm a nitrox breather
I spend my time just floatin' around

You're the cutest thing
That I ever have seen
I really love your backplate
Want to squeeze your wing
Lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey, lovey-dovey all the time
Dive with me baby, I'll show you a good time

'Cause I'm a flyer
I'm a looker
I'm a scuba hooker
A diving bum from Puget Sound

I'm a caver
I'm a reefer
I'm a nitrox breather
I spend my time just floatin' around
Wooo Wooooo

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Walter]

yeah .... make fun of me.
Last liveaboard we did with Moo, I'm going crazy looking for indigos and the second day I see Kiti's pictures, they saw dozens!!!! After 6 days I saw a total of ZERO indigos

I can't even remember the last time I saw one.

 

[sabbath999]

I am a crasher.

 

[ffdiver]

I am probably the slowest diver I know, I generally pick one spot and just hang out checking out the scene.

I don't know what that makes me though.

 

[rollerboi]

I had to really stop and think about this one.. but I've determined that I'm most definitely a flyer. Given the types of dives available to me in Utah (thermally fed pools and glacial lakes), I dive locally for the sheer enjoyment of diving, and the furthering of my skills.

The stuff I *see* on a dive is simply the icing on the cake, the delicious bonus that is peripheral to the whole dive experience. I'm thrilled to see stuff, but stuff to see isn't WHY I dive. The best example of this was a wonderful, wonderful dive I did in NWGratefulDiver's neck of the woods (the Edmonds Water Park).. I saw a boat, anemone, crabs galore, a giant grouper, and even discovered a diamondback nudibranch that I fell in love with.

I would have hit the water even if there were nothing to expect. Gaea offers her treats up to a select few, and it is a privilege not an expectation.

 

[sabbath999]

I am probably the slowest diver I know, I generally pick one spot and just hang out checking out the scene.

I don't know what that makes me though.

Somebody I want to dive with!

 

[theduckguru]

I found this quote last night on a different thread about how people feel when they dive:

Someone proposed the thesis that there are two kinds of divers - flyers and lookers. The lookers look for the coloured fish, the flyers just want to float weightless and the pretty fish are a bonus. Flyers tend to become Zen-masters of calm and will enjoy dives immensely while being at a loss to tell others everything that they saw.

I am most definitely a flyer, and now understand why I've never been able to contribute as much as many others to post-dive discussions. Diving for me is about being in the environment, free to move in any way I want, or able to just hover in space. With the exception of bigger critters, I don't get that focused on what I see when I'm there.

So I'm curious about others on the board: Are you mostly a flyer or mostly a looker?

That certainly explains quarry divers where there isn't crap to see.

 

[AndrewA]

Given the two options I am definitely a "looker". I dive to see things: fish, lumps of rusty metal (wrecks), strange rock formations etc. The "flying" or in my case slow bimbling / hovering is simply a means to an end.