Are you a dive snob?

[Blackwood]

Now that the sport has morphed into what it now is with 200 certs for who knows what and all the specialty gear that honestly is mostly enjoyed by the sports retailers there are lines drawn all over the damned boat deck.
Bill

You and I must be on different boats, Bill.

I've never experienced anything of the sort. Mostly, people just like diving. Sometimes gear they haven't seen before (CCR, scooters, etc.) may spark conversation, but I've *never* been on a boat where one group of BP/W/LongHose divers was segregated from one group of stab jacket 'conventional' regulator divers, who were in term segregated from the 'vintage' guys.

Just hasn't happened to me.


I will admit to wanting to throttle this so-called 'instructor' for 'leading' his class between me and my buddy dragging a weightbelt he found but obviously couldn't cope with (since he also seemed to be herding just about all the silt in the ocean), and then spending the rest of the day bragging on the boat about how he'd recovered it and that he'd like Coors not Budweiser as his reward. But that guy was just a jackass, and I don't feel like a snob for saying so.

 

[Dyno Bill]

You and I must be on different boats, Bill.

I've never experienced anything of the sort. Mostly, people just like diving. Sometimes gear they haven't seen before (CCR, scooters, etc.) may spark conversation, but I've *never* been on a boat where one group of BP/W/LongHose divers was segregated from one group of stab jacket 'conventional' regulator divers, who were in term segregated from the 'vintage' guys.

Just hasn't happened to me.


I will admit to wanting to throttle this so-called 'instructor' for 'leading' his class between me and my buddy dragging a weightbelt he found but obviously couldn't cope with (since he also seemed to be herding just about all the silt in the ocean), and then spending the rest of the day bragging on the boat about how he'd recovered it and that he'd like Coors not Budweiser as his reward. But that guy was just a jackass, and I don't feel like a snob for saying so.

Perhaps what I have seen is more groupings of divers as you might expect as on a charter boat groups of guys go diving together. I have to be honest in that I havn't been on a charter boat for some few years as I just bought my own and dove from it for quite a while and later when I lived on the Esplanade I took my kayak through the surf heading south and did freediving again solo. As far as boats I have enjoyed most from the So Cal area, just not recently. Giving it thought it is as much perception as anything else and that as I'm sure you know varies from person to person. Now I'm trying to remember all the boats I'v enjoyed in the past, that's a chore

 

[Blackwood]

Perhaps what I have seen is more groupings of divers as you might expect as on a charter boat groups of guys go diving together.

Definitely. Especially on some of these cattle boats, people just don't know eachother.

I bought a steel backplate as my first BC because I liked the idea of having that chunk of ballast back there. I brought it to hawaii and got the "oh look out, big tech diver coming through" treatment. I think I had about 40 dives at the time. Sigh. So yah, there is some of that. I just haven't really noticed it in socal. In full disclosure, though, the majority of my boat dives are 4-8 packs that we charter, any everyone not only knows everyone else, but will dive with anyone on the boat (assuming sufficient qualifications for the intended dives).

 

[Dyno Bill]

Definitely. Especially on some of these cattle boats, people just don't know eachother.

I bought a steel backplate as my first BC because I liked the idea of having that chunk of ballast back there. I brought it to hawaii and got the "oh look out, big tech diver coming through" treatment. I think I had about 40 dives at the time. Sigh. So yah, there is some of that. I just haven't really noticed it in socal. In full disclosure, though, the majority of my boat dives are 4-8 packs that we charter, any everyone not only knows everyone else, but will dive with anyone on the boat (assuming sufficient qualifications for the intended dives).

OK, this isn't a full list as I just don't remember like I did but
Encore, Charisma and I know one of them is the Great Escape now, Spectre, Liberty, Peace, Scuba Luvr, Truth, Conception, Mr C, Magician, Horizon, Pacific Star which was under another name years back and I can't think of it now and of course my Father in laws boat which had no name but it was a retired harbor patrol and tow boat in Ventura harbor. That's where I got a liking for being on my own boat and doing my own thing, I dove two tons off that boat.

 

[fire_diver]

Unasked for advise is usually not well received.

I wasn't talking about randomly offering advise to strangers. I was talking in reference to talking to a few people, and others injected themslves into the conversation, then get offended at the suggestiions for improvement.

 

[JeffG]

Having been diving for over 80% of my life, with a Navy and commercial diving background, I've experienced a variety of "attitudes" towards me.

Yes...its them and not you.

too rich

If it wasn't so funny, it would be sad.

 

[DCBC]

Yes...its them and not you...

Hey Jeff, why don't you answer the OP's question instead of commenting on what others have written? That would be something different wouldn't it? LOL

 

[Ana]

Dive snob...isn't a snob a snob anyway? Golf, truck driving, shrimp growing, spearfishing, boat owner, dishwasher.....It's the person, not the activity.

I agree with this, also think it is easy to confuse a snob with someone that is simply a-social, a person may want to keep to him/herself and doesn't have to be about feeling superior just wanting to be without others.

I don't like to get close to people, strangers deciding they need to talk to me in a boat (or anywhere) is extremely annoying, actually a serious invasion of my personal space. I only interact with a very small number of people who I care for deeply, a couple of forums where I go on and off depending of work load and that's it. Don't care for the rest of the world, nothing personal and nothing about being better than anyone, I just don't like the interaction.

It isn't difficult to figure out who is open to chit chat and who isn't, and I have no respect for people that ignore the obvious signs. Sometimes the more obvious the signs of "leave me alone" the more persistent these people are, as a result these people end up receiving the worse of my reactions. Then I'm not only a snob but a "rude snob" because they couldn't understand that a person minding its business away from everyone else wanted to be left alone.

So to answer the OP: most of the times people around me think I'm a snob (worse things too). This happens everywhere but in dive boats is somehow intensified. I suppose it is because the ridiculous notion that "Diving is a SOCIAL event" the "camaraderie" and all that jazz.
I don't care to dive with people that are going to be bumping into me, raping my ear on the surface with stories or 'educating' me. I'm not a teacher, I don't want to be. I don't even believe in teaching when it comes to adults. When I was new I learned. People I learned from didn't care if I learned or not, they hardly tolerated me. I made a point to learn everything I could from them by observing what they did when I could or by seeing their results.

After a "social" incident few years back in Abacos I realized that I'm happier doing a sand dive on my own than the most wonderful dive on the planet if it requires to be in a group of divers being herd around. Of course that day those people there felt I was snubbing them.

 

[sabbath999]

I have nothing whatever to be snobbish about. If I dove like some of the guys and gals on this board, then perhaps I could be a snob, but frankly I kind of still suck at diving...

I like to think I am getting better, but I know the truth...

Gear snob? No way. I dive what I dive because it fits what I am doing. You? Dive whatever you like, as long as it makes you happy.

I only have two snobbish things about me I think, and it's more pet peeves than a snobish thing and I NEVER tell others about it. I hate seeing people constantly skulling the water with their hands, and I hate seeing people with their gear hanging all over the place (octo bashing coral or down in the muck stirring everything up). That bugs me, more because I see it as a training issue (something they darned well should have been taught in their OW classes not to do).

If I have a true snobbish thing, it is more towards instructors who suck. Instructors who suck bother me, because they are not training people to the standard they should...

Here's what I mean... on a recent dive trip, we were at Morrison Cavern in Florida. OW instructors use the pool and training platform for open water diving training. Fine, no problem with that.

BUT... I saw an OW instructor take another diver INTO Morrison... took him right into the reaper sign, no guideline, with a light. Later, when we were packing to leave, I found out that it was the student's FIRST OW DIVE during TRAINING! Additionally, the instructor's buoyancy skills were so bad he literally bounced off the sand about 20 times to the point it was hard to tell who was the instructor and who was the student. Those kinds of instructors bug the HELL out of me, and frankly I am a bit snobbish when I am in their presence. I admit it.

 

[Snorkelboy]

I think that if your diving buddies Tech and Rec are part of your circle of friends, or people you associate with regularly, you wont have a problem. They will understand, after all, if they are your friends they would have gave you up long ago for being a snob.
My friend was my dive instructor and he was also my dive budy, he was a full fledged cave diver too. I am a typical OW diver who has an interest in diving and often we could not dive together because he was going beyond my skill level. Never once did I feel any snobery when I was around him or the other Cave Divers. I think you might find alot of divers who are not Tech divers will be more interested in what you know and do than think you are a snob.