What are your biggest pet peeves?

[Cacia]

... people who refer to other divers as douchebags ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

(or strokes)

the cyclist word for that is "Fred" btw

 

[nielsent]

I can't totally agree with this ... because people really don't, sometimes, know what they're doing when they ask that question. A good example is someone who just got certified asking about solo diving. Sorry ... but I don't think a new diver should solo dive. They just don't have enough context around what they learned in class to anticipate or prepare for many of the situations they can get themselves into ... and it can too easily lead to tragic consequences.

I understand that they WANT to solo ... sometimes even for valid reasons ... but if you see someone careening toward a cliff, totally oblivious to the consequences of flinging themselves over the precipice ... wouldn't you, in good conscience, want to say something?

Divers at all levels have an amazing capacity for overestimating their ability. I've known too many divers over the past decade who are no longer in this world because they thought they could handle a dive that, it turned out, they couldn't ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Bob,

In those particular instances, i totally agree with your statement, there are times when saying something is the only way to save a life. I have been in the situation myself with regards to starting solo diving, and found myself questioning if it was for me or if i was ready for it, and I sought out the opinions of solo divers in real life and on this board whom i respected enough from reading their posts to make an informed decision. I have even found myself saying that someone needs more experience out loud to both posts and people when I can see the impending tragedy.

I really wouldn't have said anything about it as a pet peeve, but it really gets my dander up when i start to read posts from people who show honest interest in something that are out to learn what they can to make an informed decision about pursuing something. Then the semi-retarded statement is put forward by someone who's only initial reaction was to read the profile blurb at the side of the thread, see they have between 25-99 dives, and to politely say "I only know what i see in your profile, but i am informed enough about you, because you decided to ask a question, to know that you should not be in a kiddie pool without water wings, let alone underwater. Come back when you are better than me."

This is usually all they post, or they will add a smart comment that is not needed and meant to both reduce the confidence of the poster, and make the poster look infantile. I don't find this sort of behavior acceptable in posts, personally speaking.

I know that there are certain cases where it is an honest statement of care for the person posing the question, but usually you can tell when that is the case, because the person answering takes the time to also answer the original question.

This of course would be an example of your posts Bob, where you care enough to answer the question and worry at the same time. For that sort of thing I would commend people, not berate.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

nielsent & Bob, I kind of agree with both of you. Bob, yes I think that if something extra should be mentioned regarding the OP's safety it definately should be mentioned. But nielsent, your post brings up something I have whined about before-- When someone simply asks a question the responses should be answers to that question, not opinions on some part of the question as to whether something is a good thing to do (ethically?) or not. Unless those opinions concern safety.

Oh yeah ... like when someone asks a question about a BCD (say, for example, a SeaQuest or ScubaPro model), and the first response says "Get a BP/W".

Huh ???

They didn't ask about a BP/W ... so if you have no information on the BCD they're asking about, perhaps it would be better to let someone else answer their question.

Not everyone needs a BP/W. I own a half dozen of the things ... I enjoy diving them a lot ... but it still bugs me when people do this ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[daniel1948]

With apologies for not having read all 8 pages of this thread...

Not quite sure I'd call it a "pet peeve" but what I dislike are incompetent operators. At one place, the dive shop operator was totally laid back: He was a really nice and friendly guy. He was always late picking us up to go out. Fills were never over 2,800 psi and sometimes less. He took us through a swim-through that started around 18 meters and came out around 29 meters, without having told us in the dive briefing, even though I had told him on the first day that I was not comfortable below around 25 meters. There was a family diving the same week. They were renting equipment. He rented the son a BC that leaked air and he gave the wife a computer that failed during the dive. He dropped the anchor onto coral and on one dive where it was only the two of us, he sent me up and then spent ten minutes struggling to tear it loose. (I spent those ten minutes watching him from 3 meters because the water was rough and I didn't want to surface before I had to, since I get seasick.) The family had arranged in advance for AOL classes for the kids, and they kept asking him when the classes would start, and he kept saying "We'll get to it," but never did.

On another trip, the boats were not dive boats. Tanks were just laid down on the deck, and there was no really safe spot from which to enter the water. One boat was a roll-back entry, but from very high up, since there was no sort of transom; one was a giant stride from the rather slippery top of a side-mounted ladder, and one was a giant stride off the back of the boat, immediately next to the outboard motor. All very touchy. At this place, we all had to surface when the first diver ran low on air. Oh, and the outboard motors were always quitting, due to lack of maintenance, and half a dozen tanks during the week of diving leaked air due to worn-out O-rings. The mitigating factor was that the resort itself was lovely and the people outstanding. Just the equipment was sub-standard.

However, those two places (which I will not return to) are the only bad operators I've encountered. All the other places I've been to were very professional.

 

[zonicles]

1. Peeve: my air bubbles make so much noise in my ears. I have this idea that diving really should be silent.

2. Peeve: People who gab during the pre-dive briefing.

3. Peeve: Having to come up with 1200 psi more often than not.

4. Peeve: Bacon breath in the reg.

5. Peeve: knocking the back of my head on my first stage when I look up at something underwater.

6. Sadness/Nostalgia: the last dive of a longish trip, knowing it is time to return to the grind to make more money to dive.

 

[diverkristi]

Buddys that think 3 foot above and 1 foot behind is a great place for a buddy

My husband does this and laughs as I look madly around for him. Grrrrrrr

 

[daniel1948]

1. Peeve: my air bubbles make so much noise in my ears. I have this idea that diving really should be silent.

2. Peeve: People who gab during the pre-dive briefing.

3. Peeve: Having to come up with 1200 psi more often than not.

4. Peeve: Bacon breath in the reg.

5. Peeve: knocking the back of my head on my first stage when I look up at something underwater.

6. Sadness/Nostalgia: the last dive of a longish trip, knowing it is time to return to the grind to make more money to dive.

I'm strictly an open-circut OW diver, but for your #1 above, maybe you are a candidate for a rebreather.

#s 2 and 3 I agree with, though I seldom encounter #2.

#4 is a good reason to own your own gear. I like having gear I am familiar with, even though it's a real pain in the neck having to haul the added weight.

 

[modzs]

... people who refer to other divers as douchebags ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

douchebagery at its finest.

 

[captain]

After all it's "life support" and you will die if you do "whatever".

 

[shoredivr]

Having to pay for a full doubles tank fill every time, even if it's just a top-up.