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TSandM

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If your diving community is anything like mine, it's rife with dive politics. It has cliques, which may be agency or just experience-based, or just based on social connections. It's competitive. People vie to find new wrecks and dive them, or identify them, or map them, or otherwise trump everybody else.

What do you do if a group of folks who are not "your people" do something cool? Suppose they recover a bell, or connect two lines, or find a new lead in a cave . . . but they aren't "your" divers. Do you dis them? Do you laud them? Do you ignore them?

My feeling is that, so long as folks are diving with conscious thought to safety, I'm there to applaud their accomplishments. Even if I wouldn't actually dive WITH them, because equipment or protocols are too different, I'd never be negative or critical of positive accomplishments they made, unless there were clear violations of safety protocols that I think are important (eg. very deep air, solo diving).

What do you do?
 
Here in the Philippines, there is an active tech community and we all generally seem to get along. Perhaps I'm just a positive thinker, but I don't see any reasons for clique mentality or negative reaction to the accomplishments of others.
 
If your diving community is anything like mine, it's rife with dive politics. It has cliques, which may be agency or just experience-based, or just based on social connections. It's competitive.
It's called BSAC in the UK :D

People vie to find new wrecks and dive them, or identify them, or map them, or otherwise trump everybody else.

What do you do if a group of folks who are not "your people" do something cool? Suppose they recover a bell, or connect two lines, or find a new lead in a cave . . . but they aren't "your" divers. Do you dis them? Do you laud them? Do you ignore them?

I've made my feelings known about bell recovery in another thread. I actively disapprove of taking anything off a wreck that lessens the experience for others.
That said I'm working on a Shipwreck mapping project at the moment. We are trying to get the details of sunken Plane wreck off of a local group, but have to tip toe carefully in order to persuade them to do so; which is annoying as we would all like to view and record the wreck. Although conversly I have worked for a dive centre that had a 'secret wreck' and most of the beauty of the dive lay in the fact it was covered in fish as no divers visited the wreck. Swings and Roundabouts

My feeling is that, so long as folks are diving with conscious thought to safety, I'm there to applaud their accomplishments. Even if I wouldn't actually dive WITH them, because equipment or protocols are too different, I'd never be negative or critical of positive accomplishments they made, unless there were clear violations of safety protocols that I think are important (eg. very deep air, solo diving).
What do you do?

(Fingers crossed; as the summer weather is particularly bad this year) I'm off to dive my first deep UK wreck this week; only 44m, but a stage deco dive none the less. As I'm new to the area and scene I asked what the rules were for diving the wreck i.e what gasses. The guy ( a GUE instructor) said that Air would be acceptable for the dive, but his background means he would use trimix for the dive. I respect his protocols and I've opted to take mix for the dive. This is despite my normal preference for deep air. I'm not taking Air because of my safety protocols. I'm not diving in Warm clear waters now, I'm in a drysuit and get on well with the dive shop and do not want to spoil that relationship.

So while I neither view Deep Air or Solo diving as a violation of safety protocols, I do respect the environment I dive in, which is more important than equipment or protocol.
 
Here in the Philippines, there is an active tech community and we all generally seem to get along. Perhaps I'm just a positive thinker, but I don't see any reasons for clique mentality or negative reaction to the accomplishments of others.

Oh, if only I could live in the utopia you describe. Out here you are either from a commercial diving background or you are not.
However, when one achieves something through skill rather than luck congratulations are in order.
 
If your diving community is anything like mine.... stuff snipped...

What do you do?

Don't join clubs, don't condone elitism, try not to associate with Muppets, don't dive with wankers.
 
Don't join clubs, don't condone elitism, try not to associate with Muppets, don't dive with wankers.

Exactly.

As or congratulating someone out of my usual group I have no problem doing that as long as they are not pricks or did something unsafe. I will still congratulate them but might add "you're still an idiot" to it. Lol. Actually I usually just say, "cool" and nod my head.
 
i think it's cool despite the politics. and as you can imagine there are some politics round these parts. even when the hardened, card-carrying strokes like mat bull explore cave I think it's awesome :wink:

seems different out there with west coast gue folks though. seems like a very weird community that i dont really understand
 
It's competitive. People vie to find new wrecks and dive them, or identify them, or map them, or otherwise trump everybody else.

Isn't that part of what exploration is about though, beating someone else to it? I don't see anything wrong with a little competition so long as it's done safely, competition has driven innovation over the years, from scuba to space exploration to back country camping and photography.
 
http://cavediveflorida.com/Rum_House.htm

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