Overly Dramatic Title: The Curse of The Most Experienced Diver

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

As a photographer I try to dive with another photographer or better dive solo or with my personal buddy who might be traveling with me.

Certainly not into herd diving and if the dive op runs their dives like that I go elsewhere
 
Show them any card you want.It should not matter. If you are asked to assist/accompany someone who is not your buddy just say that you would like to but you paid to dive like everyone else on the boat and its not your problem if someone in the group who is not your buddy needs a guide of any type..Very often it is someone who should not be certified to dive in the first place and screws up kicking sand,scaring away marine life,etc.. If they insist on your assistance you insist on being paid and not having to pay for the trip. I have been asked this a few times and I tell them I have to be paid to dive with an unknown person, oh and my rate $75. per dive and that I expect my trip to be free, and my wife (usual buddy) gets a comp, plus I get a share of the tips.. That should end the discussion immediately and if it does not I get paid.

---------- Post added April 14th, 2013 at 08:44 PM ----------


Same answer as mine Jim ! Except you should get paid AND comp on the trip.

Yea--I like this answer even better. You would think that between the diver who requires/requests a guide/experienced buddy and the shop/op he signs up for a charter with, the situation should be resolved at the dock beforehand. It would also puzzle me for someone to ask ME to help out when I don't know the site myself. I have done way too few charter wreck dives here in NS to be a DM on the boat-- I don't even take out the liability insurance for it. Which brings us to that whole other discussion.
 
What does anybody else do? Do you just deal with being last or do you lie about experience so you're not the most experienced?

If I am paying money to dive, I expect absolute customer service from the dive operation. I am a customer - my dive certification/experience is irrelevant.

If the dive center has alternative expectations, then the situation will be clarified to them immediately. If I assist their operations, then they either pay me, or I dive for free (depending on what they want me to do). If they want money, as per any customer/diver, then I expect the best experience they can give me. End of story.
 
There's a difference between helping divers who look like they need help because you're a good person and a dive op having working expectations of a customer when they're on vacation. Your experience shouldn't necessarily mean you're last in line, or last of the boat and sure as heck not surfacing with others. You're there for the same enjoyment and satisfaction as the others, it sounds selfish but if it makes you feel like an arse to tell the truth and turn someone down, lie. Feel free to jump in if you don't mind and someone looks like they're in danger but eh, if it's just an inconvenience to the DM, I think the charter needs to hire his own assistants. The only person I surface for is my buddy and obviously emergencies/ DM instructed, not someone else who blew their days dive.
 
I also use a camera and want to take good photos without a silt-out. I'm also often one of the more experienced customers on a boat, even though I'm nowhere near as experienced as some people on Scubaboard. I generally try to get in the water ASAP. This gives me time to avoid other divers who often are slower at gearing up and can often silt up the place accidentally.

I choose my buddy based partially on experience (due to my camera and potential concentration on one photo for a few seconds) and partially based on tolerance of going as slow as possible. This allows for the buddy pair to get geared up as quickly as possible and for me to take it slow with the photos.

The major problem is that because I enjoy going slow with the camera, the entire group eventually catches up with my buddy group and can silt up the place. A bit annoying, but then we just go to a completely different direction.

I guess the point is, even with a decent level of experience, I'm pretty self-centered about my diving habits. I'm not an instructor or a DM, so I never get asked to help with anything anyway. However, if I get to that level, I still will probably only show my AOW and Nitrox cards.
 
I tend not to be THE most experienced but thats only because the other guys I normally hook up with is even more so. Being experienced, being known by the dive op to be able to handle issues and on top of it traveling alone - although often as part of a larger group - I do tend to be asked to "pick up the new guy" so to speakand Im generally fine with it, simply because the ops I use is good at putting fairly experienced people on the boat with us.
When diving some "easier locations" we do tend to have more less experienced people on the boat, but I know that opting to go to those sites and dont generally mind picking up a newbie - its actually fun most of the time. I dont surface with them after 40 minutes when I have plenty of gas though. I send them with the intern/DM candidate/IDC and continue diving..

"Our" boat (other than when going to said easier sites) tend to have an average of 200+ dives - guides not included..
 
Get an experienced buddy- go diving by yourselves. Follow the 'conduct' as defined by the operator (max. depth, minimum reserve, deco/no deco, dive time etc.)

As a photographer it's usually easy to avoid silt-outs if you do not purposefully follow the leader. Stay a couple of metres shallower or out to the side.
 
Or just lose your guide alltogether like Ive done on a few occasions (with my buddy). They dont generally have heart attacks as long as TWO people are missing, its when its only one thats gone they freak :p
 
Or just lose your guide alltogether like Ive done on a few occasions (with my buddy). They dont generally have heart attacks as long as TWO people are missing, its when its only one thats gone they freak :p

Why not just signal to the DM that you and your buddy are splitting off rather than leaving them guessing?
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

Back
Top Bottom