Miss Scuba Manners....What's your unwritten dive etiquette rule?

[Storker]

Simply be a beginner and accidentally shine your fancy 3000 lumen torch in their face...

I was thinking of suggesting this as well, but you beat me to it

It could be an... interesting learning experience for the harassers.


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[boulderjohn]

If a camera wielding diver finds some interesting subject and wants to spend an hour photographing the subject, what's the big deal? I'm likely to find something else interesting that the photographer won't see.

It depends upon the dive plan.

I was on a dive in Thailand that sounded really great from the description of it. We were to follow a specific path, led by a DM, and surface in a large cavern with beautiful formations. (To be clear, this was not technically an underwater cavern--there was air space.) We would exit through the cavern, where our chase boats would be waiting for us. We were split into two groups, and our group was the second one.

One member of our group was a photographer who delayed us taking numerous shots of one critter before finding one that he really wanted to photograph perfectly. We all explored the area around him for a very long time and saw absolutely everything there was to see there more than once. The DM leading our group was new to the business and did not have the necessary body parts to get that guy away from his subject. When we were all finally low on air, we surfaced where we were and got picked up by a chase boat. We never got to the cavern.

Back on the liveaboard, the people in the other group were raving about the beauty of the cavern. Our photographer was raving about the shots he had gotten--over 120 in total. I said I had really hoped to see that cavern. He said, "Not me! I'd rather take pictures of a living creature than look at old rocks any day."

And so he had his preferences, and the rest of us had ours. Of course, ours didn't matter, so we all had to scrap the dive we wanted to do so that he could do the dive he wanted to do.

At the end of the trip, he announced that the photos he had taken on the trip were for sale. I am pretty sure he got no buyers.

 

[Steve_C]

Reading this thread has really reinforced a decision I made years ago. I was on one group lead dive in St. Thomas. Was on another that was supposed to be that way off Jupiter but lost the DM real quick. I do not like group dives for all the hundreds of reasons listed above. Since then my practice has been to hire a private DM if a guide is needed or if I do not want to do instabuddy. The DM and I discuss how I want the dive run, namely swim slow. Time to look around and take a few photos, etc. The DM provides guidance as to where the best places to go, etc. Works pretty good although some DMs still rush a bunch. But if I go at the pace I want they stay with me. One who leads a lot of discover diving dives told me afterwards it was the best dives he had had in weeks. Even though we went slow, he could relax and look around and the 60 min of bottom time on each dive gave him a chance to take me places he did not normally get to. When you add up all the other costs the DM is often a bargain. Some places it is a bit more if you have to pay for their boat ticket but they are often an instructor so only half cost. But even then you are talking about one night hotels room for a really pleasant dive. Plus the talk on the SI and boat is with somebody who knows the area and wildlife well.

Another reason I like the Florida Keys. Just you and your buddy or two doing your own thing.

 

[Storker]

At the end of the trip, he announced that the photos he had taken on the trip were for sale.

Wow. Some people are able to make "clueless" into an art.


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Typos are a feature, not a bug

 

[Lorenzoid]

I've told this story before, but divemasters can be as guilty as anyone--if not more so--when it comes to tormenting the wildlife. A DM pointed out the mimic octopus (or was it a wonderpus?--I forgot) to my wife and me by digging it out of the sand where it had buried itself. My wife and I looked at each other like "he shouldn't do that." No sooner had he dislodged the octopus than a scorpionfish rushed into the scene out out of nowhere and inhaled the entire octopus.

 

[Kharon]

To anyone who might wonder why I dive solo, all the above posts really make it clear. My time UW is special to me and very limited (relative to the time I'm trapped on land). Why should I suffer morons?

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

LOL, I'm not land locked and like diving solo for all the above reasons.

I was in St. Thomas diving a couple weeks ago. A beach dive. Solo. I have a little point n shoot camera. Nothing fancy. As I am putzing around, shooting little fish, 50ft vis., I feel this presence, so I look up and there is a guy bumping my shoulder. His mask was less than 2 feet from my face! I kinda freaked out. He was an instructor or something and leading another person on snuba. WTF????? You got this whole area to dive and you are literally right on top of me!!!!! A while later I have moved on to another spot, a bit deeper, look up and see two divers. Ok. Not a big deal. Until this same guy with snuba is again literally swimming on top of me!!!

 

[sportxlh]

......It depends upon the dive plan.......We were to follow a specific path, led by a DM, and surface in a large cavern with beautiful formations. .

Good point, I almost never dive with a DM or guide, even on the few live-aboards I've done so my perspective was a bit different. So the dive plan is almost always completely up to me or me and my buddy if I'm not diving solo (for which I'm certified). In my opinion, in a case such as you described, the photographers and non-photographers/sightseers should have been put into two different groups with their own DM's. Or the photographer should have been left on his own and picked back up by the dive group on the return trip to the anchor line. That would have ensured the sightseers could have seen the cavern.

 

[Divescape]

You do a dive plan with an insta buddy, and agree on how the dive will go then they totally ignore the plan. Fortunately i very seldom dive with instabuddies.

 

[diver 85]

Question----------:"....What's your unwritten dive etiquette rule? "........

Answer-----------:"...Don't kick my mask off--& you'll be in good shape.."......