Are you a dive snob?

[Dragon Eye]

I dive with tech and rec divers and love it when they get new gear or have an experience to share. I get to learn and have fun with my friends!

I am currently transitioning from a rec to a more tech set up over the year, because of personal experience and choices on where I want my diving education to head. My dive buddy is also my husband. Are we always interested in the same things? no. Do we have different goals that may or may not follow the same path? sure.

Currently I've had to hang up my fins due to our upcoming "little fishy" so yeah, I'm bummed that my hubby is doing his DM now and I can't go diving. But It does give me a good goal and motivation and timeline to get back in shape so that I can do the class next year and make that some "me" time. Good thing the dogs and I love running!

Perhaps you should have a casual conversation about your diving with your wife and later with your friends. I'm guessing you still want them as friends right? Maybe that means a group dive outing once in a while where everyone can participate. Maybe your wife is concerned with some of your training? Have a talk about that, life insurance and everything else that may be of a concern. Who knows in the end you may have more buddies along for the ride If it's an equipment thing, answer any questions people may have- you could even offer a trial run with your reg to one of your friends- people by nature are very curious.

In the end you have to find a way to bring your group along for the ride with you- even if it's only anecdotal.

 

[Jax]

I'm too far down on the totem pole for much snobbery; from where I sit, if I look down my nose, I can't hardly see anybody.


1.) It's natural to show enthusiastic preoccupation with wonderful, exciting things you are getting to do. Tech diving will open vistas to you to do such things. It's natural for those who don't get to do them to feel excluded. It's easy to inadvertently offend those types regaling them with your exploits or experiences.
Richard.

+1!

I am excited about diving and learning new things, but my dive buddy hubby couldn't care less. Therefore, I submit to you that some of the "snobbery" might be on the part of the perceivers.

I tell him I like the idea of half-way deep stops and then a minute at every 10-15 feet. He says, "I'm not going to do that." What to do? That's why I took the Solo course.

On the other hand, I am very careful to not come across as "this way is better" . . . it is his choice, after all.

 

[Dyno Bill]

Take the time to work it out, if it's worth doing of course. With all the problems that exist today scuba shouldn't become an issue. The parameters of the dive set what's needed to be safe at the end of the day. The only question might be who's book your reading with reference to the stops. Buy a good computer and do what it says, no arguments can be had doing that.

 

[wjefferis]

When I first started diving I found that divers are a friendly bunch and like to share knowledge if you ask. I have experienced this from both rec and tec divers. The only real difference I see is that tec divers are usually much more serious (as it should be) as they are doing things that must be done in a serious and deliberate manner. Since I have been treated well by divers I feel a need to reciprocate. When I see new divers with a question or problem I try to help them the best I can or at least direct them to someone who can help them. Maybe they will pass that knowledge along to a new diver later on as well.

 

[TB2Scuba]

I am a somewhat new diver and have noticed that you get both sides on this. On one hand you have the guys that have experience and they think that the tools they use and the way you use them is just the way it should be done period. They will argue with you and try to make you feel stupid and ask you how much "experience" you have till they are blue in the face. I have seen this and wonder why people act this way and come across as thinking they are the masters of diving. I have also seen the exact opposite. There have been people (especially many on this board) that get excited at the thought of a new diver. They strive to help, especially noobs, in any way possible. They are open and informative to any and all. They share information to anyone willing to listen. These people to me are the true heart and soul of diving, they enjoy their sport and encourage those to enjoy the sport too. I am and always will be an anti-snob diver. Everyone on this board was at one time a new diver with less than ten dives under his/her belt and I can guarantee perfection is in the eye of the beholder. On a side note I thank everyone on this board who has been a "true diver" and decided to be a teacher instead of a snob when the diving community needed you.

 

[Amphiprion]

HAVE YOU FELT SNUBBED BEFORE? I was snubbed by a technical dive guide who was also an instructor based on some of my equipment configuration.

IF SO WHY? AND WAS IT FAIR OR NOT? If not rude, I actually want to be snubbed or otherwise corrected. I can always learn or assimilate someone else's knowledge into my own diving.

WAS IT INTENTIONAL OR NOT? It was intentional, but not mean spirited. Tech diving is less forgiving. If I get the chance to learn something I will, although hopefully not the hard way.

 

[TSandM]

Cam, I'm not precisely sure what you have been doing that has upset your wife and others. But I can tell you that I have watched some friends, including my very dear dive and class buddy, take training beyond mine, and largely disappear from my roster of dive buddies. As they have finished more advanced training, they have largely sought to do the dives they trained to do, and as I couldn't do those dives, I saw less and less of them. There have been times when I have considered going for more training just to be "one of the guys", even though the actual dives don't much appeal to me.

In the caves, I've seen my former buddies loading up stages and taking off for the nether regions, where I'm just not ready to go. It hurts a little. I don't really expect them to stay back in the front of the cave with me, but part of me wishes they would, at least sometimes. And maybe, when they aren't as excited about what they can now do, they will. Or maybe they'll do things that are even more beyond me.

But I think that's natural. If you have the drive to do more -- go deeper or further -- then once you have the training to do it, you want to use that training. I know that even for me, in Mexico, if I have Cave 1/Intro divers with me, I really have to use some discipline to resist the invitations to go places they can't go. Especially when I can only get down there a couple of times a year, for a few days each time, the temptation to maximize my own excitement and enjoyment is pretty strong.

I don't know that you are snubbing your friends, but you may somewhat have outgrown them. You just have to decide how much of your diving time you want to spend at your new level, and how much you want to spend with your friends. Each kind of diving has its rewards, but they are quite different, and you have to balance them for yourself.

Have I ever been snubbed? I doubt it. Have I ever FELT snubbed? Yes. Was it an intentional snub? I really don't think so.

 

[The Chairman]

There is a difference between being snubbed and feeling a bit envious. When I hear Howarde talk about his explorations in the Dominican Republic, I am way envious of him and yet so happy that he gets to hang with John Chatterton looking for wrecks (the jerk!!! ). But he has never snubbed me! I love to hear what he is doing, though there is much he just can't tell me for obvious reasons.

But you can bet, if Howie and I are in the same vicinity, we'll be splashing together. There is no snobbery on his part.

 

[BioLogic]

I had a guy at Ginnie come up and tell me 'they'd throw me out for taking a light into those caves'. I just let him know I'm cavern certified so they wouldn't. I'm not sure if he was driven by concern or by annoyance at seeing someone on a single coming out of the cavern. (I didn't go into the cave; just the cavern.)

I've been around a lot of extremely qualified divers, and as a rule they've been the soul of friendly courtesy to my less capable self. It's a much friendlier community than others I've been associated with, including cyclists.

Am I a snob? In a Carteresque moment, 'I have snobbed in my heart'. I couldn't care about equipment, but I get bugged when people aren't trained as well as I think they should be for what they're doing. OW divers who have no idea what a weight check is definitely made me think "My class was better than that." But I have never been even tempted to show that attitude to the divers -- I helped the guy with a weight check instead, because the goal is for people to have fun and safe dives, not feel snubbed.

 

[BabyDuck]

I am a somewhat new diver and have noticed that you get both sides on this. On one hand you have the guys that have experience and they think that the tools they use and the way you use them is just the way it should be done period. They will argue with you and try to make you feel stupid and ask you how much "experience" you have till they are blue in the face. I have seen this and wonder why people act this way and come across as thinking they are the masters of diving. I have also seen the exact opposite. There have been people (especially many on this board) that get excited at the thought of a new diver. They strive to help, especially noobs, in any way possible. They are open and informative to any and all. They share information to anyone willing to listen. These people to me are the true heart and soul of diving, they enjoy their sport and encourage those to enjoy the sport too.

i'm not picking on tb2, just pointing out that he's *exactly* on target about the two sides of the fence. both divers in the example above are sharing information they think is important - but one comes off as argumentative and one as excitedly sharing. it might be from the attitude of the sharer *or* the share-ee.

think about the recent death at vortex. he was told verbally by several people that he was being overconfident of his abilities & was putting himself in danger. were the people telling him that trying to be snobs? i doubt it. did he think they were being butt-in-skis? i bet so.

so, if you're telling someone something they need to hear, avoid sounding elitist. IF YOU'RE BEING TOLD SOMETHING YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR, MAKE SURE IT ISN'T SOMETHING YOU *NEED* TO HEAR BEFORE IT GOES OUT THE OTHER EAR.