What are your biggest pet peeves?

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50 minutes or 50 Bar whichever comes the soonest

One of the local diver operators use this criteria for the timing of the dive, for me this is unacceptable considering:

The 9.30 boat left at 10:10
The SI between the dives was 1 hr 45 mins
and the 12.30 boat left at 13.00

This drives me nuts, I spend 2 hours driving across UAE to the east coast and I want at least 60 mins underwater, is that too much to ask


Boy am I with you on that one! Dive Ops that limit dive time then don't even honour their commitments for arrivals and departures won't get a second chance at my business. Of course emergencies happen but there better be a darn good reason! I try to find out before booking if they limit dives .. it is unlikely I will book under those circumstances!
 
Chronic objectors ... we see it on ScubaBoard regularly. These are the folks who have been trained to dive a certain way, and are convinced that any other way is inherently unsafe, stupid, or someone's just doing it for the "cool factor".

Who really gives a crap? And why should the chronic objector care how someone else is enjoying themselves? I don't care if you're wearing split fins, jacket BCD, long hose, short hose, backplate, sidemount, spare air, pink snorkel, or any other piece of gear ... if it makes you feel safer, more confident, or more joyful underwater it's the right equipment for you.

I recently learned how to sidemount ... and thinking that my local folks might be interested in my efforts to adapt sidemount to local, cold water OW diving, started a thread on my local forum. And straight from the "there's one in every crowd" department, one guy kept couching objections to sidemount diving in the form of "questions" ... so he could hide behind an "I just want to find out more" facade to denigrate what I'm doing. Further, his snarky choice of terms and phrases made it quite clear that he considered his way superior.

Really ... seriously ... to the folks who just have to do this ... whether you're tech divers, 50-dive "experts", dive shop owners who need to promote the gear you sell, old pharts who long for a return to the '70's, or just some newb who can't imagine any other way ... focus on what you're doing, and don't worry about what I'm doing. I'll happily answer questions ... if they're phrased in a way that gives me the impression you're really interested. But I am NOT interested in your objections ... and this is ESPECIALLY true if you haven't even tried the thing that you're objecting to.

I don't need to justify my decisions to you ... PARTICULARLY if you have less experience at it than I do.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
C... I don't care if you're wearing split fins, jacket BCD, long hose, short hose, backplate, sidemount, spare air, pink snorkel, or any other piece of gear ... if it makes you feel safer, more confident, or more joyful underwater it's the right equipment for you... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Thank you...it would be nice folks take this to heart.
 
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Well said Bob.. too bad that post wont fit in my sig line!... hmmm maybe there is a way>>>>>
 
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annoys me the most until the point of dying is when people seems to be able to enjoy the sun while on the boat, in the water and coming out of the water and back to shore / beach without having to deal with the Sun rash! I got it every time expose to the sun, wearing full wetsuit, my ankles and my hands or faces where it's not covered by mask ie : ears chin forehead. Even when removing wetsuit to dry off i have to hide from the sun! it's killing me. why me.... i love outdoors... T_T
 
annoys me the most until the point of dying is when people seems to be able to enjoy the sun while on the boat, in the water and coming out of the water and back to shore / beach without having to deal with the Sun rash! I got it every time expose to the sun, wearing full wetsuit, my ankles and my hands or faces where it's not covered by mask ie : ears chin forehead. Even when removing wetsuit to dry off i have to hide from the sun! it's killing me. why me.... i love outdoors... T_T
Gosh, me too! I used to be able to enjoy the sun, but now I get sun poisoning if I'm exposed more than a few short minutes. I've been getting it on my face and neck lately where my wetsuit stops. I'm thinking I need to wear a hood with a flange... and the water is about 82°F/28°C!
 
The assumption that all newbies know NOTHING about diving.

Ah ... I think that's a misinterpretation of what you're hearing. New divers know what they learned in class ... and what they've been able to apply during their time in-water. What most folks are trying to tell you is that there's a vast continuum of knowledge around diving that you haven't been exposed to yet ... that you may not yet even suspect exists ... and even if you've read about it somewhere, there's a big difference between knowing something from an academic perspective vs knowing it from the context of having experienced it.

What you're more likely hearing isn't that you don't know anything, but that there are uncharted (for you) waters ahead that you need to be aware of ... this is particularly the case where you live, because of the prevailing conditions you'll be diving in. As an example, you may have been trained at Whytcliffe ... diving there's relatively easy until you swim out into the Cut at the wrong time and get caught up in a current ... or find yourself deeper than you expected and suddenly realize you're low on air and a long way from the beach. What you'll need to do in those cases are things that weren't necessarily covered in any of your previous classes.

What you know is a matter of perspective ... perhaps what you're seeing as an assumption is really just an attempt to put what you DO know into the perspective of all the potential issues you haven't yet been exposed to.

Diving's kinda like growing up ... it's OK to learn by getting a few bruises or even a few stitches from time to time ... but don't take it amiss if someone's trying to point out something that's gonna prevent you from breaking a bone. They're not looking down on you ... they're trying to help you learn how to better take care of yourself ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)
 
My everyday pet peeve is now showing up in diving - Fuel Surcharges, or more specifically fuel surcharges with no explanation as to how it was calculated. I understand that fuel prices have become extremely volatile and if I'm booking on a charter a month or two in advance that operators need to protect themselves from financial risk. However, just slapping on an automatic 15% fuel surcharge with no explanation as to why 15% or how fuel prices would have to change to reduce (or remove) it would be nice. Ditto on when I do a walk on charter and book the day before ... I'm pretty sure that fuel prices aren't going to move that much in the next couple of hours to justify that kind of gouging. It appears to me that a) you don't have a good understanding of your cost of business or b) you are trying an end run by advertising cheap prices and then slapping on an extra cost.
 
Chronic objectors ...

I saw this pic earlier today and thought it was applicable to your sentiment :D (which I fully agree with)

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