Is this the average diver?

Is this the average diver?

  • Yes

    Votes: 8 5.3%
  • No

    Votes: 143 94.7%

  • Total voters
    151

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If you go on a trip from one of the GBR resorts, expect to be the odd one out. Expect the dive sites to be selected based on divers with 20 dives total experience, expect the dive brief to focus on the simple skills and simple techniques.

Been there, done that and got the t-shirt.

I will add that SB members are not the norm, as already mentioned by others.

Most people I meet diving at weekends have never heard of SB, same when I travel to SE Asia on dive trips. Unusually of the ten people on the boat last weekend, four of us with BP/W and one side mount diver, the rest had BCDs, and the group that replaced us when we came back were all 100% BCD.

However, last year at ADEX in Singapore, not a BCD to be seen, but a plethora of colourful wings, even the big H had fluorescent pink and green colours. It was like a farewell to the BCD.

Everyone starts off with standard kit, usually influenced by their instructor and peers and money. If you continue diving after several years then the kit changes and becomes customised by the person using it. Even little things like a bit of bungee around the LP inflator hose or use of 5m of different coloured line on the end of the DSMB spool are the beginnings to make life easier, as well as incorporating long hose to recreational diving and slinging pony bottles as redundant gas sources.
 
Yes, I know quite a few very competent divers as well as instructors that use them.

Likewise, but I just don't like the look of them :rofl3:

I just wish Hollis would make their F2s in another colour.
 
Nice thread, especially as it clearly shows how much the SB crowd differs from the average. When I go diving in Holland, I see a decent amount of BP/W and long hoses. Guestimate is 20%. I always dive with a mixed group of which I am usually the least experienced one (# dives of the rest is between 200 and 4000). In that group, no-one uses BPW etc. I guess it's a matter of preference for them.

I think I am closer to the average as a diver. I do about 15 dives a year, mostly in cold water. I don't have a full set of equipment so I still rent a lot, although I'm building up my stuff every year. But I do take my diving seriously, so my trim is pretty decent (at least for my level of experience) and I'm a good buddy.

Tomorrow I'm gonna buy myself an Axiom vest (pool dive next Friday to catch up again after 6 months and my first dive of the year in a week). I've seriously considered buying the Hydros, but it was a poor fit to me, especially compared to the Axiom so I'll keep my money. I am aware of the general consensus here on SB that BP/W is the way to heaven and most likely makes for a better dive but I chose not to buy one. Why? Because I often use different suits (5mil, 7 mil, dry) and I don't want to continually adjust my webbing. But the most important reason is probably because I don't want to be the guy diving tech stuff with only about 50 dives behind his name. Also, the Axiom fits perfectly and my diving equipment is currently (and for a while) not really a limiting factor to my diving. I have no issues with buying expensive stuff, but I am self conscious and I let myself be influenced (partly) by a group of people I like and respect.

To sum it up: I'm gonna die. Big time. I own a Suunto (very happy with it), no Hydros or split fins but I'm dead anyways and I purposefully don't buy a BP/W so I'm also on an express train to hell.
 
I don't want to continually adjust my webbing.

My webbing needs little adjustment from drysuit to 3mm, you should give BP/W a try sometime.
 
Oh, I see. You can't speak for the PADI Tech system. Funny, I sure thought you did when you wrote...

Okay, I see how you could imply that, but I didn't say it. Technical divers are far from average, and therefore technical training cannot be part of this thread. Organisations like TecRec, TDI, GUE, ISE, IANDT etc are not in the vocabulary of the average diver. I think PADI do a fantastic job of teaching divers what they need to know, but they focus so much on selling continuing education rather than getting new divers to appreciate what they do not know. People do their OW course in clear, warm water on the GBR, timed very carefully to manage tides and current. Then head home, mostly overseas to dive again next holiday in a year to three; or perhaps to Melbourne and go diving in Port Phillip. Very different conditions, and they don't know what they don't know.

This is getting wildly off topic. You can either trust me that I'm not denigrating you or TecRec, or not. Honestly I cannot see a logical reason to call you pond scum or imply anything of the sort. I'll try to be more precise in my wording.

It sure sounded to me like you were telling potential tech students in my area that taking classes from me was dangerous based on your one experience in the one shop in your area on the other side of the world.

It would be patently ridiculous for me to imply what you are arguing. Regarding the 'one shop', I am saying that I personally seen one shop offer TecRec, and it was in Europe. Technical training is more about the instructor than the agency, and arguing about technical agencies is well outside the scope of this thread.

If you want to continue this, feel free to message me.
 
The average diver on Scubaboard appears different from the true average diver because of some very vocal fanboys with some very strong opinions:

Regular jacket style BC? You're gonna die unless you get a BPW!
Even worse a Hydros Pro? You're not only gonna die, but you are a poser spending too much money on a terrible piece of gear
Even worser (is that a word LOL) an Air2? You're gonna die at least twice
Split fins??? You're gonna die, being pushed backwards, against even a slight current
Suunto Dive Computer? You're gonna die, bent, with a worthless piece of crap on your wrist

Maybe an inside joke of sorts, and definitely said (by me at least) tongue in cheek, but the "average" diver that posts a lot on Scubaboard is definitely not the average diver :nyah:

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scubadada:
Does this describe the average diver you see in your diving?
This does not describe the diver I most commonly see. (I hesitate to use 'average' as a descriptor, but I think I am answering the question being asked.)

Some thoughts:

Based on the poll results, I am probably an 'average' SB diver.

On recreational dives, I use a BP/W, long hose. I dive with a SPG and two dive computers. I practice and preach primary donate. So, take my subsequent comments in that context.

Yes, SB is a self-selecting subset of the diving population.

That doesn't mean that SB users are 'wrong' (or, that they are uniformly 'right' for that matter), rather they are a group of individuals who are sufficiently interested in diving, and are sufficiently curious, and are sufficiently committed to continued improvement in skills, to search out resources and spend time reading and posting. This is NOT to say that divers who do not participate in SB are somehow uniformly uninterested, lacking in curiosity, or and not committed to continuing improvement. But, just as the proportion of divers using a BP/W appears to be higher on SB, the proportion of divers who are interested, curious and committed also appears to be higher on SB than among the general diving population.

Yes, many, if not most divers have never heard of SB.

That is both unfortunate, and not altogether surprising. There are SO many online resources available, that the 'average' person may not land on SB. Many instructors, at least in my experience across multiple shops, and more than a few shop staff, appear to be actually reluctant to make students and divers aware of SB. I can only guess at their motives, but I suspect that among them is a fear that divers will be exposed on SB to ideas, concepts, configurations, opinions that are at variance with what their instructor(s) told them, or their shop sold them. (Of course, they actually frame their concern as not wanting their students to pick up bad ideas from SB.)

As an Instructor, I actively encourage all of my students to become SB users. Many do. Some don't. Their choice. I routinely reference SB threads in my teaching. Some students go to the trouble of looking them up. Some don't. (I also provide links to a number of YouTube videos that I think are excellent for instruction.)

Gear does NOT make the diver. Divers make the gear.

I dive with a number of people who I consider to be superb divers - I have chosen them, they have chosen me. (Yes, there is some self-selection there. :) ) Two of them are my primary DMs for every class I teach. Neither of them use a BP/W, or a long hose. They both have excellent technique, great buoyancy control and trim, are confident and capable, etc., etc. and I absolutely love diving with them. We talk about equipment, skills, instructional technique, our continued interest in development, things that work for us, etc. I have learned from them, they have learned from me. Our equipment configurations are our individual choices.

I use a jacket BCD, and a 'standard hose length' regulator in the pool, because that's what the shops through which I teach use for students. I can achieve good horizontal trim and buoyancy control with my jacket BCD and a weight belt. And, OMG, I haven't died yet!

I teach what works for me and what I believe in

I encourage divers to try BP/W rigs. I encourage them to use primary donate. I encourage them to configure their regulator with two equivalently functioning second stages (no integrated inflator / alternate second stage units; no cheap, needlessly 'detuned POS 'octos'). I tell them why I prefer my configurations. If they ask, I help them buy gear (online, yes even on eBay) based on what they want to accomplish. BUT, I make it clear that what I dive represents my preferences, and not some form of mystical universal truth.
 
Telvar:
I don't want to continually adjust my webbing.

My webbing needs little adjustment from drysuit to 3mm, you should give BP/W a try sometime.

Same for me. I used to dive a range of thermal protection from bare chest to a 7 mm full wet suit. All I had to do was push on both waist straps and pull out the shoulder straps to give more space for the 7 mm or pull out the waist straps to give less space for the 2-1/2 mm shorty or the occasional bare-chested dive. Takes about 5 seconds per strap.
 
Oddly enough, my steel tanks are usually more of a curiosity to every day divers than any of my other gear....
 
Only one instructor of the 15 or so I assisted mentioned to the OW class about SB. Yet knowing the shop & staff back then, for some reason I don't think that was on purpose. I get the feeling instructors/DMs there either weren't SB members or simply didn't think of it. There was no reason to be fearful of SB since until recently the shop was the only one for a long long way. Back then I think you needed some proof of cert. to get into the Going Pro & I to I forums and the owner was more than happy to provide that.
I found out about SB in 2007 from my first and only regular dive buddy. He was a fellow newbie and don't think he dived (much) past 2010.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

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