American divers get no respect

[agilis]

Isn't French Polynesia an oxymoron? Was there a plebiscite?

 

[The Chairman]

Respect goes both ways. I rarely give respect when none is given to me. It doesn't matter why you disrespect me either. I'm both fat and American but I bet few can match my skills in the water. Isn't that what Scuba is all about?

 

[Storker]

Respect goes both ways. I rarely give respect when none is given to me.

I guess that's rather universal on both sides of the Atlantic - and the Pacific for that case - and probably the main reason that this thread devolved into a trainwreck of epic proportions.

 

[Gabriel Torres]

I have been diving in French Polynesia the past two summers and I have run up against a distinct disdain for American divers based on our predominant certification agency; PADI. You get no respect. Dive operators sneer at the mention of PADI.

Strange. I am spending a two-month diving vacations here in French Polynesia and have no issues at all (I am a newbie O.W. and got certified in Australia). In none of the places I dived (Tahiti with Top Dive and Tahiti-Iti Diving, Mo'orea with Top Dive, Huahine with Mahana Dive, Raiatea with Hemisphere Sub, and Bora Bora with Eleuthera/Bora Diving) I had any issues for being PADI-certified. Quite the contrary. I was very well treated by everybody here. Some of the shops are PADI, and they even have PADI courses and certifications...

Maybe it was a problem with a specific shop or person.

---------- Post added September 23rd, 2015 at 04:04 PM ----------

Isn't French Polynesia an oxymoron? Was there a plebiscite?

No, it is not an oxymoron. Polynesia is (etnically) a triangule formed by Hawai'i, New Zealand, and Easter Island.

There was a plebiscite in the 1960s and they voted to stay a French territory.