PerroneFord
Contributor
MissyP:
Common sense should tell you not to run out of air. Common sense should tell you to check your tank pressure before you submerge. Common sense should tell you not to swim a wreck without a compass. Common sense says you should take an SMB on all your dives in case you get lost in the current or lose the anchorline. And common sense says you should understand tables so when your dive computer craps out you aren't left helpless.
In fact, common sense should tell us to stay the hell out of the water if we need to strap on $1k worth of stuff to simply breathe! Most newbie divers don't understand the risks involved in just dipping down a few more dozen feet to see the cool wreck down there. Heck, they can still look up and see the dive boat. How bad could it be? Everyone else is doing it. What makes them special?
The sad fact, is that there are a LOT of ignorant newbies out there because certifying agencies give out OW C-Cards to people who shouldn't have them. I was fortunate enough to have a strict instructor (PADI if you can believe it) who instilled proper respect for diving in us. And I am a curious person by nature, so I've read everything about diving I could get my hands on. I know how to rig a backplate and harness, I know how to do deco planning, and I can run my tables easily. And I am a rank newbie. I am not typical. Typical would be that couple on the boat in the 3mm wetsuits who had no idea how to plan for conditions. How often do you think people like that check their gas? Think they understand pressure groups and NDL? Accidents waiting to happen. Just like the morons who enter caves with no lights, , no reels, and flutter kicking all the silt off the bottom.
Very few things in our sport are common sense. Much of our sport is dictated by strict rules, physiology, and advanced science and technology. The penalties for ignorance can be quite high, and one bad mistake can kill. Its' like getting into a racing car with a learners permit. You can tell the person not to exceed 75 mph, but when the needle goes to 200.. it takes discipline most people don't have.
I'll give you a true newbie story for entertainment purposes:
OW certification dive. 65ft deep spring. Water temp about 62 degrees. I do my pre-dive check with my buddy, and all seems well. Class is instructed to swim out to the marker where we will descend. I inflate my BC and head out. About 15 seconds into the swim, I am struggling mightily, like a force is trying to drown me. I swim back, thinking I am grossly overweight. Class is now waiting for me. I ditch my weight belt altogether, fill up my BC, and the process repeats. I swim back out. Problem... BC has a slow leak and won't hold air.
Lesson learned: Pre-Dive should include bouyancy check on the surface.
Same dive after getting new BC. Do some swimming as a group, work on trim, etc. Get to buddy breathing at 45 feet on the bottom. Instructor selects myself and my buddy as we look the most comfortable in the class. My buddy breathes my octo fine. Applause from class and instructor. I attempt to breathe from my buddy's octo. As I bite down, the regulator floats away while I have the mouthpiece in my mouth. An honest to goodness OOA in dive 1 of the OW cert class. The instructor's eyes get as big as dinner plates as he helps me recover my reg. I never blinked. He asks me ok, I signal ok, applause from instructor and class.
Lesson learned: Assemble your own gear and check EVERYTHING in pre-dive.
It's darn easy to bag on people new to this sport. In fact, what should be happening, is that people need to remember how hard this sport is take up, and lend some assistance to newbies. Any experienced diver on the boat should have said to Mr. and Ms. 3mil suit, hey, you're probably going to freeze in that small suit, you might want to think twice about diving it. Someone could have mentioned pre-dive to the other couple that a 100ft dive might be inappropriate for them. Did the captain or dive-master explain the boats itererary prior to leaving shore? Maybe there was a different boat they should or could have gotten on. If we don't help the people newest to this sport, we doom them to be internet jokes, or worse, statistics.
Sorry to get on my soapbox, but it's hard being the newbie here and seeing my peers get bagged on when a lot of them are just trying to get experience, and don't know any better.
Thanks for letting me vent...
