I am advanced open water diver with just over 150 dives, mostly in the Pacific, was certified by NAUI in 1992, and also have a PADI wreck certification. I believe I am a safe and competent diver. In my recent travels, I had the “pleasure” recently of preparing to do a 120 foot non-penetration, non-decompression dive on a Central Coast wreck with a tech trained diver with 200 dives who has been diving for 3 years total. (I refer to him as a "tech diver" as he refers to himself, but I believe he took only one such class.) I will leave out his agency, because that is not really the point.
As I was in the area, we both agreed that doing a practice dive prior to this dive was a good idea. I had envisioned that we would work on our preparation as a team, but boy, was I wrong! His condescension started early and never abated. It was clear he felt that as a tech trained diver, he had everything to tell me, I had nothing to tell him, and all my experience was sh_t.
First he told me (before diving with me) that I should get tech training like him, because his training "allowed him to dive to any depth with confidence." He seemed to believe that this 120 foot nonpenetration dive was solely a "tech dive." In fact, my recreational cert covers dives to 130 feet. My very training included a dive to 127 feet.
For the record, I am not opposed to tech training. I’m sure I could learn or polish many valuable skills from it. However, my commitments as a working father do not currently allow this. And after dealing with this guy, I am now less inclined than ever.
Fast-forward to the practice dive.
He laid down the law.
We would use his signals. We would configure our gear as he did.
We would do a deep stop. When I pointed out that deep stops were at best of questionable value, referred him to a DAN article regarding this, he became absolutely irate, and said that unless I did it his way, he would not be diving with me again.
On the subject of bag shooting, I opined that, if we cannot find the anchor line, we should shoot the bag soon after, because if there was a current (likely) it was better to get the bag up early than wait until we were at safety stop depth. He didn't seem to believe that it was possible to not be able to find the anchor line. (In my Pacific diving experience, this is very possible.) He also stated that any current we could just kick into, and that would suffice to keep us in position. (This is also not my experience.) He seemed to be under the impression that shooting a bag was a distress signal. I got the feeling that he did not wish to look bad in front of his tech friends on the boat. (I sort of felt like his buddying with me as a recreational diver was like being stuck taking the ugly girl to the prom—social status, etc.)
On the subject of gas management, when I mentioned the rule of thirds to him, he did not seem to recognize this, or its value. This was very strange to me. I thought the rule of thirds was common knowledge.
I mention the above points not to assert that my way is the right or only way, but rather to illustrate that he seemed to know only what he was told in class, and nothing else. He did not know why he was told what he was told in class. Nor did he tolerate dissent or other ideas, at least from a mere recreational diver like me.
At this point I decided I would not contest his points, but rather go along, as nobody else I knew was interested in a dive this deep. It was dive with this guy, or don’t do the dive at all. For his part, he felt he was doing me a favor. “Most tech divers will not dive with recreational divers,” he said, smugly.
It is not my intention here to critique his diving abilities, but rather his attitude. My attitude towards a dive like this one is one of respect and the need to discuss and prepare for contingencies--thus my interest in doing a practice dive. But he acted as though he knew it all already. His dogmatic adherence to his training, his complete faith in it, his evident contempt for all recreational training, and his arrogance, were all breathtaking (and insufferable.)
I will submit that some of the most accomplished divers, including many on this board, to my knowledge never had any technical training, including for dives far deeper than this one.
Ultimately, because I got a cold, we never did this dive. In our last phone conversation, he told me (for the fourth time) that I should get tech training, and also insinuated that I was an unsafe diver and a bad father if –gasp--I continued to dive without it.
Needless to say I will not be diving with this guy again. This experience has really left a bad taste in my mouth. I mean, once safety standards are met, if we are not diving for fun, what’s the point?
For the record, I am not saying that all or even most tech divers are like this guy. But the whole experience left me wondering just how widespread his kind of "tech arrogance" is, whether this is taught in tech classes, or just acquired naturally, and also made me wonder, if unchecked, how dangerous it could be. Pride goeth before a downfall, etc.
Has anybody else encountered this?
