Bad attitudes in diving.......A true story.

[Choke]

I'm always reading and being told that the friendliness and chilled out vibe in the diving world is a very common thing, but last night I met two of the biggest a**holes ever.

I'm currently doing my OW course and am on the second phase of it. Up until last night all the people I had met have been totally 1st class and super friendly.
Anyway, at last nights lesson we were joined by a married couple who had missed the induction and first lesson. While everyone else was more or less keeping themselves to themselves these two sauntered in saying that they had done this and had done that....blah blah. The instructor asked if they had previous experience with scuba gear and they said that they had been all over the world snorkelling/diving and just wanted to refresh their skills.
To cut a long story short, we went down to the pool after our theory session and sorted out all of our kit before heading off to change. The couple were standing around idle and looked a little lost so I offered to help get them kitted up. As I said "you need some fins which are here and the masks are over there", the female of the two said "DO NOT TALK TO US, WE ARE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF FINDING WHAT WE NEED". I laughed as I thought she was fooling around but she just looked through me as if I wasn't there. The husband looked at me as if I had made a pass at his wife (who resembled a hammer head shark) and took a step forward to confront me.
I just turned around and walked off shaking my head and my buddy who had overheard what she had said, came up to me laughing his head off and said "don't worry man, let's just do our thing and enjoy the night".
With that we got changed and then headed poolside to strap up for pool entry.
I watched the couple curiously as it was clear as day that they didn't have a clue what they were doing. Eventually they managed to get ready with 95% help from one of the dive masters. I heard the husband say that the 'life jacket' was different from what he was used to.
We all entered the pool and went through some drills (losing your reg and replacing it and flooding your mask and clearing it).
Everyone took it in turns and when it came to the married couple, the female took out her regulator, put it back in her mouth and inhaled without clearing the water. Needless to say she started spluttering and started to panic. Instead of standing up (we were in 5ft of water) she just started waving her arms around in a frenzy. The instructor had to grab hold of her and take her all the way to the surface (hint of sarcasm here) where she totally flipped out and said that she could easily have died. Her husband then joined in and said that the instructor was incompetent and he would be consulting his solicitors first thing in the morning. With this they both climbed out of the pool and stormed off out of the class hurling abuse at anyone in their way.

The whole fiasco seemed to really upset the instructor and in turn this affected our session, but to be honest I can't wait until next week to see what fun awaits.

However, I will say a little prayer before my next class and that will be to ask God to keep the munsters away from my life forever!

I feel better now that I've got that off my chest. I told my wife as soon as I got home and she said that I must be bending the truth a touch as that would never happen in the real world. ;-0

 

[miked]

Choke,
First, welcome to the board,from NJ!
Your story just goes to show that there are @#$%^ everywhere you look. I have occasionally run into similarly ill behaved people while travelling, etc., but fortunately the vast majority of people I have encountered while diving are OK. The best trick is, as your
buddy said, ignore them, and enjoy what you are doing.
Good luck with the OW ,
MikeD

 

[sea nmf]

I guess it is a good thing that couple found each other. You just know they behave like that everywhere and in every situation. Keep us posted if they show back up.

 

[dkerr]

No matter what learning environment you are in, there will always be someone who wants to tell you how much better they are at it. They can talk till they are blue in the face, but it all comes down to performance. You want to talk skills?...let's see them. You want to talk technique?...let's see it.
This is the wonderful thing about diving. It is extremely clear who knows what they are doing by their actions. How well do they set up, entry, boyancy, comunication, etc? You can not talk your way through this in the real world!
Rest assured that they will be telling their friends about the incompetance of your class. But what goes around, comes around.
My advise is learn everything you can from your instructor, but watching everyone else learn beside you can be an even bigger instruction. Good luck with the rest of your class.
DKerr

 

[bgonderi]

At one level, sounds like it was quite amusing - too bad it adversely affected your instructor and the rest of your session. Sad thing is, those two goons will probably end up getting certified and becoming bona-fide members of the "strokes club" that everyone around here is so fond of.

I find it hard to be around know-it-alls like that, especially when they don't know anything. As others have mentioned, quit telling me how good you are and show me!

 

[Wendy]

Sad that they were such rude idiots, but you told the story so well! Can't wait for your next class and the report to follow!

 

[jbd]

It wouldn't surprise me if they weren't setting up a lawsuit. I doubt if they have any real intention of learning to dive.

 

[TexasMike]

The instructor asked if they had previous experience with scuba gear and they said that they had been all over the world snorkelling/diving and just wanted to refresh their skills.

Actullay, my take on this (based on how you have told the story) is that the instructor kinda set himself up for the problem. He should have asked to see their c-cards and/or log books. And if the couple couldn't produce them, then he would have had the opportunity to deny them entry into the class/pool.

 

[wheezy]

Exactly, NONE of the instructors I know would have let them in anyway. Miss a day, miss the class until next session.

the term "life jacket" should have been a dead giveaway

 

[Rooster1]

please keep us posted. I have the feeling the 2 knuckle heads u were talking about have had most of life taken care of at the expense of someone else. I think these kind of ignorant people need to learn things the hard way because they obviously have no respect for decent folks. People like this truly need to have things the hard way.