hogster
New
I have never written anything disparaging about other divers before but our recent trip to SCUBA Club, in Cozumel compels me to. We were there in December for 2 weeks, 10 dive days. Our first 5 dive days were beautiful. Then we started diving with these 5 photographers. They werent a group, 2 were from Bishop, Calif., I think and I dont know where the others were from. I want to say first that I normally have nothing but great respect for older divers. They are great stewards of the environment and set a good example for all divers. Not so much with this lot. I have been diving since 1979 and my wife and I have been all over the world diving and we know there MUST be a few conscientious photographers out there but, in our experience, they are mostly rude and arrogant. We have seen a lot of coral bashers and wildlife molesters with cameras in their hands. These guys were world class.
The saddest thing with this bunch is, between them, they probably have 125-130 years of diving experience. This was the first time in my life I came to the realization that age and lots of experience alone do NOT make a good diver.
I cannot relay every incident that happened with these folks, this article would be WAY too long, but there are some standouts. One lady with her GoPro on a stick trying to get a turtle actually HIT him/her in the left front flipper with her camera. Another memorable moment was the Calif. team. She was shooting stills with this massive rig, he video. She pushed people aside to get a foto of a Splendid Toadfish in his hole and then beckoned her hubby to video him. He muscled his way in and proceeded to stick his video camera literally into the sand at the entrance to the Toadfishs hole. Of course the Toadfish retreated all the way into his hole and no subsequent divers in the group got to see him. Another memorable moment was when 3 of them surrounded a poor turtle hanging out on the reef. They closed in on him with their cameras until he freaked out and escaped. Another lady swam right up to a snoozing nurse shark and stuck her camera in its face. It of course left and swam away to another sandy spot to settle down. She was not done however and chased after it until it could not take it anymore and swam away. One of my favorites was the same geezer lady who molested the shark came up to a resting Scorpion fish, with her bare left hand she grabbed a beautiful coral head and with her right hand shoved her camera in the fishs face. Of course it bugged out and several people behind her did not get to see it. And she did it right in front of the divemaster. I could go on and on but I think you are all getting the picture.
The really pathetic thing is, I would be willing to bet that all of these old fogies think that they are the best divers in the world and having a camera gives them some right to destroy the reef and molest the wildlife.
After EVERY dive I went to the DM and told him what I saw happen and to control his photographers better. Nothing was ever said to ANY of the perpetrators. This is a huge problem as diving gets more and more tip driven. Divemasters will NOT admonish bad behavior because they fear a reduction in their tips. I reduced our tips to our divemasters and put a note in each envelope explaining that I did so because they did not control their photographers and that I witnessed a lot of reef destruction.
If any of you folks that dove with us are reading this, I hope you recognize yourselves. Please, please if you cant behave yourselves underwater and dive any better, hang up your fins and take up golf or shuffleboard.
The saddest thing with this bunch is, between them, they probably have 125-130 years of diving experience. This was the first time in my life I came to the realization that age and lots of experience alone do NOT make a good diver.
I cannot relay every incident that happened with these folks, this article would be WAY too long, but there are some standouts. One lady with her GoPro on a stick trying to get a turtle actually HIT him/her in the left front flipper with her camera. Another memorable moment was the Calif. team. She was shooting stills with this massive rig, he video. She pushed people aside to get a foto of a Splendid Toadfish in his hole and then beckoned her hubby to video him. He muscled his way in and proceeded to stick his video camera literally into the sand at the entrance to the Toadfishs hole. Of course the Toadfish retreated all the way into his hole and no subsequent divers in the group got to see him. Another memorable moment was when 3 of them surrounded a poor turtle hanging out on the reef. They closed in on him with their cameras until he freaked out and escaped. Another lady swam right up to a snoozing nurse shark and stuck her camera in its face. It of course left and swam away to another sandy spot to settle down. She was not done however and chased after it until it could not take it anymore and swam away. One of my favorites was the same geezer lady who molested the shark came up to a resting Scorpion fish, with her bare left hand she grabbed a beautiful coral head and with her right hand shoved her camera in the fishs face. Of course it bugged out and several people behind her did not get to see it. And she did it right in front of the divemaster. I could go on and on but I think you are all getting the picture.
The really pathetic thing is, I would be willing to bet that all of these old fogies think that they are the best divers in the world and having a camera gives them some right to destroy the reef and molest the wildlife.
After EVERY dive I went to the DM and told him what I saw happen and to control his photographers better. Nothing was ever said to ANY of the perpetrators. This is a huge problem as diving gets more and more tip driven. Divemasters will NOT admonish bad behavior because they fear a reduction in their tips. I reduced our tips to our divemasters and put a note in each envelope explaining that I did so because they did not control their photographers and that I witnessed a lot of reef destruction.
If any of you folks that dove with us are reading this, I hope you recognize yourselves. Please, please if you cant behave yourselves underwater and dive any better, hang up your fins and take up golf or shuffleboard.