Boat crew setting kit up

[seaducer]

You really, really, really don't need to be a certified diver, a high school graduate, competent in English or more than moderately intelligent to be able to be trained to attach a BCD and a regulator to a tank. It ain't rocket science and open water students do it all the time after being shown once or twice.

That said, I am happy with people who prefer to do it themselves but are they really so afraid that they are not competent enough to catch someone else's potential mistake? And "preferring to do it yourself (which I do) is vastly different from the "if you touch my gear, I kill you" mentality. Oops. I said that already.

I see what you are saying and I mostly agree. I too prefer to set up and break down my own gear, to the point that I would not want to be on a boat where the crew insists on it. It is my gear, I spent my $$$ on it and please don't handle it, you can't take the kind of care I do.

Still if a crew member grabs my stuff or plays around with it, I just double check everything and don't make a fuss...unless I am wearing it.

On my first trip a newer crewmemember was checking valves as divers walked off the back of the boat. For whatever reason he switched hands on my tank, got confused with the righty tighty thing and shut me down. As I always take a few deep breaths while watching my spg I saw the needle drop and corrected before getting wet. Still, that bothers me, some of my dives are negative entries.

If you touch my gear while it is sitting on the bench that is one thing, keep your fingers off my valve when the kit is on my back. The life you save might be mine, or more likely yours when I get out of trouble and climb back on board all kinds of ticked off.

Whether the crew is certified or not I don't think that matters. Most rec gear is similar enough and simple enough that anyone can set it up.

 

[watboy]

I agree. The vast majority of divers dive make less than 20 dives a year and rent their equipment. The diveshop I worked at it was the DM's responsibility to get their customers kitted up. On the big dive boats with 2+ hour transit times, the DM's would take turns taking their groups down and watched/assisted the clients putting their gear together. I was always taught this was a great way to evaluate your customers. Most of the time they get it wrong. It was our jobs to encourage them to understand their gear while not making them feel stupid or foolish on their vacation. On the small speed boats, there's just not enough room for customers to clumsily kit up and we would kit up the gear before departure and swap tanks between dives. In that case, we always observed customers doing buddy checks. We always had customers with their own gear assemble it themselves, but observed them. Eager boat crews in my neck of the woods are trying hard to please to earn tips. DM's make about 30 bucks for a 12 hour day, and the boat crew makes substantially less. If you have hired DM's, why are the boatcrew dealing with kit instead of the DM's. And even if you don't have hired DM's you should always check your gear before you put it on and always do buddy checks before you get in. I too also repeatedly check my tank valve before i don my gear and the last thing I do before I enter the water is taking deep breaths off my reg while watching my SPG needle.

I think this is one of those areas that points to the difference between the typical SB diver and the typical recreational diver ... the vast majority of the latter would consider it a service to have a crew member setting up their gear.

The first time I encountered this was in Roatan ... and I was a bit taken aback by the idea that someone else wanted to set up my gear. When I noticed how he'd done it, I asked the boat crew to just let me do my own setting up. He told me that it was resort policy that the crew does it for me. OK ... so I then showed him how to do it to my liking. The rest of the week all I had to do was check it.

No matter who sets up your equipment ... it is still your responsibility to check it and make sure it's right. That includes testing that valve handle and making sure your air is on ... in my kitting up routine, I check that four or five times before I get into the rig ... even when I'm setting up my own equipment ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Charlie99]

This is all much ado about nothing. To me, the boat crew assembling gear, passing out weight, etc. is simply a way of making things run more smoothly on a crowded boat.

Assembling my gear consists of sliding a BCD onto a tank and cranking down the camband. It has a permanent kink at 7.25", so if its an AL80, it will be nice and tight.

It doesn't take a lot of training or experience for someone to figure out how to screw a regulator 1st stage onto a yoke valve and attach the LP hose to the BCD inflator. (Of course, I have managed to mess that up by attaching the 1st stage over the top of the bungee cord holding the tank in place, but that's another story).

Some boat crews neatly dress the hoses, putting the LP hose under the BCD velcro flap, clipping the console to the BC, putting the octo in its holder. Others just stuff all the hoses behind the cumberbund to keep them out of the way. Either works for me.

The boat crew passing out lead also minimizes the back and forth traffic on a boat. I'm happy to find my lead in a pile beneath the BCD to put into the pockets as we near the drop point. This sure beats a boatful of divers all gathered around the weight bin, pawing through it trying to find what they need. For those with weight belts, the better crews get a pretty good eye for where on a belt to put the weights so they will fit each particular diver, whether a petite 100 pound women or a size XXXL guy. In either case, the diver will adjust as necessary.

Come on guys, do you have so little faith in your skill at inspecting your setup that you fear having someone else put it together?

 

[seaducer]

Come on guys, do you have so little faith in your skill at inspecting your setup that you fear having someone else put it together?

No, for me I worry about them damaging something. Maybe dinging the 1st stage or splashing water into it during setup or switch because A- they are in a hurry because they have some many to do and B- it is not theirs so they are not as careful as they should be.

Not having my weights set right or hoses dressed the way I like them is an inconviencience, I can change all that in a second, but why should I have to?

I enjoy setting my gear up for one, so let me do mine, let the crew set up someone else's gear if they want that.

 

[fire_diver]

This is all much ado about nothing. To me, the boat crew assembling gear, passing out weight, etc. is simply a way of making things run more smoothly on a crowded boat.

Assembling my gear consists of sliding a BCD onto a tank and cranking down the camband. It has a permanent kink at 7.25", so if its an AL80, it will be nice and tight.

It doesn't take a lot of training or experience for someone to figure out how to screw a regulator 1st stage onto a yoke valve and attach the LP hose to the BCD inflator. (Of course, I have managed to mess that up by attaching the 1st stage over the top of the bungee cord holding the tank in place, but that's another story).

Some boat crews neatly dress the hoses, putting the LP hose under the BCD velcro flap, clipping the console to the BC, putting the octo in its holder. Others just stuff all the hoses behind the cumberbund to keep them out of the way. Either works for me.

The boat crew passing out lead also minimizes the back and forth traffic on a boat. I'm happy to find my lead in a pile beneath the BCD to put into the pockets as we near the drop point. This sure beats a boatful of divers all gathered around the weight bin, pawing through it trying to find what they need. For those with weight belts, the better crews get a pretty good eye for where on a belt to put the weights so they will fit each particular diver, whether a petite 100 pound women or a size XXXL guy. In either case, the diver will adjust as necessary.

Come on guys, do you have so little faith in your skill at inspecting your setup that you fear having someone else put it together?

And yet, if it's soooo simple why are folks not assembling thier own gear? Personally, I agree that there isn't anything difficult in gearing up for a dive which is why I find it so amazing that there are always divers who screw it up. These are same people who just let the crew do it whenever possible.

Handing people weights is completely different. If the crew was trying to put weight in my pouches, then I would have a problem because they don't know where I need it to trim out.

I have zero faith in the "just let the crew do it" crowd to inspect thier gear before a dive, or check thier air pressure during a dive, or to do proper weight checks.

 

[EVOIXMR]

I don't want anybody touching my gear but me.
Now, if they wanna haul it to and from my car in the parking lot, then be my guest, but other than that someone shouldn't touch stuff that's not theirs.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I don't want anybody touching my gear but me.
Now, if they wanna haul it to and from my car in the parking lot, then be my guest, but other than that someone shouldn't touch stuff that's not theirs.

Then you'd love Tulamben (Bali) ... you set your own gear up ... they haul it down the beach, help you into it, and come haul it back when you're done diving ... and for a few bucks you can even get a nice post-dive massage ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[fire_diver]

Then you'd love Tulamben (Bali) ... you set your own gear up ... they haul it down the beach, help you into it, and come haul it back when you're done diving ... and for a few bucks you can even get a nice post-dive massage ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

:shocked2: :shocked2:

 

[davetowz]

Don't touch my junk

I concur... Dont touch my junk...ever.

 

[vladimir]

Then you'd love Tulamben (Bali) ... you set your own gear up ... they haul it down the beach, help you into it, and come haul it back when you're done diving ... and for a few bucks you can even get a nice post-dive massage ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

If they find themselves in Tulamben I hope this group, who are pretty adamant about not wanting anybody to even touch their gear, will not pay the porter $2 to carry it, but will instead traverse the rocky beach themselves, with all of their gear:

Don't touch my junk

Don't touch my gear.

Touch my gear- no tip. Touch my tank valve-no tip.

No, no, no, no,. no. Do not touch my kit.

If I were on your boat, I would tell you to not touch my gear. And...I would mean it.

nobody touches my equipment unless it is my dive buddy

Don't touch my stuff!

Hands off my gear, please