daedalusx
Registered
This happened to me maybe 3-4 weeks ago, 100% true story; I'm not exaggerating and I'm pretty sure some of you met people like that.
Bit of background on myself; I'm PADI certified OW diver, got my cert last year. After I got my cert I started shopping for a good equipment and found this wonderful forum where I learned many many thing, I've been lurking for about 9 months here and I decided to go with the BP/W setup from DSS with the weight plates since I dive a 7mm and wanted to
get less lead on my belt. I'm 6'3 ~250 lbs and I had 15lbs on my belt, 6 on the stainless BP and 8.4 from the weight plates. I did a couple of dives in my pool to make sure I was properly weighted and I seriously loved how it felt. It felt so solid compared to the cheap rented jacket I had in cert, diving was now much more fun.
So I decided to get more dive under my belt before getting more training (advanced OW, deep & night diving and well maybe DIR-F one day) to get more experience with different situations underwater variable visibility, cold water, etc.
So I booked with a charter that my LDS was advertising. 2x 30 feets dives, 50$ and I had to bring 2 cylinder because they didn't do fills kinda expensive but I really wanted to do it. First real dive outside, meeting people, learning tons of new stuff from people better than me, all in all I was looking forward to that day.
Since I had a BP/W I though it would be wise to arrive early, and meet my diving buddy to explain him how my BC was different than him so in case something happened he knew what to do. The boat captain still hasnt arrived so I started chatting with the divers there and I learned incredible intel.
------------------------------
From the "Charter Manager" girl
------------------------------
- She used special ink and special stickers when authenticating log books because people WILL counterfeit their dive book. She was also very angry other charter companies use a simple stamps; I mean anyone could counterfeit a stamp and stamp their own log books! Oh the humanity
- If you don't do 3 ink-authenticated logged dives per year you can loose your diving license.
----------------
From the 'big girl'
----------------
- If you're only OW certified and you dive under 50 feets the scuba police [yes she actually said that!] can catch you and give you a huge fine because it's totally illegal to go under 50 feets when you're not AOW.
- You have to have your snorkel at all times because if you don't that's also illegal.
---------------------------
From the 'overweight champ'
---------------------------
- Being 20 lbs overweight isnt a big deal as long as you dive with your BC fully inflated. [He was maybe 160 lbs and had 40 LBS of LEAD!]
------------------------
From my new dive buddy
------------------------
- A bottom timer or computer isnt needed as long as your buddy had one. (yeah I mean, why would I do my calculations when I could simply count on someone else. Makes perfect sense)
------------------------------
So big guy boat captains arrive.
I present myself and give my BP/W rig with the cylinder already attached.
Be careful, I say, it might be slightly heavier than the other rigs.
"How come?" he said.
- Well the plate is in stainless and there are weight plates.
"Oh well don't you know that's totally illegal to dive that kind of thing ?! Can you guess why? " He said with a superb condescending tone.
- I don't know ? well maybe because of the myth that the wing keeps divers face down but it doesnt happens when you're correctly weighted and use appropriate air in the wing.
"That thing is totally homemade, it's so dangerous, it's so heavy if you fell unconscious I won't be able to bring you up"
- Wait a min, I said, the 8.4lbs plates have about the same neg buoyancy than steel 100 tanks
"Nah man you got it wrong, steel tanks are about 2-3 lbs negative your rig is totally homemade and it's illegal"
- Starting to get pissed, I answer: Hey man, look at it, first of all it's been made by Deep Sea Supply and calling it homemade is a real insult to the fine craftsmanship of the gear.
"OH MAN I CAN'T BELIEVE THE SCUBA INDUSTRY, THE AMERICANS INDUSTRY AGAIN THEY THROW ALL KIND OF NEW HI-TECH STUFF AND DON'T CARE ABOUT THE
SECURITY OF THE DIVERS, I'M SO PISSED THIS "THING" SHOULD NEVER HAD BEEN SOLD TO YOU HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY ?"
- Not expensive for what it is
"How much ?"
- ~800$ CAD that's a fair price for what it is. [Here you can pay as much as 1200$+ CAD for a Seaquest diamond BC, I have nothing against SQ but I wouldnt pay 1200$ for one.]
"Yeah maybe". He says. "But what that kind of setup you're endangering the lives of everyone aboard"
Then I made the mistake of the day. I decided to get on that boat. I don't understand; usually I'm smarter, I would have said **** the 50$ I'm going home with my 2 fully filled cylinder and I'll have more fun practicing in my pool than diving with idiots. I made the terrible mistake to give it a shot.
And so we went.
5-8 minutes later we were already arrived at the diving site. It was a wooden wreck, no penetration, medium visibility, 50° F water temp.
I'm putting on my rig, opening the valves, doing the security check and then it hit me.
I see the boat captain putting my buddys octo INTO his BC pocket.
Maybe just an honest mistake I thought so I ask him
"Why are you putting his octo into his pocket?"
- Oh, well he doesnt have anything to attach it so I put it there.
So for more than 5 minutes, this god damn super high-speed low drag elite boat captain lecture me on how I'm going to kill everyone on board by diving a BP/W on how insecure my setup was; intentionally puts my buddy spare air into his pocket. For me it was unbelievable, first thing we were always taught was to keep and emergency air visible, in plain sight for easy retrieval. So what do I do if I run out of air? I do the dude-i-need-air-asap-so-unzip-your-bc-pocket-if-you-can-find-the-zipper-and-unroll-the-octopus dance?
The dive itself was fine. For some reasons nobody died because of my rig. My SAC rate was the same as my buddy whose been diving for 2 years. I was pretty happy.
Then it was time for lunch. Captain ask me to get my BP/W because he wants to do a 'info-pause equipment'
We were all in circle, I was sitting there, eating my warm tasty beef ravioli MRE with hot sauce, wondering ... what now... and then he took my harness with the BP, stands up and said.
"Scuba industries always try to innovate; this time, they failed"
"I'm going to do the positive and negatives of that kind of setup"
"How much lift does it has?" He asks me.
- 40lbs.
"Insufficient lift, everyone should at least have 80 pounds of lift in their BC, I know from experience I've been diving for 9 years and everyone should at least have 80 pounds of lift"
"On the positive side it's back inflated and get you a good horizontal position underwater"
"Look at the rings, you all might think it's nice for attaching all kind of stuff but let me tell you, with rings if you dive a wreck dive you'll get stuck because of those rings"
[I was like NO WAY! I'm 6'3" 250 lbs, seriously I'm big, tall and it isnt the d-ring that's gonna change if I get stuck or not on a tech penetration wreck dive.]
"IT'S BEEN MADE ONLY FOR TECH DIVERS, WHO ARE ALMOST ALWAYS PLAYING WITH THEIR LIVES UNDERWATER"
"THOSE TECH DIVERS OFTEN DIVE ALONE AND NEED THOSE D-RINGS BECAUSE THEY CARRY LOTS OF DECO-STAGES, IN FACT THEY LOOK LIKE SANTA CLAUS UNDERWATER" and then he starts to laugh. Go ahead ****bird, laugh at the people who are better than you are. He probably hasnt heard of DIR divers. Not only they don't dive alone, but they have god-like control underwater. Another BS comment from Elite French Canadian Captain.
"Completely uncomfortable, look at the webbing, it's been made for dry-suits only and only tech divers dives with dry-suit anyway"
[Now that's a complete lie, he NEVER EVER tried it, and he can tell by the look how it's comfortable or not, give this guy a crystal ball and he might find us UBL. BTW I had the pro-fit harness installed on it and it ways more comfortable than anything I've tried at the LDS. Don't judge a book by it's cover; please.]
I know he said other stuff too, but I pretty much forgot anything else he said. Second dive went very well too.
Thinking about it back then, when it happened I was pissed, no I was really angry, that's the kind of thing that could make you loose interest for an activity, I was pissed than he would crucify me in front of everyone almost calling me a dumbass for buying such cheap equipment. It was my first chartered dive how do you think I felt underwater, I was totally unfocused always questioning myself for the choice I made.
Today I bring you this thread for your amusement, I'm not bitter, I don't care anymore, I just find it funny how you can fit so much ignorance in only a small day. I still dive my wonderful DSS rig, but I'll probably switch to hog harness in the next few weeks. I'll spend more time working on my trim and control diving easy places with friends and family until I get better. My only regret was that I wasnt able to appropriately defend my gear and couldnt really call out the boat captain on his stupidity because I don't have 100 hashes SHA-1 private-key-encrypted-digitally-authenticated logged dives.
Also fun facts from where I live.
- No LDS shop carries din reg in stock.
- No stainless bolt-snap, they prefer selling you ****ty 20$ shinny plastic attachment
- It's probably the only place in the world where divers are soooo superiors that we need 2 certification to dive (OW cert AND a government issued certification)
Also that post wasnt written in my native language so please be kind on me for the grammar and stuff
Bit of background on myself; I'm PADI certified OW diver, got my cert last year. After I got my cert I started shopping for a good equipment and found this wonderful forum where I learned many many thing, I've been lurking for about 9 months here and I decided to go with the BP/W setup from DSS with the weight plates since I dive a 7mm and wanted to
get less lead on my belt. I'm 6'3 ~250 lbs and I had 15lbs on my belt, 6 on the stainless BP and 8.4 from the weight plates. I did a couple of dives in my pool to make sure I was properly weighted and I seriously loved how it felt. It felt so solid compared to the cheap rented jacket I had in cert, diving was now much more fun.
So I decided to get more dive under my belt before getting more training (advanced OW, deep & night diving and well maybe DIR-F one day) to get more experience with different situations underwater variable visibility, cold water, etc.
So I booked with a charter that my LDS was advertising. 2x 30 feets dives, 50$ and I had to bring 2 cylinder because they didn't do fills kinda expensive but I really wanted to do it. First real dive outside, meeting people, learning tons of new stuff from people better than me, all in all I was looking forward to that day.
Since I had a BP/W I though it would be wise to arrive early, and meet my diving buddy to explain him how my BC was different than him so in case something happened he knew what to do. The boat captain still hasnt arrived so I started chatting with the divers there and I learned incredible intel.
------------------------------
From the "Charter Manager" girl
------------------------------
- She used special ink and special stickers when authenticating log books because people WILL counterfeit their dive book. She was also very angry other charter companies use a simple stamps; I mean anyone could counterfeit a stamp and stamp their own log books! Oh the humanity
- If you don't do 3 ink-authenticated logged dives per year you can loose your diving license.
----------------
From the 'big girl'
----------------
- If you're only OW certified and you dive under 50 feets the scuba police [yes she actually said that!] can catch you and give you a huge fine because it's totally illegal to go under 50 feets when you're not AOW.
- You have to have your snorkel at all times because if you don't that's also illegal.
---------------------------
From the 'overweight champ'
---------------------------
- Being 20 lbs overweight isnt a big deal as long as you dive with your BC fully inflated. [He was maybe 160 lbs and had 40 LBS of LEAD!]
------------------------
From my new dive buddy
------------------------
- A bottom timer or computer isnt needed as long as your buddy had one. (yeah I mean, why would I do my calculations when I could simply count on someone else. Makes perfect sense)
------------------------------
So big guy boat captains arrive.
I present myself and give my BP/W rig with the cylinder already attached.
Be careful, I say, it might be slightly heavier than the other rigs.
"How come?" he said.
- Well the plate is in stainless and there are weight plates.
"Oh well don't you know that's totally illegal to dive that kind of thing ?! Can you guess why? " He said with a superb condescending tone.
- I don't know ? well maybe because of the myth that the wing keeps divers face down but it doesnt happens when you're correctly weighted and use appropriate air in the wing.
"That thing is totally homemade, it's so dangerous, it's so heavy if you fell unconscious I won't be able to bring you up"
- Wait a min, I said, the 8.4lbs plates have about the same neg buoyancy than steel 100 tanks
"Nah man you got it wrong, steel tanks are about 2-3 lbs negative your rig is totally homemade and it's illegal"
- Starting to get pissed, I answer: Hey man, look at it, first of all it's been made by Deep Sea Supply and calling it homemade is a real insult to the fine craftsmanship of the gear.
"OH MAN I CAN'T BELIEVE THE SCUBA INDUSTRY, THE AMERICANS INDUSTRY AGAIN THEY THROW ALL KIND OF NEW HI-TECH STUFF AND DON'T CARE ABOUT THE
SECURITY OF THE DIVERS, I'M SO PISSED THIS "THING" SHOULD NEVER HAD BEEN SOLD TO YOU HOW MUCH DID YOU PAY ?"
- Not expensive for what it is
"How much ?"
- ~800$ CAD that's a fair price for what it is. [Here you can pay as much as 1200$+ CAD for a Seaquest diamond BC, I have nothing against SQ but I wouldnt pay 1200$ for one.]
"Yeah maybe". He says. "But what that kind of setup you're endangering the lives of everyone aboard"
Then I made the mistake of the day. I decided to get on that boat. I don't understand; usually I'm smarter, I would have said **** the 50$ I'm going home with my 2 fully filled cylinder and I'll have more fun practicing in my pool than diving with idiots. I made the terrible mistake to give it a shot.
And so we went.
5-8 minutes later we were already arrived at the diving site. It was a wooden wreck, no penetration, medium visibility, 50° F water temp.
I'm putting on my rig, opening the valves, doing the security check and then it hit me.
I see the boat captain putting my buddys octo INTO his BC pocket.
Maybe just an honest mistake I thought so I ask him
"Why are you putting his octo into his pocket?"
- Oh, well he doesnt have anything to attach it so I put it there.
So for more than 5 minutes, this god damn super high-speed low drag elite boat captain lecture me on how I'm going to kill everyone on board by diving a BP/W on how insecure my setup was; intentionally puts my buddy spare air into his pocket. For me it was unbelievable, first thing we were always taught was to keep and emergency air visible, in plain sight for easy retrieval. So what do I do if I run out of air? I do the dude-i-need-air-asap-so-unzip-your-bc-pocket-if-you-can-find-the-zipper-and-unroll-the-octopus dance?
The dive itself was fine. For some reasons nobody died because of my rig. My SAC rate was the same as my buddy whose been diving for 2 years. I was pretty happy.
Then it was time for lunch. Captain ask me to get my BP/W because he wants to do a 'info-pause equipment'
We were all in circle, I was sitting there, eating my warm tasty beef ravioli MRE with hot sauce, wondering ... what now... and then he took my harness with the BP, stands up and said.
"Scuba industries always try to innovate; this time, they failed"
"I'm going to do the positive and negatives of that kind of setup"
"How much lift does it has?" He asks me.
- 40lbs.
"Insufficient lift, everyone should at least have 80 pounds of lift in their BC, I know from experience I've been diving for 9 years and everyone should at least have 80 pounds of lift"
"On the positive side it's back inflated and get you a good horizontal position underwater"
"Look at the rings, you all might think it's nice for attaching all kind of stuff but let me tell you, with rings if you dive a wreck dive you'll get stuck because of those rings"
[I was like NO WAY! I'm 6'3" 250 lbs, seriously I'm big, tall and it isnt the d-ring that's gonna change if I get stuck or not on a tech penetration wreck dive.]
"IT'S BEEN MADE ONLY FOR TECH DIVERS, WHO ARE ALMOST ALWAYS PLAYING WITH THEIR LIVES UNDERWATER"
"THOSE TECH DIVERS OFTEN DIVE ALONE AND NEED THOSE D-RINGS BECAUSE THEY CARRY LOTS OF DECO-STAGES, IN FACT THEY LOOK LIKE SANTA CLAUS UNDERWATER" and then he starts to laugh. Go ahead ****bird, laugh at the people who are better than you are. He probably hasnt heard of DIR divers. Not only they don't dive alone, but they have god-like control underwater. Another BS comment from Elite French Canadian Captain.
"Completely uncomfortable, look at the webbing, it's been made for dry-suits only and only tech divers dives with dry-suit anyway"
[Now that's a complete lie, he NEVER EVER tried it, and he can tell by the look how it's comfortable or not, give this guy a crystal ball and he might find us UBL. BTW I had the pro-fit harness installed on it and it ways more comfortable than anything I've tried at the LDS. Don't judge a book by it's cover; please.]
I know he said other stuff too, but I pretty much forgot anything else he said. Second dive went very well too.
Thinking about it back then, when it happened I was pissed, no I was really angry, that's the kind of thing that could make you loose interest for an activity, I was pissed than he would crucify me in front of everyone almost calling me a dumbass for buying such cheap equipment. It was my first chartered dive how do you think I felt underwater, I was totally unfocused always questioning myself for the choice I made.
Today I bring you this thread for your amusement, I'm not bitter, I don't care anymore, I just find it funny how you can fit so much ignorance in only a small day. I still dive my wonderful DSS rig, but I'll probably switch to hog harness in the next few weeks. I'll spend more time working on my trim and control diving easy places with friends and family until I get better. My only regret was that I wasnt able to appropriately defend my gear and couldnt really call out the boat captain on his stupidity because I don't have 100 hashes SHA-1 private-key-encrypted-digitally-authenticated logged dives.
Also fun facts from where I live.
- No LDS shop carries din reg in stock.
- No stainless bolt-snap, they prefer selling you ****ty 20$ shinny plastic attachment
- It's probably the only place in the world where divers are soooo superiors that we need 2 certification to dive (OW cert AND a government issued certification)
Also that post wasnt written in my native language so please be kind on me for the grammar and stuff
