Close call with a newbie

[Eric Sedletzky]

If he came on here he would just go around and around with you and tell you you know nothing with your hundreds or even thouisands of dives , and he knows it all with all his 12 dives. I don't think he would have a meltdown, he's too stupid. In order to have a meltdown a person has to have some ability to absorb some information and open their ears long enough to hear they are an idiot. He's not capable of listening to anything, therefore all of it would just go over his head. You would be the one walking away frustrated.
I've never seen a case like this.
He would learn absolutely nothing, you can't tell him a thing. Then if by some slim chance he actually gets it, whatever it is, he claims it's all his idea.
I think it's better to just write the guy off and avoid him. As tempting as it is to jump in the verbal ring with him and make your point and teach him something, it's a absolute total waste of time. He's not worth it. Some people are just not teachable.
I do want to meet the instructor though and hear what kind of experience he had.

 

[ScubaSteve]

As tempting as it is to jump in the verbal ring with him and make your point and teach him something.....

Teach him something? I just wanted to have some fun........people like that guy rarely last long on here.

 

[SCUBASailor]

FWIW, I am very much a newbie. I like to think that for every jerk like that guy, there are a hundred guys like me who respect our limits, are conservative in our approach to dive safety, and appreciate the depth of knowledge of expreienced divers.

 

[Jim Ernst]

Sorry to hear that happend to you Eric...

I had a commercial driving student like that once, All mouth and no ears/brains!

Good job on your part saving his ass though!

 

[StevenN]

It's been my experience that whenever someone brags about how good or how tough they are or whatever they're always full of crap.

 

[AMYBAMEY]

Wow..what a near disaster.Thank god you were there!We should all be choosey about who we dive with, thanks for sharing your story! I am originally from Santa Rosa/Guerneville grew up on the Bodega Coast and dove Salt Point once after just logging about 20 dives both Beach and boat in Monterey (and that dive (salt point)was the most difficult for me.The surge,current, and vis were rough and difficult to navigate .The Sonoma Coast is not for a newbie thats for sure!It is a lot for a new diver and I decided I needed more experience before heading out there again.Where abouts were you? anywhere in the Salt Point area? Hope you taught that idiot a lesson!....I Miss Bodega Bay! Here's to better Dive buddies....Cheers!

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

FWIW, I am very much a newbie. I like to think that for every jerk like that guy, there are a hundred guys like me who respect our limits, are conservative in our approach to dive safety, and appreciate the depth of knowledge of expreienced divers.

Trust me, this guy is not normal.
I love to dive with newbies and show them around. I see their excitement and wonder and it refreshes my memory on what it was like for me and how huge and grand the feeling was to explore an environment that not many get to see.

Forget about what I said about deciding to dive only solo or with veterans,
I was still pissed. I've calmed down now.

This is funny.
The main guy on the job we've been working on told me the tile guy was ready to kick his ass the other day. He'd finally had it with him. The main contracter hired this guy as a foreman and he's supposed to orchestrate the job to make sure everything goes smoothly. I was there doing some steel work and he got under my skin pretty bad mouthing off about something he didn't have a clue about. He's not the weldor and steel designer, I am.
The electrician told me he was ready to tie him up in a tree with romax, LOL.
He shows up in the morning, pisses everybody off, then leaves.
The main guy is friends with this jerk and feels sorry for him in a way because they go way back and he knows that if it wasn't for him he'd have nothing to do, so he hires him to basically do nothing. So this guy feels he has to assert himself somehow and be important, so he goes around and fires off on independant contractors to show them who's boss, even though he has no clue as to their specific job function or what their doing.. I know now how he is so I just work around him.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Wow..what a near disaster.Thank god you were there!We should all be choosey about who we dive with, thanks for sharing your story! I am originally from Santa Rosa/Guerneville grew up on the Bodega Coast and dove Salt Point once after just logging about 20 dives both Beach and boat in Monterey (and that dive (salt point)was the most difficult for me.The surge,current, and vis were rough and difficult to navigate .The Sonoma Coast is not for a newbie thats for sure!It is a lot for a new diver and I decided I needed more experience before heading out there again.Where abouts were you? anywhere in the Salt Point area? Hope you taught that idiot a lesson!....I Miss Bodega Bay! Here's to better Dive buddies....Cheers!

I'm in Santa Rosa. We were diving in Gerstle Cove, or at least that's where we started our surface swim from (the rocky beach) The day was fairly flat and vis pretty good too at about 15 feet.
This is where I did mu open water check out dives except it was torn up the day we went out there. I could have only preyed for conditions doing OW like we had. He couldn't even manage a simple beach dive out of gerstle on a nice day. He should have never been allowed past the pool. This guy claimed he was ready for anything, hell I didn't know.
What the hell is this world coming to, and why did we cross paths?. There must be some hidden lesson here I'm not seeing.

 

[flatfoot40]

First let me say you did a great job saving this guy from probably drowning. He obviously is a terrible listener and didn't learn a thing from your experience and knowledge. However, as police officer, what I find amazing in this whole story is that you would allow a person you really have no knowledge of to bring a weapon with him. Police officers spend countless hours with new guys on ranges before we even think about letting them get in the car with a loaded gun. We work on shooting skills, adverse condition drills and communication skills-verbal and non verbal. I would like to think with your experience you would have told any new buddy you have never dived with to put spear gun away and lets work on communicating as a team for the first dive regardless of how much he says he's an expert. In this regard I think you showed lack of judgement and instead of just blaming him, you have to take some responsibilty. Make no mistake, I think this guy'a tool, but you have to be more direct when you are with someone who could wind up putting a spear in you back. From your posts, I think you might even be more mad at yourself than him.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Cool story. I've had people tell me incredible lies about their experience as well.

I would have been very scared of his speargun but two things the OP mentioned seemed strange. One, that you never bring a loaded speargun to the surface (since when is that a problem???? ... for someone who knows what they are doing.

Second he grabbed the divers waist strap, overpowered him and made him do safety stops (plural) for an ascent from 60 feet.. when the guy was incapable of switching second stages and his pressure gage read nearly zero. Making the guy do unnecessary stops when he is "out of air" and on the edge of panic seems like a poor decision to me.

I think I would have done a direct ascent with no stops, especially if it was such a short dive with a guy huffing on a 72 cu-ft bottle. I also think his speargun would have somehow gotten left on the bottom, as well.