Courtesy toward other divers

[Daedalus]

A couple weeks ago my buddy and I were exiting Ginnie, we were between the Maple Leaf and the Rollercoaster and the line runs along the wall on the left where there is 4' of vertical clearance and there is a wide open space to the right with probably more like 10-15' of vertical clearance. My buddy is leading on the way out and sees lights up around the bend so we throw our HID lights out ahead of us so whoever is coming around the bend realizes "Hey there is a team exiting".

Well long story short a scooter comes whipping around the corner and instead of swinging wide to the open piece of cave to our right he is also hugging the wall and nails my buddy. he backs up a little bit then scooters past on on into the cave followed by two more scootering divers. I thought it was hilarious, my buddy not so much.

It was similar to this little gem

 

[karstdvr]

A couple weeks ago my buddy and I were exiting Ginnie, we were between the Maple Leaf and the Rollercoaster and the line runs along the wall on the left where there is 4' of vertical clearance and there is a wide open space to the right with probably more like 10-15' of vertical clearance. My buddy is leading on the way out and sees lights up around the bend so we throw our HID lights out ahead of us so whoever is coming around the bend realizes "Hey there is a team exiting".

Well long story short a scooter comes whipping around the corner and instead of swinging wide to the open piece of cave to our right he is also hugging the wall and nails my buddy. he backs up a little bit then scooters past on on into the cave followed by two more scootering divers. I thought it was hilarious, my buddy not so much.

]

That is too bad. Unfortunately stories like this give scooter a bad rap,and makes it very difficult to convince the primary owner of caves that we should be allowed to use them in their systems.

 

[Daedalus]

That is too bad. Unfortunately stories like this give scooter a bad rap,and makes it very difficult to convince the primary owner of caves that we should be allowed to use them in their systems.

Scootering is something I would like to do one day, and I plan on being like the dozens of other courteous scooter divers I have encountered on dives and not like the fellows in the stories posted already. Good point though, everyone who is cave diving should make "Courtesy toward other divers" a priority because irresponsibility can have long term effects.

 

[karstdvr]

Scootering is something I would like to do one day, and I plan on being like the dozens of other courteous scooter divers I have encountered on dives and not like the fellows in the stories posted already. Good point though, everyone who is cave diving should make "Courtesy toward other divers" a priority because irresponsibility can have long term effects.

I do scooter,but I consider the courtesy rules of boating,whoever is under power gives way to whoever isn't under power ie motorboat always yields to a sail boat. I have been dinged by a scooter and didn't appreciate it too much,but I get more upset when somebody scooters in an area they need to be off trigger and blows out a section of cave,this goes beyond courtesy,but becomes a hazard to others. Unfortunately non-cave divers who read our forums form opinions,and the prevalent opinion of the people I interact with isn't very positive regarding scooters because of what they read.

 

[Meng_Tze]

On a similar note, I bring up another issue.

Saturday, we had just finished a fairly long dive in the eye, and we were heading out after doing our 30ft deco. My wife was first out, then my partner, then myself on the reel adjusting buoyancy so as not to get "squirted" out of the ear.

As I looked at the entrance, I saw 3 divers wanting to come in. They were level with the tree and one was tying off his reel. one of the scooter divers had his hand out telling us, THE EXITING TEAM, to wait for them to get ready. I pointed to my DECO schedule on my slate and told him that I would like to get to 10ft sometime soon. He literally pushed me aside into the little nookie and then took his sweet time getting into the ear. The third diver in the team (back) was the one running the reel. I waited there for 4 minutes while these geniuses figured out how to untangle the line from their scooters.

Now I was always tought that the EXITING team had right of way, specially since the scooter team wasn't ready to enter anyway.

In the end, I extended my 10ft deco by 10 minutes and increased my surface interval. But I was pretty P!SSED OFF!

A DPV card is not a license to run over other divers. And to those scooter jocks from Saturday, if you ever think of pulling that crap again, I'll be waiting to discuss things with you in the parking lot.

Done ranting

Cheers

Mike

So why didn't you 'tell' them: "NO YOU WAIT!!" and make an exit?

I know you should not have to, but they were cave divers and I am sure they knew they should have given you the time and space to exit...... maybe in their excitement and focus they forgot and needed to be reminded. Not ideal....

 

[Mike Edmonston]

So why didn't you 'tell' them: "NO YOU WAIT!!" and make an exit?

I know you should not have to, but they were cave divers and I am sure they knew they should have given you the time and space to exit...... maybe in their excitement and focus they forgot and needed to be reminded. Not ideal....

I did tell him to get out of the way.

a. I told him nicely when I first approached
b. I told him again when I showed him my Deco slate
c. I told him again when I started coming up the exit, and that's when he A-framed himself between the walls, and forced me to the nook on the left side so his buddy BEHIND him, could run his reel.

I was p!ssed, but since I had plenty of gas, I just let him do his thing. My wife and partner were already decoing at the tree, so I chose not to hogtie him with his 7 foot hose.

Maybe their cave training didn't cover basic hand signals, or proper reel procedures.

Maybe they're just @ss#oles!

Cheers

Mike

 

[Meng_Tze]

I did tell him to get out of the way.

a. I told him nicely when I first approached
b. I told him again when I showed him my Deco slate
c. I told him again when I started coming up the exit, and that's when he A-framed himself between the walls, and forced me to the nook on the left side so his buddy BEHIND him, could run his reel.

I was p!ssed, but since I had plenty of gas, I just let him do his thing. My wife and partner were already decoing at the tree, so I chose not to hogtie him with his 7 foot hose.

Maybe their cave training didn't cover basic hand signals, or proper reel procedures.

Maybe they're just @ss#oles!

Cheers

Mike

See and at moments like this it would be good to have a massive knife.... even if it is just to scare away the crows. Man that sucks Mike.

I don't know how you do it, but I would definitely have waited for them to exit and get some clarification..........''friggin' push me in to a nook''