Dear DM's:
May I encourage you to remember that you are guiding PEOPLE, not the reef. Putting your head down, swimming along, and never looking back (to the point that you lose your charges) isn't the greatest idea.
Also, when guiding someone for the first time, if they say "We want a checkout dive, we have some new equipment" that is a coded message to indicate that they might need a bit of help at some point.
Great questions to ask before the dive are: "How many dives do you have?" and "When was your last dive?"
Dear Divers:
Do not assume that your DM will "save you". He or she may have less experience than you.
<comes down off soapbox>. No, nothing bad happened. We are good buddies to one another FIRST.
- Bill & Emily
Well! This certainly has been an interesting discussion! When I wrote the post, I had no idea….
I wrote the post because it was an observation: two guides in one two-week trip that ignored us throughout the dive made me comment on it. It was not meant to be a criticism of all DMs around the world, nor was it a statement that all divers are ready for the dive they are on. Simply an observation, in one case we were with a group totaling four divers, in the other case it was just me and my wife with a guide. In both cases the guide never looked up, so I remarked on it. During our trip, we had many excellent dive guides!
Sometimes we are resort divers, a DM is assigned to us. In other cases we have dived alone or with other divers. When we are in a new environment, we certainly want a guide to show us not only the critters, but help us keep away from unexpected things like currents. If you are in a new environment, and you can hear a briefing and guide your own dive, good for you. We LIKE guided dives. Early in our diving career we certainly were quite a bit more dependent on them than we are now. Nor do we ignore the DM or other members of the group.
In either case, if we have a problem (say, losing a fin, or difficulty descending, or God forbid a gas problem) I expect that other divers around us would in general be looking out for one another, at least in an informal way, whether or not they are DMs, dive guides, part of our dive group, or Joe Blow that happened to pass by at that time. Wouldn’t you, even if it cost you a bit of bottom time?
The questions I suggested that the DM ask are really basic questions that all divers in a dive group should ask one another, don’t you think? Although I admit it pretty rarely occurs in a direct manner. But if you’re about to dive with a group, don’t you try to figure out a little what the skill levels are? I know I do, without even thinking about it much.
FWIW something rubs me a bit the wrong way sometimes (not always) when people write: “Each person is responsible for their own safety”. Of course it’s factually true, no one should dive if they are dependent on someone else for their safety. Yet, are we not all brothers and sisters in one community of divers and human beings, and therefore should we not anticipate to be helpful to one another if a case arises? I feel like some have the attitude that “I don’t care about anyone else, I am here for my enjoyment and you can go screw”. Maybe I am reading more into that statement than needs to be. I hope so.
Thanks,
Bill