Did someone really throw a DM's gear off the boat?!

[etexdiver]

It might also be good/interesting to hear xxx's side of the story. They just sound too awful to be true.

I agree. My wife and I had a DM that seemed to show up every time we switched ops to get away from him. I won't mention his name, but he was with Aqua Safari, another dive op in Puerto Aventuras I can't remember, and Aldora. He made my wife cry underwater, and jtexdiver is not a crybaby type. She was having a little trouble with buoyancy on our 1st dive safety stop, and was just holding my elbow to stay level, and in rushes dipstick dive master, and jerks her away! I gave him the underwater finger signal for a screwfish, and when we got on the boat i told him to stay the **** away from us on the next dive. If I hadn't have wanted to spend my trip in the gaol, I would have made his dive uncomfortable due to his mask not fitting right. It could be the DM who wrote the letter is a vindictive type, and maybe didn't get the tip he thought he deserved, and is trying to blackball them. Not saying that is the case, and messing with wildlife on the reefs is a definite no-no, AND 95% of the DM's in Coz are AWESOME, but there is that 5% that no one should have to deal with.

 

[cannon fodder]

Disclaimer, my mom is Venezuelan, but I haven't spoken Spanish on a regular basis for 30 years, I read "while trying to shoot a lion fish they shot the spear through a sponge and then got angry and gave me an obscene hand signal". I assume the hand signal in question would not require much translation from Spanish to English.

 

[Tortuga68]

Ah, yes... you're correct, thanks

 

[Quero]

I'm a Portuguese speaker and this is very clear when I speak Spanish, and though they are different languages, they are similar enough that I think I can translate this and get fairly close to the intended meaning. This is a meaning-based translation, not a word-for-word one.

A todo los colegas de buceo: esta pareja de buzos se llaman xxx,de Cedar Rapids, Iowa, hoy lo llevè a bucear en el parque marino de Cozumel
To all diving colleagues: today I took this pair of divers named xxx, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to dive in the Cozumel marine park

y se han portado sin respetar las reglas de protecciòn del arrecife, con la escusa de arponear los pezes leones
and they took along, in violation of the reef protection regulations, with the excuse of spearfishing lionfish

se pegavan al fondo marino y se metian en huecos estrictos descuidosamente, tocaron una tortuga,
they stayed in contact with the reef, forced themselves carelessly through narrow openings, grabbed a turtle

despues de tantas racomendaciones le quitè los arpones cuando tratavan de matar un pez leon metendo el arpon a dentro de una esponja!
after having warned them many times, I took away their spears when they stuck the spear into a sponge while they were trying to kill a lionfish!

despues por enojo me han signalado una groceria
after that, they angrily gave me the finger (he actually says "they made a vulgar hand signal")

y al subir al barco me han tirado mi equipo al mar!
and when we got back on the boat, they threw my gear into the sea!

favor de compartir este cominucado a todos los colegas y centro de buceo que son de la zona y mas,
please share this message with all colleagues and dive centers in the immediate area and beyond

con el objectivo de vietar (NO PERMITIR) el buceo a estas personas sin respecto de la vida submarina y de los operadores que hacen muchos sacrificios para la diverciòn de los buzos.
in order to block (NOT ALLOW) diving by these people who do not respect marine life nor the operators who work hard to to provide a good experience for divers

gracias a todos los colegas por l'atenciòn
thanks to all of my colleagues for your attention
​

 

[judydivescoz]

Sounds far to real to be an attempt at " black balling". I saw the post on Facebook as well. Honestly, DM are very accustomed to bad or no tips in Cozumel. They are accustomed to verbal abuse from divers who feel they may have overstepped some boundary. I imagine a line is crossed when a diver throws the DM's gear off the boat. Can't blame the guy (or woman) for posting the story on a Cozumel Facebook page so other DM's and shop owners can be aware.

 

[mjatkins]

I know this instructor very well, and can honestly say he is a nice hardworking guy. Our shop has used him in the past and he has just started his own business. Obviously we do not know the whole story, but I do not believe he is the type of person who would lie about this out of spite over a tip.

 

[archman]

Why did spears even make it onto the boat?

 

[ggunn]

I suggest we just let it go. When I saw this I was just about equally disposed to on the one hand stand aghast at the behavior of the divers named and on the other to see this as a smear campaign wrought by a DM who didn't get the tip he was counting on. We have no way of knowing which is the real story, or if (which is more likely, IMO) the truth is somewhere in the middle. Threads like are fraught with a lot of "if this is true..." followed by a lot of "I would have...". That's the thing; we have no way of knowing if it's true.

People get crossways with each other for all sorts of reasons, and in such cases if you ask either party what happened, they will paint themselves as the sane, reasonable guy with the other flying off the handle for no apparent reason. Unless you were there as a disinterested observer, you cannot know which position is the more justified.

 

[divingpyrate]

I dont know I could believe someone behaved this way.
If true they needed to be outed, but I hate facebook for that kind of thing. I would think the operators could figure out a way to alert one another to these type of people
those reefs take enough abuse from sheer volume of divers

Seems to me if gear was thrown into the water and water park rules were broken I would have just reported them to authorities and let them learn a good lesson about being guests in another country,


Why is the rum always gone

 

[MMM]

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