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

[divad]

Ahh....I am from France......

 

[cvchief]

Nope. That was my assessment too. We can pass the hat around and buy the victim a plane ticket to IA so that he can dump some of their business equipment into a quarry. Eye for an eye. ***if this report is found to be factual ***

Why, if its true, would you make the poor guy go to Iowa? Hasn't he suffered enough?

(That's for you, Skittles! :snicker: )

 

[Wookie]

Ahh....I am from France......

But... You seem so.... Normal.

 

[azscubadude]

I remember a Turks & Caicos Explorer liveaboard I did a few years ago, we had an elderly couple, the husband being the most destructive diver I've ever witnessed, the human wrecking ball who cut an F5 tornado swath of destruction through the reefs in his photopraphic quests.......

I was on a live-a-board a number of years ago when a couple got into a rip roaring fist fight right under the boat. I'm talking bruises and abrasions by the time they got back on board and that is hard to do when trying to throw a punch underwater.

The stories I could tell from my many trips on live-a-board's (and not bargain basement operators). One couple would down about 2 fifths of rum "every" night, go diving the next day and ran out of air several times during the week (I'm talking both tanks empty and 2 spare airs empty). Another brand new live-a-board boat on it's first week in service hit a huge coral head as we were moving locations and put a nice hole in the hull. One time a Zodiak skiff broke away from the big boat. One of the crew jumped in trying to swim to it (no floatation device) but the wind took it so the crewman was dead tired from trying to swim to catch it and was to far away from the big boat to swim back.. long story short, he almost drowned but they unmoored the big boat in record time and got the crewman back just in time but it took quite a while to catch up to the Zodiak. On and on.. It was always interesting.

 

[redacted]

I was on a live-a-board a number of years ago when a couple got into a rip roaring fist fight right under the boat. I'm talking bruises and abrasions by the time they got back on board and that is hard to do when trying to throw a punch underwater.

The stories I could tell from my many trips on live-a-board's (and not bargain basement operators). One couple would down about 2 fifths of rum "every" night, go diving the next day and ran out of air several times during the week (I'm talking both tanks empty and 2 spare airs empty). Another brand new live-a-board boat on it's first week in service hit a huge coral head as we were moving locations and put a nice hole in the hull. One time a Zodiak skiff broke away from the big boat. One of the crew jumped in trying to swim to it (no floatation device) but the wind took it so the crewman was dead tired from trying to swim to catch it and was to far away from the big boat to swim back.. long story short, he almost drowned but they unmoored the big boat in record time and got the crewman back just in time but it took quite a while to catch up to the Zodiak. On and on.. It was always interesting.

Have you tried anyone other than the Aggressor fleet?

 

[boulderjohn]

I remember a Turks & Caicos Explorer liveaboard I did a few years ago, we had an elderly couple, the husband being the most destructive diver I've ever witnessed, the human wrecking ball who cut an F5 tornado swath of destruction through the reefs in his photopraphic quests, he was shunned by all the other divers who witnessed his antics. It was embarassing one evening at dinner when he announced if anyone wanted to check out his dive photos on his laptop, and there was dead silence in the room....you could hear a pin drop !!!

And no one said or did anything about it?

Although this it is fiction, the novel House of Sand and Fog has a great symbolic scene in it that speaks to situations like this. Some of the story takes place in Iran, while the Shah was still in power and his secret police (the Savak) was torturing people and creating that climate that led to his downfall and the takeover by the current regime. The main character was a Colonel (IIRC), a high ranking officer in the military (not the Savak). They are having a dinner with a number of people, and there is a tradition that during such dinners, you dip your bread in the cucumber sauce bowls of other guests during the meal as a sign of your friendship. During the meal, a guest whom they had never met before, reveals he is a member of the Savak, and he gives a pretty good hint of the horrors they have been inflicting upon the citizenry. To show his disapproval of this, the main character does not dip his bread in that man's cucumber sauce.

This scene is symbolic of the fact that people who knew the evils that were going on during those times and who disapproved of it did little more than token minor acts that showed their disapproval and assuaged their consciences but did little to nothing to have any real effect.

What do we do when we see someone behaving badly as described above? Do we symbolically refrain from dipping our bread in their cucumber sauce, or do we do anything that will have a real effect? I will confess that over the years, I have let too many similar instances pass with nothing more effective than a glare of disapproval, a glare that was either not noticed or ignored. On the occasions that I have spoken up clearly, it has worked out well, but I have not done it enough.

 

[azscubadude]

Have you tried anyone other than the Aggressor fleet?

All were on the other outfit that is now owned by the Aggressor Fleet.

 

[robbcayman]

Having been in customer service for most of my life on and off ( started working in my family's grocery store at age 8), their alleged actions do not surprise me at all. In the 60's, 70's, and 80's maybe I'd be shocked. But today with the way so many brats are brought up to believe they are special, easy to believe it happened the way the DM reported it.

Maybe you're right; It's just sad to see. I guess there are some people who just don't care how their actions effect those around them. Even if the DM had been overly rude to them for their actions, that in no way justifies them chunking his dive gear overboard if that indeed happened. I hope they at least offered to pay for his gear or give him their own for that stunt.

 

[DandyDon]

I have to wonder why the park rangers weren't called in, or are there not many of those?

 

[mstevens]

I would believe the account of the incident more if it was a dive op I knew or DM I knew. Just seeing the report like this, with no names, sounds more like idle gossip.

There were certainly names in the original post, but I think you mean names other than those of the jerk divers. The divemaster/instructor's name is no secret at all. You may not know Ugo, but several people here do. I've dived with him. It's not as if he's some fly-by-night with no stake.

I can't imagine how the dive operator would really matter.

So, since it's an instructor I do know, I do find the report believable.