Disturbing trend in diving?

[Jafo19D]

Another danger in just following your guide can come up if you and the guide were not together on the prior dive. In my recent trip in Providencia we dove down to 43.3m/142’. On the second dive we were given a different guide because the first one was having sinus issues and our new guide had stayed on the boat during our first dive. On the second dive I noticed that the 2 other people in my group did not seem to be checking their computers and when my NDL was getting low I signaled to my computer and I went up a bit. The guide seemed to realize that his NDL was probably higher than the other divers in my group and rounded them up (one with difficulty).

Ironically I would hit deco on a later dive that week because I got distracted/careless and braced narced

 

[Diver-Drex]

It's disturbing trend because even though it may have been going on it was news to me, therefore to me it was a new trend.
...and even after twenty three pages I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around it.

It was news to me 12 years ago. Prior to that all of my diving was in New Jersey waters or while I was in the military. When I started diving in 1984, it was to dive locally. Going to the Caribbean was ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” stuff. It was expected you were diving local and the training was appropriate.

First dives in the Caribbean I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. When I started to DM and then teach, it became apparent that the vast majority of students had no intentions of diving locally and they were getting ready for some vacation. Those destinations and experiences are more available than they were in the 1980s and 1990s. Now diving is likely an experience that may be never repeated by many people. Or maybe once a year or less if they do dive again.

Disposable income, easier access to tropical locations and access to dive training make this possible. There is also an expectation of being able (or being entitled) to do these things that never existed before. There is good and bad that comes from this.

 

[Scuba-74]

I'm confused then. How is it a disturbing new trend if it was going on 21 years go?

Ah. I replied to a question "Is this a thing?" in the first post. Yup, a thing, but hardly a trend.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Okay, I read where one person is going to use tables to calculate his/her NDLs or need for decompression. But I haven’t see where these divers are wearing a dive watch. Do you wear a dive watch, and do you use the bezel to determine your dive time underwater? It’s kinda critical if you are using tables, along with a depth gauge.

SeaRat

 

[Nemrod]

Okay, I read where one person is going to use tables to calculate his/her NDLs or need for decompression. But I haven’t see where these divers are wearing a dive watch. Do you wear a dive watch, and do you use the bezel to determine your dive time underwater? It’s kinda critical if you are using tables, along with a depth gauge.

SeaRat

John, those are the kind of details we are not into anymore. Do not make this complicated, we are only in this for the experiences and then off to other new experiences. What are we going to do with a dive computer if perhaps the next experience on the agenda is sky diving? A watch!?! Nobody but boomers wear those, that is what a phone is for. Watch, hmmmphhh , do not need that.

 

[tmassey]

John, those are the kind of details we are not into anymore. Do not make this complicated, we are only in this for the experiences and then off to other new experiences. What are we going to do with a dive computer if perhaps the next experience on the agenda is sky diving?

You say that ironically, but I think most people would say that earnestly.

Why would you invest more time, effort or energy into a task than you have to that you’re only going to do once? Or very infrequently?

And given that the safety statistics for scuba are both really very, very good and haven’t exactly changed much in the last 30 years… Who is to to say that their attitude is wrong? What negative effect is their ‘lack of capability’ having on them?

In the end, I think we have to remember that they are not engaging in the same hobby as we are. If they are able to meet their objectives with a sufficient enough safety record for the lowest investment of time and effort, why is that a bad thing?

It’s not what I want from the hobby. It’s not what many of you want from the hobby. But again, their hobby is not the same as our hobby.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

It used to be called a sport (NAUI Sport Diver).
Then it became a hobby.
Now it's an experience.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Okay, I read where one person is going to use tables to calculate his/her NDLs or need for decompression. But I haven’t see where these divers are wearing a dive watch. Do you wear a dive watch, and do you use the bezel to determine your dive time underwater? It’s kinda critical if you are using tables, along with a depth gauge.

SeaRat

I thought that went without saying?

 

[Nemrod]

Just saying, I have known two divers who wound up in a wheel chair due to DCS (edit to add, I had nothing to do with either, a relative and a friend of a friend who I did know, I was not involved and I have never been bent and intend not to ever be bent). It is one thing to understand something and then with that knowledge choose to ignore the irrelevant details. It is quite another to not understand which details might be important to one's continued ambulation.

 

[Divin'Papaw]

It used to be called a sport (NAUI Sport Diver).
Then it became a hobby.
Now it's an experience.

Just because NAUI had a cert called Sport Diver does not make it one.

Many sports & hobbies are the same activity. An activity becomes a sport when it is done in competition. Golf, tennis, running, pickleball, paddle boarding, surfing. All are sports & hobbies both. In the English language there is significant overlap between the usage of the two words, but not fully. The difference is do you do said activity in competition with others or for fun & recreation.

Scuba is never a competition and is therefore never a sport. It’s a hobby. Like hiking for example.

YMMV. Just how I differentiate the two in my mind.

Now the issues that stem from turning it into an experience I fully agree with.