Dive and let dive... dealing with different styles of diving.

[The Chairman]

I heard that one of my old instructors got bent rescuing a student, and subsequently quit teaching, maybe diving too.

That's a shame. Instructors who consistently have to rescue their students should really ask themselves "Why?". Somewhere in the mix, their students are failing to learn something... maybe many things.

 

[aquacat8]

You know what? That is their problem. IMO they shouldn't have run their tank dry. It's not my responsibility to get bent being dragged to the surface because I am attached to them to save their butt. I hand off my pony - you can now do what you like.

My fear exactly. Barring equipment failure the OOA buddy is probably not going to be me, unless I start diving tiny tanks, and there I am all 5’4” of me trying to control them? So I need to check their air... but say it’s not my buddy, it’s someone else tackling me from the crazy herds I’ve seen in FL boat dives, what then? I still think handing off a pony and backing off sounds good.

 

[aquacat8]

And if I do have equipment failure myself... oh wait, I have a pony!

 

[aquacat8]

Sigh I was spoiled by my old navy trained buddy... especially in terms of low viz navigation. I could get lost in a parking lot, he seemed to psychically know where the boat anchor was.

 

[The Chairman]

Dive and let dive doesn't mean you have to ignore potential problems others might present. One of the exercises my OW students do on the boat is to identify the person they think most likely to have an issue. I do that on every dive. Attitude, fitness and gear tell you a lot about a diver. Do they brag? Are they overcompensating for fear? Is their gear too new or too ratty? Did they assemble in a logical manner? There are a lot of signals on the surface if you pay attention. Once in the water, learn to identify the signs of a bad diver: horrible trim, swatting flies (hand sculling), going too fast, breathing too rapidly, inability to hold depth and the list goes on. If you're a guide: stay close to these people. If you're there just to dive, avoid them like the plague. Again, paying attention, or what the techies call "situational awareness" can keep you safe from the vagaries of idiots in the water.

 

[aquacat8]

One reason I am interested in upgrading my rig and training besides the fact that I want to be as comfortable, controlled, and trim as I can be for my own pleasure and safety is that I think that can attract good buddies. I want to dive solo because I think I would enjoy that but nothing beats a good buddy! Making the “that is so cool” hand gesture to myself is not quite the same

 

[Steelyeyes]

One reason I am interested in upgrading my rig and training besides the fact that I want to be as comfortable, controlled, and trim as I can be for my own pleasure and safety is that I think that can attract good buddies. I want to dive solo because I think I would enjoy that but nothing beats a good buddy! Making the “that is so cool” hand gesture to myself is not quite the same

One time on the Lighthouse Reef I ended up in an instabuddy situation when my wife opted out of a dive. There were three other divers and the DM in our group. The other three were from Israel, two males and a female. The female was very good in the water and the guys, not so much. I drifted back from the group to separate myself from their flailing and the woman drifted back to join me. She was a real joy to dive with. I guess she liked the way I got along underwater.

 

[george_austin]

This is a wonderful post Pete!

As someone who has come here to learn more about diving I appreciate it. There are many ways to do things and for us newbies it can be daunting to be told X will kill you or that you aren't a real diver unless you use Y.

I have been able to get some amazing knowledge from here and met people who have helped me and are still helping me to this day.

As someone who is now beginning to dive sidemount, the posts on hose routing can be challenging to get through. I am very confused as to what to use and have decided to just start trying out different ways to route the houses, different lengths, etc until I find what works for me! (still might not post a picture here )

People are passionate about their diving and the gear that they use to do it. That is a positive but can become a negative if that passion turns to blind fanaticism.

The passion other SB members have is why I stay here. Hopefully we can all work less on telling people what they NEED to dive and generate more level-headed discussions about why we dive the gear we do. The dive industry and gear will keep moving forward and it is up to us to keep an open mind instead of alienating those who don't look just like us underwater.

That is as long as they aren't damaging the ecosystem...if they are well then I will have to resort to this:

View attachment 448416

That dude with the white tanks has his hose going over the wrong shoulder, Neither of them are wearing snorkels and the guy in black is touching the seabed where there are probably worms and other lifeforms being stressed and displaced from their habitat.

At least the guy on the bottom is using a double hose reg and is in the only correct color for a real divers outfit - black

 

[george_austin]

When I started making deeper dives with doubles I had a "tech" BCD which ripped twice due to the weight of the tanks. I read as much as I could on rec.scuba, which makes Scubaboard look like a quilting bee. Every thread turned into bashing this or that, with name calling being the answer to every question. When DIR (the internet version, not real life) began spreading east of the Florida sinkholes the vitriol stepped up a notch. From George Irvine and his wannabe copycats to his followers came the gospel that we were all morons and less than 1% should ever be allowed to dive. I gave up and continued making dives in an unsafe fashion because I didn't want to hear their opinions.

I met a dive buddy who understood everything DIR was preaching and explained it to me in a rational tone. Everything he said made sense, although I knew I could never afford to dive the gear and gasses and the dozens of classes that went with it. I made a conscious decision to choose better gear that suited the dives I was making and some of the protocols. I have had a couple divers come up to me and ask about DIR when they saw my Hogarthian gear configuration. I explained my gear the same way my friend had shared his knowledge with me. I then told them that I would never be DIR because I love solo diving so much.

I see information spread on Scubaboard in much the same way as DIR and religious zealots would do. People have beliefs that were ingrained in them and they accept it as the absolute truth, despite evidence to the contrary. It seems as if a week cannot go by without someone telling you how unsafe diving is without a pony bottle or how Nitrox makes you feel better. If you flutter kick rather than frog kick you will be ridiculed, even though videos of frog kicking divers twenty feet off the bottom make little sense.

I've had people tell me they were impressed at how quiet I am in the water. I don't scull with my hands and I have learned to get streamlined while facing a current by watching fish, but if someone saw me taking photos of a nudibranch they would have a cow. Sometimes I actually touch the sand, rock or even a rusty wreck. I'm not on some fragile coral reef in the south Pacific but for some, rules are to be enforced unilaterally. I would thank them for their advice and then continue my dive. As long as I'm not hurting someone else or damaging a reef I pay little attention to opinions. Like certain body orifices, everybody has one.

That was Diver.net/California Scuba Diving BBS and the Kane vs Kurtis Wars, 20 years ago The "Strokes" and the ones who were Doing It Right (instead of wrong) and yeah, Scubaboard is a Sunday Ladies Bridge and tea afternoon compared to that,

I must disagree with that one poster above who says that (pp) " Vacation Dive hobbyists are the ones supporting the travel industry". I've been making two solo international dive trips per year for the last 25 years and I strongly disagree with that. The vast majority of divers I meet internationally are between the ages of 35 and 75 ($$$) and for the most part are experienced and skilled sport diving enthusiasts. Cozumel being the exception to the rule. LOL

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

That dude with the white tanks has his hose going over the wrong shoulder, Neither of them are wearing snorkels and the guy in black is touching the seabed where there are probably worms and other lifeforms being stressed and displaced from their habitat.

At least the guy on the bottom is using a double hose reg and is in the only correct color for a real divers outfit - black

Dive and Let Dive!!