Dive Guide too Fast?

[John Trecker]

Tell the dive guide. slow down; I'm not going to try and keep up with you. Also, slow down, or no tip. The dive guide goes at YOUR pace, not you at his. This is not negotiable.

Amen

 

[John Trecker]

Hell has a special place for dive guides that go way ahead and never look back to check on their clients. Safety is always the number one priority. And this is not safe. I have seen it many time with others in a group.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Yes, some guides swim way too fast. My solution has been to just go at my pace, they (nearly) always come back. If they don't then complain to the owner.

 

[Vicko]

I took a few years of pause from guiding and on the first dive I did with 2 clients I managed to make them go almost OOG in 15 minutes, I was still just above half tank.
It's mostly my mistake, I'm in the water to guide them, not run the dive site as fast as possible, it's their mistake for not telling me immediately that I'm ruining their experience.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

My experience with guides is they go fast partly because the newer inexperienced divers think they will see more if going fast. On a fragile reef where if you go fast, you are above and away with less likelihood of kicking corals and such. The other thing, most divers do not have their buoyancy dialed in, and are sufficiently overweighted, thus to keep from crashing onto the reef-- go fast.
On a recent trip I told the guide to go slow, yet even his slower pace was a bit fast! Then I learned one other thing.. he has been guiding a long time (20 years) on those reefs, but when asked about certain fish or behaviors, he couldn't answer. The critters were seen when going slow.. Hmmm...He did know, through local chit chat with other guides where to find seahorses, but that was about it.

 

[WillieJustice]

You don’t need to be supper fit. I let the guide know I’ll be going slow and taking pictures. It up to them to keep the group together, not for you to keep up. I also inform them during the dive briefing, if they are going through a swim through, that I won’t go through.

But I’m aware I’m more experienced then most instructor/guides.

I have found that sometimes the less fit people who move slowly use less air and are able to stay down longer.

 

[RonaldP]

This is exactly why I have taken navigation and will do the solo training. So if the DM speeds up like a Speedy Gonzalez, I will do my own dive profile and back on the boat for sure have a discussion with the DM, but for the dive itself, I will not let it be ruined by this turbo swimming.

 

[NothingClever]

I'm currently diving in Rangiroa, French Polynesia and the dives here are wearing me out. I'm female, 60, fit with 300+ dives and have started swimming at home between dive trips. I've never been good on air but over the years have learned to minimize my movement, dive slowly and slow down my breath. Then I get in situations like here where the guide speeds along and I can barely keep up without breathing hard. The other divers, usually younger, don't seem to have a problem. Are some dive locations and situations inherently faster dives? How do you choose ones that are slower paced?

I totally applaud your making fitness a part of your diving preparations. Keep up the great work!

If you’re paying a separate charge for that guide, I think you should put your foot down that he adjust the pace.

If not, I recommend setting a goal to dive independently. However, this is contingent on the guide providing every customer a high quality dive brief regardless of individual pace.

If the dive brief is weak, then put your foot down about that, making the point that the dive guide is faster than you’re inclined to go and that you need better information to enjoy the same dive as everybody else is getting.

Unless there are some tricky navigational cues, I’m comfortable doing my own thing (within reason and common sense) and I bet you can get to that level of independence, too.

 

[tursiops]

Tell the dive guide. slow down; I'm not going to try and keep up with you. Also, slow down, or no tip. The dive guide goes at YOUR pace, not you at his. This is not negotiable.

We just returned from Little Cayman Beach Resort, where we have been a number of times with great guides and diving and service. The weather was horrible; we had 17 dives in out package, but only 9 were offered due to the weather. One of our guides was much too fast. When asked to slow down, he ignored the request. then on one particularly low viz dive he disappeared mid-dive...he'd gone into a swim through (unannounced in the pre-dive briefing). We found our own way back to the boat. He got zero tip from me and several others. Unacceptable.

 

[MB NZ]

I hate guided diving full stop. Guides going too fast is a common problem. Sometimes they just want to get it over with as fast as possible, in which case, they are in the wrong job. The worst example of this I've experienced was in Fiji. It felt like a race! Other times, I think they have good intentions and are trying to show divers as much as possible and other divers may want this. Yes, it's good to establish what you want, but it's not always possible if just doing one or two dives or diving in a large group.