Diver etiquette

[RJP]

I welcome bananas.

How about whistling?

 

[Freewillow]

I checked my rabbit story on wikipaedia. Apparently a typical French supertition . they were supposed to eat hemp that was used in old sailboat for ropes and to make old keel watertight . But no banana, on the contrary. I have seen a lot of sailboats and diveboats with a bunch of ripening bananas on the deck :à

 

[diverrex]

Our dive boats in California seem to always have bananas, I guess we just don't care.

This has been said many times before but I am going to repeat it to emphasize it. Keep your gear under control and out of the space of others. Also said before, have situational awareness. Don't stand where you are blocking others. On boats where stations are close together and it helps for divers to get ready and then move away don't take forever getting ready. It amazes and annoys me that some divers take forever to get their gear on.

Thank for asking the question. Just being aware that there is etiquette or at least that there should be is a good sign of your attitude.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Don't put your weights on the seat unattended. If your weight belt is properly prepared but it's not time to put it on, lay it out, but tucked back behind your feet. This should prevent two things and improve efficiency for a third. First, on seat is likely to fall off and hurt someone, you're on a boat. Second, tucked away so neither you/ others stub toes nor should it go sliding across the deck in case of a lurch, you're on a boat .. Third, laid out so that's you can just move your feet out a bit, reach down and pick up proper ends in the correct hand and bring tthe belt up behind your back, then buckle into place.

 

[dvankirk]

My advise for new divers:

Stay off of the bottom (or the top of a wreck). I know that the pretty shells will look great on your mantle, but you are silting up the site for everybody else.

Also, don't speed around the site burning through your gas in 15 minutes. Relax and slow down - your dive will last longer and you will see more.

 

[FinnMom]

If you should ever happen to have some drysuit divers on your boat (or in any other group), note where they are and take a little effort to confine keep your wetsuit to your own area. Don't walk around when very wet and spread water everywhere. The drysuit diver has dry socks inside and maybe even an entire undersuit she might like to take off without getting it soaked by water on the deck, or someone standing too close dripping all over and into everything. People almost always do this only because they don't realize what they are doing, but now you know! Look around, take note and try to help keep dry stuff dry. Thank you!

 

[TMHeimer]

diverrex, Good advice about situational awareness. Applicable as well to people in supermarkets--just common sense & courtesy.
dvankirk, You can pick up shells without touching the bottom (99% of the time) with decent buoyancy.

keeping stuff together and right by you: Also prevents losing your own stuff or getting it mixed in with others'.

 

[hjnebus]

Theres so many of these superstition. Dont whistle on a boat either, you are whistling up a storm. There is absolutely no factual basis for this one at all.

This one actually has an outdated but very good reason.
Whistles were formerly used to communicate instructions to the crew. If you whistled on deck, you would catch hell from the bosun, and if the crew heard and mistook it, you might wind up luffing a sheet or dropping a halyard.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boatswain's_call

This practice actually followed the sailors back to shore into other walks of life. Theaters used to hire sailors to run the rigging, so it's still considered bad luck to whistle on stage.

 

[kevindsingleton]

If you should ever happen to have some drysuit divers on your boat (or in any other group), note where they are and take a little effort to confine keep your wetsuit to your own area. Don't walk around when very wet and spread water everywhere. The drysuit diver has dry socks inside and maybe even an entire undersuit she might like to take off without getting it soaked by water on the deck, or someone standing too close dripping all over and into everything. People almost always do this only because they don't realize what they are doing, but now you know! Look around, take note and try to help keep dry stuff dry. Thank you!

Now, I'm not so sure about this. You're on a boat (probably a small, crowded boat), in the middle of the ocean (maybe not the exact middle), with people getting in and out of the water, dripping wet, and you want other people to make sure you stay dry? You ask a lot, ma'am!

 

[george_austin]

Don't dump your boot juice on the deck - over the side only. Don't gear up in the galley - Please. Mask, fins and regs, gauges tucked into your BC/tank assembly and closed up together against the inside. Pick up your fins from the deck after the swim stem attendant tosses them up when you're exiting the water - better yet, take off your fins and slide your wrist through their ankle straps, climb up and go to your area. NICE!!! Replace your 1st stage after your tank fill. Don't ask for a "top off" if you have a 3000 psi tank and only have 2950 OMG!!!! Its a 40 ft dive!!!

---------- Post added October 1st, 2015 at 11:46 AM ----------

If you should ever happen to have some drysuit divers on your boat (or in any other group), note where they are and take a little effort to confine keep your wetsuit to your own area. Don't walk around when very wet and spread water everywhere. The drysuit diver has dry socks inside and maybe even an entire undersuit she might like to take off without getting it soaked by water on the deck, or someone standing too close dripping all over and into everything. People almost always do this only because they don't realize what they are doing, but now you know! Look around, take note and try to help keep dry stuff dry. Thank you!

Yeah, right. LOL