Ego and Diving

[WICKED_WIZARD]

Sometimes, some guys just fall throught the cracks and make it to DM or above. One, I encountered called himself "Crazy Dan."

On a guided tour (5 divers) of a reef, Crazy Dan's dive briefing included the following "we will dive until the first person runs out of air. They you will share air, signal to the group, and we will all surface."

At least you know what your min air was ha ha ha. Zip
A DM at the shoal here one gave a briefing, 'We are going to get into the boat and dive, so lets go.' What she failed to notice was 3 Instructors on rebreather. With no max time, they had a 2 1/2 hour ball. When they surfaced, most other divers where see sick with a angry DM and skipper. They nicely pointed out that they where not told the max dive time. Needles to say when the same DM saw the group the next day, they had one of the most thorough briefings they ever had ha ha ha

 

[AXL72]

WICKED,

That is beautiful!!! I enjoyed that story of the rebreathers and will be tickled for a while by it.

I got to say, at least she noticed that they were still diving and did not leave them out in the water. If I were one of the bottle divers, I think I would be mad, too, but I would be mad at the dive op, not the divers. If I see any guys with re-breathers I will be better prepared to speak up and say, "Hey, what is our max dive time." You have definately saved me some grief. Thanks!!!

 

[WICKED_WIZARD]

WICKED,

That is beautiful!!! I enjoyed that story of the rebreathers and will be tickled for a while by it.

I got to say, at least she noticed that they were still diving and did not leave them out in the water. If I were one of the bottle divers, I think I would be mad, too, but I would be mad at the dive op, not the divers. If I see any guys with re-breathers I will be better prepared to speak up and say, "Hey, what is our max dive time." You have definately saved me some grief. Thanks!!!

Its not only the rebreather's that dive long. I dive with a 15L as I like the wrecks dives around here, but keep the same setup for shallow reef dives. So on a 9 to 16 meter reef drift dive, a 15L can go a long way.

 

[ShoalDiverSA]

Hi Wicked,

I've had the exact opposite happen in Sodwana. The DM briefed extensively before the dive, including bottom time limit. She even made the effort of getting agreement from those that were diving with computers to the time limit.

Great dive on 9 Mile, then she called time-out as planned. The next thing, the one buddy pair swims up to her and the husband of the pair requests the buoy line! The DM was so taken aback by this that she handed over the reel (which was a mistake, admittedly).

Anyway, we spent a good 15 minutes on the boat waiting for them... When they climbed back in the boat their attitude was "what? is there a problem?". The guy dissed the DM and then we spent the rest of the boat trip back in silence.

We should have perhaps seen something coming with the guy wearing what looked line an 18l steel and the wife a manifolded 2x10l (looked like a salvaged SCBA set)!

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[WICKED_WIZARD]

Hi Wicked,

I've had the exact opposite happen in Sodwana. The DM briefed extensively before the dive, including bottom time limit. She even made the effort of getting agreement from those that were diving with computers to the time limit.

Great dive on 9 Mile, then she called time-out as planned. The next thing, the one buddy pair swims up to her and the husband of the pair requests the buoy line! The DM was so taken aback by this that she handed over the reel (which was a mistake, admittedly).

Anyway, we spent a good 15 minutes on the boat waiting for them... When they climbed back in the boat their attitude was "what? is there a problem?". The guy dissed the DM and then we spent the rest of the boat trip back in silence.

We should have perhaps seen something coming with the guy wearing what looked line an 18l steel and the wife a manifolded 2x10l (looked like a salvaged SCBA set)!

Cheers,

Andrew

Very easy to get them up. Grab the boy and start reeling in the line into the boat. The reel has only so much line they can give and at a point they will either get the message or come up unwillingly. Just make sure you pull them up slowly. But yes, you do not hand over a boy line. Cos now also, you have divers in the water you are responsible for, but you have no control over them and do not know what's going on. When you come up, the group comes up, that's it.

 

[AXL72]

OK, here is where WICKED gets the opportunity to kick the crap out of me.....with words of course.

IF divers pay for a dive trip, what is wrong with them taking a but more extra time? Grant it on the rebreathers, the LDS should have put them on theor own separate boat. But 15 minutes is not bad. I agree, they should have their own reel and sausage, but people consume less air than others and some have different equipment set-ups and capacity than others.

What if someone has to take a massive 5 minute piss and is on a boat with no head? :O Chances are the group is waiting for the guy (or woman) to take the piss in the water. I would rather wait the five minutes then be under the person optimizing time by taking a piss while 15 ft above me.

anyway, where is the harm?

 

[WICKED_WIZARD]

OK, here is where WICKED gets the opportunity to kick the crap out of me.....with words of course.

IF divers pay for a dive trip, what is wrong with them taking a but more extra time? Grant it on the rebreathers, the LDS should have put them on theor own separate boat. But 15 minutes is not bad. I agree, they should have their own reel and sausage, but people consume less air than others and some have different equipment set-ups and capacity than others.

What if someone has to take a massive 5 minute piss and is on a boat with no head? :O Chances are the group is waiting for the guy (or woman) to take the piss in the water. I would rather wait the five minutes then be under the person optimizing time by taking a piss while 15 ft above me.

anyway, where is the harm?

Why would I want to kick the crap out of you?

I think we all forgot that we dive in different parts of the world in different conditions and setup. In south Africa most of the dives are done from a small rubber duck. That is a boat with a hard bottom, but with rubber pontoons. Normally 6 to 9 meters long with two outboard motors. All the gear is in the centre line of the boat and you sit opposite your gear on the pontoon. Once you get to the dive site, all kit up, and when all is ready, the skipper maneuvers the boat up current from where you want to dive. The all backward roll together and descend together. It is normally accepted that if to you cannot descend within 2 or so minutes, the skipper picks you up and the dive is over for you. So if you want to take a leak, you do it in the dive (yes in your wetsuit)
Also we have divers going out back to back. Thus as soon as the boat is back, new diver get on again. And the boat is out. Dive limit is 55 min for a shallow dive to 18 meters. thus is in line with most tables. Safety first. Thus, if you spend 15 min more, you not only delay every boat launch after yours, but from a safety side, put the charter at risk if you get DSC. Where you to dive on a bigger boat where you have the boat for the day, or if its the last or second last launch of the day, we are more lenient and will stay in the water with the boyline at about 5 meters while you dive on. But if we are low on air, sorry mate, you come up. As to the own reel and boy. Remember we have waves and swells running 3 meters a lot of the times here. This for a boat to follow multiple deploy boys is a nightmare and they will not do it.

Its all a matter of where and how you dive.

 

[epoque]

ego and diving does not mix well.

Hey there - totally agree with you. Sadly - unlike other activities I pursue eg sailing or skiing, I find diving is so full of ego types. Be it 20 something DM's on their gap year, washed-up instructors being overbearing to holiday divers, or simply all the gear-no-idea clients with their tales of near misses. I for one consider myself a novice compared to the majority of seriously experienced divers out there with 1000's of logged dives and they ironically are the one's who just sit there and want to talk about the cricket with me. I thus prefer liveaboards where the DM's are more chilled. I just want to take videos of nature and really experience being alive as a sentient human being. I wish the people who essentially want to say that their equipment is better than the next person would just go in a tw*t-corner

ps. My first post - sorry not usually controversial - probably gonna get banned now - taxi for one!

 

[descent]

... My first post - sorry not usually controversial - probably gonna get banned now - taxi for one!

Welcome to ScubaBoard, epoque.

If you look at each post, you can see in the upper left hand corner (above your username) there is a timestamp. When the posts are coming in faster than one per minute, it shows how much passion and energy people are pouring into a discussion. Strong words may be met with stronger words, until someone does indeed get banned.

The timestamps here tell a slightly different story. There is a little bit less passion in this thread.

 

[epoque]

Welcome to ScubaBoard, epoque.

Thanks. Good tip - I'll look out for the timestamp