I can easily see both sides of this. On the one hand, when I went to Coz, our entire group had a boat to ourselves and simply told the dive op that we wanted to stay at or above 100 feet. Nobody hassled us, because there were no accomodations to anyone else that had to be made.
But the incident Peter describes was different. We were on a small boat with 8 or 10 other divers. We had gotten the dive briefing and we were running through our head-to-toe equipment check (which takes about two minutes). The dive leader, who was an instructor, looked at us and said, "Gee, it's going to be a night dive by the time you guys get done with what you are doing." (He was clearly irritated, even though there was no current or anything else that required dispatch in getting into the water.) My husband was annoyed enough to get in his face about it; I am a different person, and alone, I would have been embarrassed -- and as a new diver, I would probably have abbreviated or omitted the gear check from that point onward. But we did have other people on the trip who liked what we were doing enough to come over and say, "Can we get in on your buddy check?"
Now, of course, there are ways of expressing disagreement that are likely to go smoothly, and others that don't. If the dive briefed is over your head, it's unlikely to anger someone if you say, "I only have five dives and my buoyancy's still a little shaky; is there a way to do this and stay a little shallower?" It's going to cause problems if you say, "I don't think that dive is appropriate for a new diver, and I won't do it." But either way, if you have a harried dive guide and it's going to be inconvenient to change the plan, you may get a negative response, with either pressure to do what you don't want to do, or even anger. That's human nature and reality.
The best place to solve the problem, as with so many other diving issues, is well before you're getting in the water. If new divers know enough to discuss with the dive op in advance what kind of diving they do, they can voice their concerns well before the staff are under time pressure or faced with the ire of other divers.
I have really enjoyed this thread, because it has pointed out some things that Peter and I ought to bring up with our students. Good topic!
But the incident Peter describes was different. We were on a small boat with 8 or 10 other divers. We had gotten the dive briefing and we were running through our head-to-toe equipment check (which takes about two minutes). The dive leader, who was an instructor, looked at us and said, "Gee, it's going to be a night dive by the time you guys get done with what you are doing." (He was clearly irritated, even though there was no current or anything else that required dispatch in getting into the water.) My husband was annoyed enough to get in his face about it; I am a different person, and alone, I would have been embarrassed -- and as a new diver, I would probably have abbreviated or omitted the gear check from that point onward. But we did have other people on the trip who liked what we were doing enough to come over and say, "Can we get in on your buddy check?"
Now, of course, there are ways of expressing disagreement that are likely to go smoothly, and others that don't. If the dive briefed is over your head, it's unlikely to anger someone if you say, "I only have five dives and my buoyancy's still a little shaky; is there a way to do this and stay a little shallower?" It's going to cause problems if you say, "I don't think that dive is appropriate for a new diver, and I won't do it." But either way, if you have a harried dive guide and it's going to be inconvenient to change the plan, you may get a negative response, with either pressure to do what you don't want to do, or even anger. That's human nature and reality.
The best place to solve the problem, as with so many other diving issues, is well before you're getting in the water. If new divers know enough to discuss with the dive op in advance what kind of diving they do, they can voice their concerns well before the staff are under time pressure or faced with the ire of other divers.
I have really enjoyed this thread, because it has pointed out some things that Peter and I ought to bring up with our students. Good topic!
