Something else to add to this thread...
Most people who dive with guides are warm/clear water holiday divers who may not be diving regularly, and are likely hiring their equipment.
Even those with their equipment are often not fully equipped to be a safe buddy pair.
Very few 'holiday divers' take dsmbs abroad. I was scoffed at in the Dahab (by the compulsary instructor dive guides) for having a dsmb and spare mask, and was prevented from wearing a dive knife.
On the one boat dive where I left my mask behind because the instructor had made such a big deal out of me being overly cautious, my buddy backwards rolled, let go of his mask and I watched it drift down to 18m. The boat didnt have a spare, so the instructor recovered it for us before the dive could even start....
It's ridiculous, I managed to save someone else's dive that week with a spare fin strap. When there is a compulsary dive instructor guide then they should at least be ready with spares.
If my buddy and I are on EANx, have good air consumption, swim slowly and are equipped to surface together away from a shot line, then why should we pay for a dive where we speed through the site and surface as a group with the guide after 25 mins. That is the reason I will not be diving in Egypt again.
It is also the reason why I would rather have a pre dive lengthy chat with the dive guides in areas where guides are encouraged/semi compulsary.
Like... was it Jim? In most situations I would rather listen to a thorough briefing, ask questions, clarify any grey areas and then complete my own dive with my buddy. Unless there is something of particular interest that is difficult to navigate or identify then I would much prefer to dive without the inconvenience of a guide.
Nic
Well, Nic, I think it's possible your impressions about the skills of "holiday divers" are biased since just about every diver who lives
and dives in a cold-water area seems to show a similar disdain for those who dive mainly in warm water, even when it's where we live. It's an odd sort of chauvinism. I live in a warm water area and admit that most of my own diving is in warm water. Furthermore, I'm a somewhat experienced diver who owns her own gear and travels with it. I'm also in a position to see what people bring along when they travel to a warm-water destination for a dive holiday. Here are my own observations from within the industry:
1) Yes, there are a number of once-a-year divers who are not confident of their own skills (especially navigation) to get themselves back to the boat or find the right part of the reef for a pick up. But among my divers, they are not a majority. Most of the divers I work with here, given that Thailand is a major dive destination, are experienced enough that they wouldn't travel halfway around the world for a dive holiday if they just did it once a year. It may be different in the Red Sea amongst European holiday-makers or in the Caribbean with swarms of N. American vacationers, and it may be different within the backpacker crowd, but I don't think this is true for the majority of warm water destinations (many of which are in SE Asia where I operate) when divers plan a diving-dedicated trip.
2) Given the increasing restrictions on the weight of checked luggage, I see lots and lots of experienced divers--even dive pros--who use rental gear when they travel. I don't personally do this, but I see a lot of it. I would say that about half of my divers bring their own gear and the other half rent. People often want to bring some and rent some, for example rent fins and bring regs, but at least here, I recommend exactly the opposite! Bring fins and rent regs (ours are well-maintained). BCDs and BP/Ws are space eaters and are heavy, so unless you're a woman (rental BCs don't fit us well) or would never live down the ribbing from your mates of being seen in your holiday photos sporting a BCD, you might rent that, too. Bring your mask and dive comp.
3) Lots of warm-water destinations suffer from a lack of confidence by European and N. American divers (the national origins of the majority who travel for diving or dive while traveling) in regard to dive safety. For this reason, we always have dive guides. In some countries, such as Maldives and Mexico it's a nationwide requirement or at least a requirement in the confines of national marine parks. The guides are not there to make your life miserable--they are there to make sure everybody gets back to the boat. If a guide is required by law to be present, there is no way s/he is going to surface without all of his/her divers and let the rest carry on merrily until they are ready to come up. We have thousands upon thousands of holiday divers in Thailand every season, and it's extremely rare that any are lost. This may happen once every couple of years, and the last time it happened here, it was a very experienced and well-respected instructor who never came back from a dive at a site he was familiar with.
4) I personally LOVE having a guide when I'm diving in the Philippines and Indonesia. This is because they know what animals reside at which dive site, what sort of habitat they live in, and how to look for them. If I didn't have a guide on these dives, I'm certain I'd see maybe a quarter of what I have seen with my guide. I do dive travel to see different sorts of marine life, and as such, a guide, for me, is an asset. In fact, I like having my own private guide, and I'm happy to pay for one as it adds so much more value to my dive holiday that the cost is more than compensated.
As to your other complaints...
• There are places where it is illegal to carry a knife. Don't blame the dive guide or the dive operator for this.
• It seems to me that you're more angry with yourself for allowing yourself to be intimidated by a jerk of a dive guide to leave your mask behind. So what if you carry a spare? Does it hurt him in any way? Why didn't you just take it anyway, given that it didn't contravene any local laws (as the knife may have).
• A compulsory dive guide isn't a compulsory equipment technician. I don't carry spare straps for fins for people. For one thing, one fin strap generally doesn't fit every type of fin. I do have extra o-rings and an o-ring pick, though, and our boats usually have extra fins and masks (though they might not be the right size). I think it's up to the diver him/herself to bring extra fin straps for their personal gear. I always carry my own extras when I travel.
So if your pet peeve is dive guides, you have two choices: dive only at home or hire a private guide in areas where they are required. I train dive guides here, and one thing I have to disabuse many who inquire about the program is regarding "free dives." It seems that lots of youngsters think they can come to Thailand and pay for a DM course, and then "work" while getting "free dives." What I tell them is that while they are working it's not
their dive but rather the
customer's dive. I think the majority of poor dive guides don't get this basic point of customer service, so my irritation with some dive guides is inadequate customer care rather than that they are required or not.
