Is this Offensive?

[JeffG]

You can usually pick out the gems easily by their tone, objective advise and courtesy.

You can? Interesting trick.

 

[Meng_Tze]

You can? Interesting trick.

To OP, JeffG maybe the exception to the rule, while very knowledgeable and usually making sense, he does have a certain , how shall I say, 'panache'.

How silly of me to forget.
:blinking:

 

[ACR]

In Summary: This is the internet.

This is the internet?? Man, it's going to take forever this potato to cook...

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Panache? is that french for "sometimes obnoxious pain in the butt"? We do love him though! But I don't see it as offensive. The earlier posts about learning from experience is what drives many I think to make the recommendations that they do. I just got two DSS single tank rig setups for a couple of my customers. They went with this after diving with conventional bc's for a couple years all over the place. We were in Bonaire together a few weeks back and they saw my DSS rig. Not only were they impressed with the quality of it but also the simplicity. The way it packed for travel, and the versatility of it. They did their research at my recommendation on other set ups but chose this one. Would I recommend it to a new diver? Yes. For the reasons stated and the fact that just because BPW's are associated with tech does not mean they are exclusive to it. I have a top of the line jacket bc that I dove with for over two years. Over 100 dives and well over 120 hours in the pool. It still looks like new. I use it for pool only now. Because I have to when working with students. Otherwise whether diving cold, warm, singles, doubles, with students etc. The BPW makes more sense. You fit it to you, not try to fit to a manufacturers idea of what size you are. I see so many in jackets that are the right size given the person's measurements but they simply don't fit the individual properly. I recommend BPW set ups for anyone that wants a simple, cost effective, customizable, easy to travel with setup. Some are comfy in jackets. I no longer am. Same goes for the long hose/bungee backup and the way it simplifies air shares. I am going to expose my students as an instructor to as many configs as I can. Let them decide what they need and go from there. I will make recomendations based on their needs, diving they intend to do, and the money they want of can spend.

 

[Guba]

Okay, I just read that "post 47". If I were rich, I'd have that carved in marble and sunk on my favorite dive site!
Great post!

 

[RonzoTheGreat]

I took my DM class with 4 tech divers. They can be a wealth of information, but you just have to pick and chose what you want to do and which battles to fight.

i really like what you wrote here ... i am a relatively new diver, but after diving in a few amazing places (palancar and such), and seeing just how commonly POOR some recreational diver's training has been, i have to agree that having serious tech divers as my ow and aow (and other courses) "teachers" ... i have become a better diver. i firmly agree that tech divers have tons of information to offer, but for a new diver, making a decision on how i really want my diving experience to pan out makes all the difference ... is this going to be a vacation hobby? a recreational wreck visit here and there? a deep dive sport? or possible commercial future? makes all the difference in how much of their offered info you should swallow and how much to pass on.

and to be honest, an older (much more experienced) SB member met me on one of my first "non-quarry" dives and turned me onto SB, he (and his buddies) were so impressed by my skill -with such little experience- that he sort of took me under his wing for awhile. and i 100% attribute it to my tech based teachers. but that being said, within 15 minutes of meeting the "a$$hole with a pension" i already learned 2-3 more things i would never have learned in training.

all-in-all tech divers think one way (practicality and survival) ... and yes some are open minded to other things, but one simply needs to decide what their future in diving really is before deciding on whose ideas are most apparent.

 

[bfw]

Observation #1: The way I see it is that the tech and cave community (for the most part anyway) have boiled down the gear into what provides the most utility. No extra fluff, bells, or whistles that are nothing more than cheap tricks to increase sales (and, on occasion, create dangers).

Exactly, and they see a lot of stuff that boils down to gimmicks and "bold new graphics." They don't like seeing decisions made based on faulty criteria when lives are at stake.

 

[ucfdiver]

Thank god my instructor was a cave diver, he saved me so much money by giving me gear advice. He got me into a basic setup that has lasted me several years, and I'm being able to reuse a lot of it now that I'm going towards cave myself.

 

[DiverLS]

I got the view the other way. I dated a guy for awhile that was starting his tech diving. He slammed ScubaBoard as a bunch of newbies who wanted to know which BC to buy, what regulator to buy and whine when they didn't research enough and bought something wrong.

I disagreed. I noted that a lot of ScubaBoard threads were fun, enlightening and some a real wealth of information.

He refered me to another chat board for the techies. Not my piece of cake. I'm a recreational diver, underwater photographer, but not "the look at all the pretty fishies type".

Thank all of you at Scuba Board for lettine me "dive in."

And note I "dated him for awhile". I was thrilled to get a dive buddy. Out of water - NO!

 

[tfsails]

Time to stir up a little poo poo... To the original poster:

It's been my observation that there are many seriously inflated (if not overinflated) egos among scuba divers. It seems to be more pronounced the higher up the diving food chain the diver goes. This is by no means a blanket accusation that ALL professional-level or tech divers have this ego problem. It is my way of saying that maybe this sport would be better off if certain people would stow their egos and just enjoy doing something that the majority of humans have never done.

New divers are impressionable; I know I was when I was new. I am embarrassed by how dumb I was about matters concerning scuba as I was learning. A lot of it is not intuitive. Some of it is. The new diver needs to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff (aka BS) when it comes to learning about diving. For my two cents' worth the best way to learn is to get the book and read it, followed up by some good conversations at your LDS or local dive club.

Oh--I don't care a whit whom I offend with the above statement. I subscribe to the first amendment to the Constitution. The freedom of speech is also the freedom to offend!