Just got back from diving on a cruise. It's amazing how casual people are with diving

[00wabbit]

I just got back from a cruise where I dove 3 locations.

The first location was good. Only myself and 2 other divers. One was pretty advanced and the other was a little rusty but still in control. The second dive I went out with 11 people. 1 husband and wife team had the husband bossing the wife around. She clearly didn't want to be there. On one dive she wasn't paying attention to her air and almost had an emergency. I could tell because her husband was sort of yelling at her. A couple of the other people were bobbing up and down 10-15ft on a drift dive and seemed fairly out of control. They kept crossing into my path without really paying attention to the others around them. One lady popped up to the surface from about 45 ft and she didn't know why. I think the problem was that we were coming up from 60ft and she didn't vent her bcd and just kept going up and up. Fortunately there was no emergency with her.
On the 3rd dive there was a couple that basically did the whole dive feet down going form the bottom to about 20ft above the group. The dive master had to keep telling them to come down with the group.

I was nervous about looking like a beginner with more experienced divers. I guess I didn't need to worry.
I knew cruise dives were easier because most of the diver's were less experienced because they dived less, but I was really surprised how casually people take this. They seem to treat it like snorkeling and not realize that they are just one breath from drowning at all times.

 

[DukeAMO]

On our cruise ship diving, we saw a wide range of abilities and personalities. We saw several very experienced, competent divers. We dove with several rude divers, who kept running into us from all sides, or pushing in front of us to take pictures of things. We saw a near "suicide dive", when a new-ish diver ended up below 100 feet on a sloping wall, when we weren't supposed to go below about 75-80 feet, and she and her buddy didn't notice for a while. We saw people get pulled up to the surface, either because they forgot to vent their BCDs or because they were underweighted. That's all in six dives. Actually, that's all in four dives, because the two shore dives with just an instructor and the two of us didn't involve any safety drama.

I felt like DH and I had good buoyancy control, but my SAC rate needs help. I think I need to get better at finning efficiently, because my SAC rate was only bad when swimming in currents.

The other thing I took away from that is that I really want to be the considerate, safe, competent type of diver. Not the rude, bumbling, out of control type!

 

[Griffo]

The number of divers you see struggling with basic skills in tropical dive locations is always going to be large. Imagine if you learnt how to ride a bike, and as soon as you mastered riding without training wheels, you didn't ride again for another 12 months. Well that's what a lot of resort divers do with their diving skills. How more people don't end up dead is beyond me.

I've also recently learnt that there is a danger in having your own buoyancy control sorted on busy sites - i can't tell you how many times in a very short number of dives i've been hovering looking at something when bang some other diver has swum up behind me and kicked me, blissfully unaware that it was me and not coral they had run into. I need to work on keeping an eye out for other random divers obviously.

 

[00wabbit]

Yup. Most of the divers I mentioned said that they only dive once a year on trips.

I got startled a little when I was swimming along in a narrow area between some coral and all of the sudden I see a hand come into my vision. This one guy was swimming right over the top of me inches away and not leaving me any room to maneuver if I needed to come up a bit to get off the bottom.

 

[fire_diver]

Yep, all those things are sadly common in many "pretty" dive spots. Just make sure your own skills are solid, and try to keep your head on a swivel because those @#$% will kick the crap out of you!

 

[00wabbit]

I need to work on breathing as well. I had to come up early on my first dives (the deepest dives) at each location. Finally by the 8th dive I wasn't one of the first to go up. I got to stay down with the longer group and keep swimming it was a good feeling. I know part of it was that I was much more relaxed on that dive. I had a better grasp of my bouyancy and I wasn't constantly inflating and deflating my bcd. On my earlier dives when I would breathe in an start moving up I would freak a little and vent air. Then when I exhaled I would go down too much and had to add air back. By the last dive I became more aware of how I moved up and down and it didn't bother me. As long as I went down on an exhale I was fine. It was a good feeling to get that a little bit more under control.

On our cruise ship diving, we saw a wide range of abilities and personalities. We saw several very experienced, competent divers. We dove with several rude divers, who kept running into us from all sides, or pushing in front of us to take pictures of things. We saw a near "suicide dive", when a new-ish diver ended up below 100 feet on a sloping wall, when we weren't supposed to go below about 75-80 feet, and she and her buddy didn't notice for a while. We saw people get pulled up to the surface, either because they forgot to vent their BCDs or because they were underweighted. That's all in six dives. Actually, that's all in four dives, because the two shore dives with just an instructor and the two of us didn't involve any safety drama.

I felt like DH and I had good buoyancy control, but my SAC rate needs help. I think I need to get better at finning efficiently, because my SAC rate was only bad when swimming in currents.

The other thing I took away from that is that I really want to be the considerate, safe, competent type of diver. Not the rude, bumbling, out of control type!

 

[DukeAMO]

Believe it or not, on our last dive in the Caribbean we didn't have any air in our BCDs underwater. We were able to control our buoyancy just with breath control, from the surface down to about 55 feet. It was a liberating experience! You have to be in warm water (3mm shorties) without any extra weight to pull that off, though. The PPB class helped a lot with that too.

With a thicker wetsuit, you need to wear more weight to sink, then you need to put some air in your BCD to get neutral when the neoprene compresses at depth. And air in your BCD will always make controlling your buoyancy more difficult. The more neoprene, the more weight, and the more you have to fuss with the amount of air in your BCD. Sad but true. Those of us who dive in colder water all get the hang of it eventually, though!

 

[deepstops]

I dive a lot (80+ dives every year for the last 18 years). I cruise a lot (24 cruises in the last 11 years).

The divers I meet on cruises aren't much different than the divers I meet here on the typical South Florida dive boat. There's typically a wide variety of age, experience, and capabilities.


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[Hawkwood]

Believe it or not, on our last dive in the Caribbean we didn't have any air in our BCDs underwater. We were able to control our buoyancy just with breath control, from the surface down to about 55 feet. It was a liberating experience! ...

Great job! Next you will be telling us about that first hour long dive. I bet it is not too far off.

 

[TMHeimer]

None of these stories shock me, having read all sorts of "vacation" divers stuff on SB. This is why even with a fair bit of experience I try to dive regularly, whether home in NS or down on the Gulf of Mex. Anyone can get rusty over time-I know this also as a clarinet player. Doesn't matter how long you've been diving, but for a beginner this is scary.