InTheDrink
Contributor
When Peter and I did the Manta dive off the Big Island, we were instructed to go to the bottom and sit there. The problem was that there was significant surge, and it was REALLY hard to sit still without being blown over. When I finally said to heck with this and got neutral and let myself sway back and forth with the surge, I was far more comfortable. It is sad that the dive operators don't expect divers to have the skill to do that, and tell them to sit -- it's worse to overweight them to make it possible, since that renders neutral buoyancy more difficult, in the event that they get skunked on mantas and just do a night dive, as we ended up doing.
Agree wholeheartedly. Wrong to deliberately overweight people IMO. Moving back and forth with surge is not only more pleasant it also is a good learning opportunity - it's how I learned micro ankle movements to be able to hold position and from there how to back fin.
I really hate ops that overweight people. It causes so many more problems than it solves - ESPECIALLY for newer divers.