Male vs Female Guides

[Cacia]

I find some women DM's a little too bossy.

They seem to have more rules than the men.

Hmmm....Pauline? The nudibranch biologist? I love guessing, sorry Charlie.

 

[highdesert]

My two favorites, one of each sex ...

Guja (pronounce goo'-yah) Tione, the bubbly blond Italian at Wakatobi. Friendly, knowledgeable, and picks her way through a dive at a slow pace, coming up with tons of critters.

Davit (dah-veet'), the big Garifuna dude at the Reef House on Roatan. Barrel chest, no neck, full-time comedian, and leader of the laziest diving we've done. Also slow, deliberate, and great eyes for little stuff. A lot of people say he's Roatan's best DM.

 

[Tomeck]

In Palau, I dove with a female DM and I am glad, because thanks to the female DM, I could go down to 171 feet (52 meters) to see the very picturesque Siaes Tunnel.

 

[Rhone Man]

Seems to be most female instructors leading the dive tours down here in the BVI (and God bless 'em). Not trying to be PC, but I can't honestly say I have ever noticed a difference (I mean in their style of leading tours - I mean of course I noticed that difference! There is a new blonde Swedish instructor at the Dive company I normally go with, and my wife has officially banned me from diving on her tours. C'est la vie.).

 

[perdidochas]

Do most people dive with guides? I can't recall doing so except for when drift diving Palm Beach, or when in classes.

 

[Rhone Man]

I used to always dive with my Dad on weekends on his boat, but we worked out it was actually cheaper to go on tours with local diver operators. Plus that way we don't have to lug tanks back and forth to the dive shop, and they clean the boat down afterwards.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

I dunno about the not-very-young part ... but my all-time favorite dive guide is Blesi from B&B Scuba. If I ever make it back to Maui, she's the first one I'd want to dive with ... for all the reasons previously mentioned.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Same here, she was great! The other DM's at B&B were fine, but her nature and sharp eye's really made the dive better.

 

[webjr]

I've only had one experience with a female DM and it was not good. It had more to do with her bad training than her being female. The poor girl kept insisting that "THEY always weight you heavy in Cozumel, so you'll need about 5 lbs less than THEY made you wear". After I explained that "THEY" didn't weight me, she seemed confused that a diver could know EXACTLY how much weight to wear all by themselves.

One redeeming quality though ....
She was kinda cute as long as she kept her mouth shut.

 

[Charlie99]

Do most people dive with guides? I can't recall doing so except for when drift diving Palm Beach, or when in classes.

Depends upon the place. My experience is that if most of the divers had to fly to get to the place, then there is a high likelyhood that the dives will be guided. Same sort of correlation as to whether the dive ops just assume that they will be providing tanks and weights for everyone.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Do most people dive with guides? I can't recall doing so except for when drift diving Palm Beach, or when in classes.

When I travel I like to dive with guides. At home we don't use 'em, but in foreign waters a good dive guide will make all the difference in the world in terms of what you see. On our recent trip to Indonesia, I imagine I wouldn't have even recognized half of what I saw as living, much less known which habitats to look for them, without someone with a lot of local knowledge.

Actually, at home I like to play dive guide for out-of-town guests for exactly the same reason ... I know where to look for all the cool stuff.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)