Miss Scuba Manners....What's your unwritten dive etiquette rule?

[sportxlh]

Interesting and funny thread. One piece of advice regarding etiquette on a dive boat is simply be nice. Most divers are nice but a few dopes can spoil a day of diving.

From a practical standpoint, if the boat is conducting hot drops for a drift dive, make sure you exit the boat fast. If you don't, the boat may drft with surface current away from the dive site and ruin the dive for divers entering the water after you.

I don't really agree with some of the comments about photographers. If a camera wielding diver finds some interesting subject and wants to spend an hour photographing the subject, what's the big deal? I'm likely to find something else interesting that the photographer won't see.

 

[FinnMom]

Remember that we are here to have fun. Smile. Be helpful, friendly, supportive. Don't be excessively loud nor excessively chatty. If you want say something negative, think 3-4x minimum about whether is is actually necessary, or in any way likely to improve the situation. Leave others in peace but treat them generally like you are glad to have them there.

It's not so hard. And Mother would be so proud of you.

 

[Wingy]

Yes it may be a lovely tropical island far from the crowds and cold of Europe, and I know you dont get much opportunity to develop that all over tan, but please, for god sakes, do NOT strip off naked during the surface interval between dives and sun yourself. I object to your dangly/furry bits almost dropping in the fruit platter as you lean across to grab more to eat........and while im at it.....ladies a bit of personal grooming and ''landscaping'' to keep things tidy please...spiders legs sprouting out of your swimsuit bottom everywhere does not look good.

 

[Hatul]

The worst offense in my book is also tormenting marine animals.

Another peeve is a diver dangling a light turned on that is out of control and blinds me. It's worst on night dives and with pistol grip lights, that swing back in an arc and kill my night vision.

---------- Post added February 10th, 2015 at 04:58 PM ----------

3) DMs or Dive buddies who dive the reef like its a race.

That's another peeve I've had where I had to chase after my buddy or leader and not see anything. The buddy rule should be to swim at the slowest member of the buddy team.

 

[KathyV]

Uh, guys, I don't like the behavior witnessed, either, but word of advice; do not accost strangers underwater and try to shut off any of their gear. Most people will just be shocked & irate; a few will administer an attitude adjustment. It'd be pretty easy to reach out & snatch your mask off, and that's probably one of the tamer things that could happen. Richard.

Not a smart call. Be pissed off all you like, but messing with someone else's stuff underwater can and should get you hurt.

I'm sure you meant well, championing the cause of the lowly octopus, but I'd caution you about getting that aggressive with your fellow divers. Many folks, me included, don't take kindly to the "in-your-face" nanny types...especially underwater.
So yeah...dive etiquette...stay outta my business and I'll stay outta yours....

So I would not touch anyone's gear underwater...even a light. Some divers are highly reactive.
That said, I disagree with th "mind your own business" sentiment raised by several posters. The idea that we can never intervene when people are acting atrociously---that is why the human race can't have nice things...

Perhaps a wee bit of drama in your response, but I see it comes from a good place. Maybe a word to the Captain or DM about inappropriate behavior underwater would achieve the same results. Getting in a diver's face underwater or grabbing at his gear underwater because of a perceived lack of etiquette around a sea critter might earn you a lesson you won't soon forget.

If divers are surrounding and photographing critters, sure no problem...but if they are forcefully grabbing and pulling the animal back or if a divemaster is crushing an octopus in his fist to show it to everybody I wouldn't hesitate to give them the light flash, wtf face/hand gesture, and get in their face about it right there and then. Respect other living things. Its simple. We are in the water to observe and record, not to harass and touch everything. That being said, I wouldn't touch their gear though.

And there's the key. Don't invoke "road rage" under water...There are ways of getting the message through without ****ing with someone's gear.

Thanks for all the kind words of advice but I should have given you some background to my story. This was a chartered liveaboard with a group of divers that we had vacationed with previously. I knew everybody very well and they knew me. And we were right under the boat with a big light shining down and nobody was plunged into inky darkness - and they just turned their lights back on as soon as I snapped them off anyway. They knew that they were acting inappropriately but they still wanted to have fun.

They were really tormenting the poor little octopus and it went on much too long - they had already gotten plenty of pictures and had lots of chances to terrorize the helpless creature. I saw it "ink" and desperately try to dart away but a diver roughly grabbed it by a tentacle and jerked it back - I was surprised that the tentacle didn't break off.

At that point I had enough and I acted to get their attention and help the octopus escape. A few of them were crabby about it because they weren't done "playing" but too bad; they learned not to stress and torment animals around me.

But I am not an idiot, my next-door neighbor was actually murdered during a road rage incident (a young husband and father of 2 small children). He got into an altercation with another driver, they pulled over to confront each other, and the other guy pulled out a "Rambo Knife" and stabbed him. When I get angry with a stranger I remember my neighbor and it helps me to calm down.

In a similar underwater situation, if I was diving with strangers (or near strangers) I would be furious but I wouldn't confront an unknown entity in anger. I would probably give him the stinkeye to let him know I was pissed and maybe talk to him privately about it later; but I knew these guys quite well and there wasn't any risk in my actions. Hopefully they learned a lesson and will remember it even when I am not around to remind them!

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for the clarification, Kathy. One thing I try to be mindful of are the newbie folks learning on the forum, who can be influenced by what they may assume are social norms. Regardless of whether or not people see such an issue as morally justified, I don't want to see anybody get hurt. I'm glad the octopus got away.

Richard.

 

[Steve_C]

The assumption is that the animal was ok. Stressed animals are more subject to predation and other ill effects. That's why a lot of fish caught and released do not make it unless the fisherman is careful in how they handle ti.

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Don't puff the puffers. It's not natural.
Don't mess with a sleeping turtle, observe from a distance. No need to shine a light in it's eye.
Don't chase marine life in hoping to get a shot. They can out swim you.
It's a big ocean and 80-80-80 diving. An arms length away is still plenty close.
Photogs, no need to blind that poor seahorse with 50 shots. If you can't get a shot by the 5th time, practice on land. At Blue Heron Bridge where there are a lot of divers and a lot of photogs, a critter might get photographed 200 times! Give it some consideration. If it turns it's back to you, it's had enough. Respect that.
Just because I am shooting some mundane little critter does not give you the right to swim up and scare the critter off.
Get that GoPro out of my way! No reason to swim the ocean sticking that thing in front of everybody to get a shot. Wait your turn.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Thanks for all the kind words of advice but I should have given you some background to my story. This was a chartered liveaboard with a group of divers that we had vacationed with previously. I knew everybody very well and they knew me. And we were right under the boat with a big light shining down and nobody was plunged into inky darkness - and they just turned their lights back on as soon as I snapped them off anyway. They knew that they were acting inappropriately but they still wanted to have fun.

They were really tormenting the poor little octopus and it went on much too long - they had already gotten plenty of pictures and had lots of chances to terrorize the helpless creature. I saw it "ink" and desperately try to dart away but a diver roughly grabbed it by a tentacle and jerked it back - I was surprised that the tentacle didn't break off.

At that point I had enough and I acted to get their attention and help the octopus escape. A few of them were crabby about it because they weren't done "playing" but too bad; they learned not to stress and torment animals around me.

But I am not an idiot, my next-door neighbor was actually murdered during a road rage incident (a young husband and father of 2 small children). He got into an altercation with another driver, they pulled over to confront each other, and the other guy pulled out a "Rambo Knife" and stabbed him. When I get angry with a stranger I remember my neighbor and it helps me to calm down.

In a similar underwater situation, if I was diving with strangers (or near strangers) I would be furious but I wouldn't confront an unknown entity in anger. I would probably give him the stinkeye to let him know I was pissed and maybe talk to him privately about it later; but I knew these guys quite well and there wasn't any risk in my actions. Hopefully they learned a lesson and will remember it even when I am not around to remind them!

I don't care how well I know and like you - behave like that with me and you're going to be risking a significant shift in our diving relationship on a permanent basis. In my book, if you want to respectfully communicate your displeasure with someone's marine life interactions, you use your words/signals--not your hands. But if your friends are willing to put up with you, by all means.

 

[Patoux01]

Simply be a beginner and accidentally shine your fancy 3000 lumen torch in their face... Pretty sure the octopus will be able to run away while the others are wondering where the sun came from and waiting to be able to see again.

For me, coming from DMs or instructors:
- Encouraging feeding/touching
- sticking hands in holes (no, not those, you sick people!)
- encouraging wrong/dangerous use of gear like an octopus that is tucked away so neatly I wouldn't be able to grab it, or 30m spools that are clipped off in a way that simply begs to unwind
- touching my gear because "you're a beginner you don't know what you're doing", let me help you.
- getting almost insulting because of my setup and the fact I try to protect the environment even at the cost of my "fun". Going through a swim-through breaking everything there is because I have issues with my buoyancy is not my idea of fun.

From other divers:
- take my spot on the boat, and I swear I'll hate you all my life
- those claiming "I spent XX minutes at YY depth, got out with 20 bars I'm the best" when instructions clearly state to surface with 50. Rules are rules, by signing up for the boat you agreed on following them
- divers who will try to touch everything they can
- talking to me when I'm focused on setting up my gear
- touching my tank valve and/or regulators. I'm happy with you checking my inflator, if you want to press the button that's fine. If you want to check they breathe, I'll show you.
- Don't get silt up with your kicks. You might not see it, I'm usually the one in the back, after 5 divers there's not much left for me to see.

I appreciate if someone I don't know is concerned and tells me I'm doing something wrong, however, they better be able to show me it's wrong.

Those are basically the things that annoy me. Kind of universal I guess
And before you guys ask, indeed I'm no fun diving with