kjunheart
Contributor
Ohhh BigT....I am never going to live today down, will I? Open mouth insert foot....I like to think I am harmless! LOL
My first Rant - Do Not Endanger Me or Ruin My Dive. I'm steamed...
- Thread starter Mo2vation
- Start date
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What about the excelent handicapped divers who regularly get in the water (Amputees, etc.)? They can't pick up their gear and jump off the boat but they are good divers just the same.
I think where you need to modify the above is to simply say that "any diver should be fully prepaired to get him/herself into and out of the water safely without causing problems for other divers" on the boat.
If this means that they need to only go diving when they have a budy who is prepaired to be the support they require or that they should have arraged with the boat/chartering shop for a personal assistant or DM to be available specificly for their special needs, I see no problem diving with almost anyone.
OTOH, I think that there are many 100% physicaly able divers who have no business being anywhere near the water. This could be for any one of many reasons: bad attitude, lack of training, lack of ANY visible form of simple common sense, (fill in your own favorite diver peve here
), etc...I'd be much more worried about diving with one of the latter type divers than someone with reduced physical abilities but who has obviously taken the time/effort to be well prepaired to dive within those limitations.
Just my take on the subject.
OP
I shouldn't have to interview the dive boat on the abilities of each of the divers on the trip. In my specific case, the plan for the boat was very loose.
1) Its going to be a 3 cylinder day
2) We're starting on the Yukon
That was it.
Viz was bad so we didn't want to hang out on the Yukon, so a boat consensus was taken ("...OK gang, do we hang here, go to 1 of these 3 other wreck options, or go to the kelp....")
Of course, in a perfect world, all divers on a boat would be at or near the same minimum skill levels so we could all enjoy dives requiring about the same challenge.
With or without a "support buddy" the decisions made on a tiny boat with only 14 divers will be impacted if one of the pairs required special attention or had specific needs.
As it was, a few of us wanted to go to another of the several wrecks that were within reasonable distance. But because the boat had a few people that were not up to the challenge (I'm not talking seahunt challenge here - penetration, danger, adventure...I'm talking OW outside look around the wreck diving) we ended up going to the Kelp beds.
No biggie - I had fun, but it surely wasn't worth the 5 hour round trip and a night in a hotel, plus the boat fees to go and dive in kelp that I can shore dive for free.
I learned a valuable lesson on this trip, and I will not be going to SD for winter diving again anytime soon. Two trips now, both have been underwhelming. One due to the operator (my earlier "worst dive ever" post) and one (this most recent) not the boat operator's fault. SD is simply not a great place to be at this time of year. I can spend less and get more out of my diving by staying in LA.
I understand we roll the dice on these cattle boats - but what I'm saying I will not waiver on. Diving is a physical sport, and it simply isn't for everyone. And the line should be drawn at the surface, and I draw the minimum physical requirements at mobility in full kit. Not mobility with buddy support - if you can't pick it up, get it on and get to the gate, I don't want to be on the boat with you.
K
1) Its going to be a 3 cylinder day
2) We're starting on the Yukon
That was it.
Viz was bad so we didn't want to hang out on the Yukon, so a boat consensus was taken ("...OK gang, do we hang here, go to 1 of these 3 other wreck options, or go to the kelp....")
Of course, in a perfect world, all divers on a boat would be at or near the same minimum skill levels so we could all enjoy dives requiring about the same challenge.
With or without a "support buddy" the decisions made on a tiny boat with only 14 divers will be impacted if one of the pairs required special attention or had specific needs.
As it was, a few of us wanted to go to another of the several wrecks that were within reasonable distance. But because the boat had a few people that were not up to the challenge (I'm not talking seahunt challenge here - penetration, danger, adventure...I'm talking OW outside look around the wreck diving) we ended up going to the Kelp beds.
No biggie - I had fun, but it surely wasn't worth the 5 hour round trip and a night in a hotel, plus the boat fees to go and dive in kelp that I can shore dive for free.
I learned a valuable lesson on this trip, and I will not be going to SD for winter diving again anytime soon. Two trips now, both have been underwhelming. One due to the operator (my earlier "worst dive ever" post) and one (this most recent) not the boat operator's fault. SD is simply not a great place to be at this time of year. I can spend less and get more out of my diving by staying in LA.
I understand we roll the dice on these cattle boats - but what I'm saying I will not waiver on. Diving is a physical sport, and it simply isn't for everyone. And the line should be drawn at the surface, and I draw the minimum physical requirements at mobility in full kit. Not mobility with buddy support - if you can't pick it up, get it on and get to the gate, I don't want to be on the boat with you.
K
Maybe I didn't make myself clear.
What I ment was that ANY & ALL divers should be responsible for themselves reguardless of their physical condition. If that requires assistance than they need to make their own arrangements to ensure that the assistance is available before they ever get near the boat. This, in and of itself should have zero impact on where and how you, and the rest of the divers on the boat, dive.
It is entirely up to you as to wether you get on a boat with any other divers but like I said before, I've met great divers who can't enter/exit without assistance and absolutely terrible divers who look and talk a great game on the deck but can't dive worth a d***...
Those guys scare me more than any well prepaired handicapped diver ever will.
As to diving SKILL levels of everyone on a boat trip... Well, there you are at the mercy of chance as to however well trained the divers are and/or how much experience they have. Unless the trip is advertised as going to a specific site in advance then it seems you get what you get on any given boat.
This is why I prefer 'specific site' trips when I can get them. Then, if that site turns out to be unavailable due to conditions, etc. you at least know that everyone was ready for that sites level of diving and hopefully can divert to another similar type site.
I agree with you that what happend on your trip was prety lame.
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