New diver, no diving partner, what do I do?

[LuvDaOcean]

I'm fairly receptive. Always happy to just to get in the water and experience it with others, especially with noobs like me.

Careful, Deuces...I'm probably going to take you up on that offer soon after I get back from the Keys.

In my limited experience, I haven't had too many horrible problems with buoyancy, but get me into a 7mil in cold water and I can't guarantee that you won't be scraping me up off the silted ocean floor or grabbing my ankles to keep me from bobbing to the surface like a helium balloon! {man, i really hope i'm not going to be that bad...} :eek5:

 

[LuvDaOcean]

LuvDaOcean:
I'd love to have you two join the trip. Have you looked into Air Jamaica?

I checked it out this morning and it looks like I'd have the same probs plus one more: 3 stops + 1 day, same airfare, and also it appears that the closest airport Air Jamaica flies out of to connect to Bonaire is LAX. Even from LAX they're showing no available flights.... ack.

PS Love your name.

Thank you.

 

[LuvDaOcean]

every one is always welcome from 12-100 EVERYONE except monterey fred!!!! stay away from fred, especily being a female!!! that is a sirious warning!!! but you will find that you will always be welcomed by most everyone!!!!!!!!

Oh, yeah. I know about Fred. I've never actually seen him myself, but have talked with a lot of people about him. Thanks for the warning! And thanks for the warm welcome.

And thanks to Ishie and BIGSAGE and all of you for helping ease the awkward feelings that unfortunately accompany 'noob' status.

Hey, RMichaelson86, if ever you'd like to try bobbing around with another newbie, I'd be more than happy to practice skills together and what not. When are you going to be certified? I'll be back from the Keys with my temporary card on May 22nd. If you'd like, please feel free to PM me anytime.

 

[Jim Ernst]

Is the guy just lonely? That is what comes to mind.

It doesn't sound like anyone here has had any negative experiences with the guy.. who knows. I would think if he was a criminal someone would have filed a report.

actully ishie and i did have a real problem with him (on a dive) were my tank strap was suddenly undone and he was trying to drag ishie off in the othere direction . um.... very strange and we could not prove anything of wrong doing, but if mind serves me right i had to grab ishie and pull her away from him!!! ishie will see this post and if i have mistated anything (facts ) she can correct me!!! oh and reports have been filed on him, the monterey police say that he is right in the grey as of chargable or not

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

monterey fred or known as breakwater fred, this guy is a 55-60 old male large pot belly and drives a little red truck , i think a toyota, but anyway i have had two personal incidents with him myself and ishie together, i had to threaten him to leave ishie and i alone (bodly harm to him), he passes out cards that say (dive buddy fred) he has actully assalted but not enough to be charged, i warn all fred is not all there, this guy is one to look out for and there have been many threads on him so do a search and you will find many complaints of fred!!!

Fred drives a red Mazda pickup, with a big tool box right behind the cab.

He's been the same since I got certified about '88. He's never had a regular dive buddy
AFAIK.

 

[Ishie]

He came swimming along after us (the first time, since we ditched him, I guess, and caught up with us).

Jim's tank strap was undone totally, and I can't imagine how else it could have happened, but Fred played hero, and we figured "whatever". So far, nothing particularly weird except that...

Since we were MAJOR noobs, we were burning air like crazy, thus at the time he caught up with us, it was time to go back. Fred grabbed my hand, despite it being good viz, no surge, and kept insistantly tugging me off to someplace about a 45 degree angle from the wall, and Jim followed. I still figured this was a "diver thing", holding hands and going to some dive site, but the fact remained that we were low on air. I pulled my hand back, but he was very persistant. Still not realizing this was weird or out of the ordinary (noob noob noob), since Jim was up with us, I pointed at his gauge and showed him "Hey, low on air", and after one more effort to persuade me to go with him despite seeing the 550 psi, he let go and swam off.

Hardly a traumatic experience or anything, but quite weird. He grabbed my hand, but didn't grope me or anything (Jim would have drowned him). And after reading about Monterey Fred, I'm inclined to think that strap did not come undone by itself. When Fred pointed it out, the tank was quite literally floating free, and like I said, the strap was flipped, it wasn't just that it wasn't tight enough. So unless we're getting some particularly nimble sea lions...

 

[Courtneyf82]

I used to work at the Exxon just up on Drake & Lighthouse, I always had this one crazy looking guy come in, never had a problem, just a weird local, (nothing special in Monterey!) this was years ago... then Im doing my last OW cert dive and this same crazy guy comes up and asks if he can go with us, we said we were doing a class so we wanted to get it done, he got all pissy and left, then my girlfriend says she has heard of some guy that gets you out underwater and tries to grope you, I didnt give it much thought, I just knew he wasnt diving with me....ever.

 

[barnacleben]

fred story...

i'm new diver and looking for buddy to dive monterey, but couldn't pass up opportunity to share a recent fred story. during april cert class at lover's our instructor pointed "fred" out to us in the parking lot: "avoid that guy at all cost." sure enough, fred spotted a group of newb divers (two female, one male) and invited himself to join their group. it was their first ocean dive after certification (read VULNERABLE). i don't know what happened in the water, but i can tell you that fred had his arm draped affectionatly over the young female dive buddy he nabbed as they exited the water. it gave me the creeps just watching... fortunatley, my instructor was able to warn the newbs not to give out their phone numbers before it was too late.

oh, he's got a new or different truck, by the way (not a red toyota). but the beer gut and his old, beat up scuba gear is hard to miss... also, strange point of fact: he had his octopus set up on the wrong side (coming down over the left shoulder.) don't know why, but it's friggin strange...

oh, did i forget to mention that i'm looking for santa cruz/monterey dive buddies? lol

ben

 

[Jim Ernst]

fred story...

i'm new diver and looking for buddy to dive monterey, but couldn't pass up opportunity to share a recent fred story. during april cert class at lover's our instructor pointed "fred" out to us in the parking lot: "avoid that guy at all cost." sure enough, fred spotted a group of newb divers (two female, one male) and invited himself to join their group. it was their first ocean dive after certification (read VULNERABLE). i don't know what happened in the water, but i can tell you that fred had his arm draped affectionatly over the young female dive buddy he nabbed as they exited the water. it gave me the creeps just watching... fortunatley, my instructor was able to warn the newbs not to give out their phone numbers before it was too late.

oh, he's got a new or different truck, by the way (not a red toyota). but the beer gut and his old, beat up scuba gear is hard to miss... also, strange point of fact: he had his octopus set up on the wrong side (coming down over the left shoulder.) don't know why, but it's friggin strange...

oh, did i forget to mention that i'm looking for santa cruz/monterey dive buddies? lol

ben

ben, there are many of us ther in monterey very often, let me or any of the otheres know, and we can set somthing up to dive, oh well what the hell it is likley public info now anyway, my cell 916-396-1469,lol here come the prank calls, (joking)!! jim

 

[Ben_ca]

ben, there are many of us ther in monterey very often, let me or any of the otheres know, and we can set somthing up to dive, oh well what the hell it is likley public info now anyway, my cell 916-396-1469,lol here come the prank calls, (joking)!! jim

I'm having Jim Ernst - Dive Buddy cards printed out....