On recreational divers with pseudo-tech equipment

[Rick Inman]

I don't know your situation, but I would expect that in this economy, you would be very grateful for any divers you can get. Remember, these people don't HAVE to go to Mexico with their average $2,000+ US dollars per person. They can dive somewhere else.

Phil Ellis

Good point, Phil. Maybe we can help the OP, if he could tell us what resort shop/boat he DM's for, so all the bad divers could stay away and not be hated.

What shop are you affiliated with, Zero?

 

[texdiveguy]

I am not sure honestly that the OP's tale even has a place here in the Technical Diving Specialties section to begin with..........

 

[foles1972]

Regardless of the gear the diver in the story uses he is clearly clueless on a couple of issues. His attitude for one thing. With only forty dives this guy thinks he doesn't need further training?? And, secondly, his lack of basic skills like proper buoyancy control! Crashing around the bottom, destroying a reef that other people use to make living...I can understand why the OP is pi$$ed off!

 

[tstormdiver]

Where to begin with this,... By the OP's description, it sounds like the diver in question could certainly use some remedial work whether he's going tech, staying recreational or whatever. Good buoyancy skills are essential & begin in the OW class & should progress & improve as a diver becomes more experienced comfortable. At 40 dives, he should be coming out of that beginner's "survival mode" we all experience a newly minted divers & at least starting to work his buoyancy control to at least stay off the bottom & not destroy things around him. As for air consumption, good buoyancy & general comfort in the water will dramatically decrease the amount of air consumed. Who's to blame? Instructor? Agency? The diver himself? Hard to say with the information given. As for the equipment he wears, it's his choice (whether a good or bad choice). Getting some opinions, whether from a course, instructor or another skilled diver in that particular field, would seem like the prudent thing to do. Good skills can still be done/ learned whether using tech or Rec gear. Like some posters above, it concerns me that the diver thinks he needs no more training & can get all he needs from the Internet. While yes, you can glean some very useful information form sites such as this one; it must be taken with a grain of salt. There is as much good information as there is bad. What works for one person may not for another; what works for one locale may not in another. The problem is beginners frequently don't know which information is which or how to sort it out. That can make for potentially dangerous situations & possibly even a dangerous diver. It's all in how the information is used. Sure, there are some very talented divers who can filter out the bad info, take the good & learn the skills by themselves, but I would tend to think that these are rather few & far between. With formal training, as most of you know, it is typically done in more controlled environments, that way if there is a problem, it can be quickly corrected by a good & competent instructor, before it turns critical. I am learning this thoroughly, right now as I go through my OW instructor course. In the course, I am learning my short comings. It has been rather sobering, but in a very good & constructive way. I am working on my problems, to eliminate them. I have been diving for 3yrs & have just over 200 dives to date, but with this course, I am seeing that I still have much to learn (not that my basic skills are really all that bad, but they are not at the quality needed to instruct). Too keep learning is to keep fresh & up- to- date (plus I love the challenge, even when it kicks my behind). I am actually going to ask my IT/IC to allow me to intern a while under himself & the other instructors at my LDS, to gain more experience, before allowing me to go on to full OWSI. Unfortunately I really haven't gotten the opportunity to get much "hands on" experience as a Dive Con. I must get the experience somehow, somewhere.

While doing my instructor course, I am also working towards the technical field. I just finished a Cavern/ overhead environment course. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I would like to move on at a later date towards cave,... maybe next year. I have also spent the last 1-1/2 yrs in an Adv. Nitrox course. Why so long? Well,... to be honest, it has taken most of this time to become familiar & comfortable with my technical equipment. I'm not in a huge hurry, though I'd like to get it complete sometime this year, i don't want to go into the course completely green to the equipment & environments I'll most likely be diving. At the start I was not at all in control of my equipment. I looked like a big thing flopping around, sculling with my hands, landing on the bottom.... so on. It was like learning to dive all over again for me. With the help of my instructor & several generous technical divers from our LDS, my skills improved dramatically, just as I did in my dives following OW. Hopefully I will be able to get through the instructor course, intern for a while & then be able to become a quality instructor who wants to turn out quality divers & also finish my Adv. Nitrox class so I can eventually move on to bigger & better things technical- wise.

 

[deepstops]

Recreational divers + half-technical equipment setup - proper training = me shaking my head
<snip>
A long post, but its something that I see on a weekly basis, and it makes me angry.

So what efforts do you make to turn these situations around??
Coming on SB to complain won't solve anything.

I am not sure honestly that the OP's tale even has a place here in the Technical Diving Specialties section to begin with..........

Clearly not as we're discussing a recreational DM and a diver w/o any technical training and only 40 dives. Owning technical gear does not make a technical diver.

 

[Cave Diver]

"Don't use an equipment solution to solve a skills problem."

 

[Gombessa]

"Don't use an equipment solution to solve a skills problem."

So, if you have a skills-based solution in search of a problem, is that better than an equipment-based solution in search of a problem? What if the solution is an entanglement hazard at the same time? If equipment is required to solve a skills-based problem because a skills-based solution poses a quantum-entanglement problem, does the equipment exist in two places at once as long as you don't look at it, or is the diver doomed to an indeterminate chance of survival so long as he perpetually remains in the cave?

 

[deepstops]

Dang, does anyone have some Advil??

 

[Far_X]

Sounds like the diver was a jerk no matter his equipment set up was.

I moved to a backplate and wing primarily based on conversations I had on here back in 2005. I set it up myself - doesn't take a genius to work out how to thread eleven feet of webbing through a backplate. And I definitely went out and dove that configuration without getting any training for another 30 dives or so. I had about 30 dives under my belt at the time. However, I did go through a DIR-F weekend with 60 dives under my belt but I wasn't ready. I learned a lot on that course and took it all away and practiced more. A year and a half later, I took my Adv. Nitrox and Deco. Procedures. I was ready for that course and still I learned from it. I am always learning.

I think attitude is what makes divers different to each other. Given a different attitude, that diver could have been me. Eager to improve his skills but knowing the limitations of a regular BCD. It was not the tech equipment that made him a diver you did not like, it was his attitude alone.

 

[rjack321]

So, if you have a skills-based solution in search of a problem, is that better than an equipment-based solution in search of a problem? What if the solution is an entanglement hazard at the same time? If equipment is required to solve a skills-based problem because a skills-based solution poses a quantum-entanglement problem, does the equipment exist in two places at once as long as you don't look at it, or is the diver doomed to an indeterminate chance of survival so long as he perpetually remains in the cave?

Doesn't it depend on whether the observer is a buddy or an internet diver?