Reef Killers

[Rubberhead]

My wife and I are brand new OW baby divers, my prayer is that I don't run into you or people likewise on our dive trips. Before you jump our cases for being stupid and inexperienced, how about pull up along side and see if I am teachable and help us out. We are strugggling with getting our bouyancy right still and we want to know the names of fishes. I come here to learn and have learned a lot (and thanks by the way to those who took the time to teach) but it is this type of attititude that ruins trips for people like us. One thing we did learn in our OW was "don't touch anything", period. Look and watch and listen. Perhaps a better drive briefing from the DM would help stupid and inexperienced divers know what NOT! to do.

 

[aquaregia]

My wife and I are brand new OW baby divers, my prayer is that I don't run into you or people likewise on our dive trips. Before you jump our cases for being stupid and inexperienced, how about pull up along side and see if I am teachable and help us out. We are strugggling with getting our bouyancy right still and we want to know the names of fishes. I come here to learn and have learned a lot (and thanks by the way to those who took the time to teach) but it is this type of attititude that ruins trips for people like us. One thing we did learn in our OW was "don't touch anything", period. Look and watch and listen. Perhaps a better drive briefing from the DM would help stupid and inexperienced divers know what NOT! to do.

Come dive with me any day. All you need is some consideration and respect for the environment, as appropriate for the location.

 

[iztok]

My wife and I are brand new OW baby divers, my prayer is that I don't run into you or people likewise on our dive trips. Before you jump our cases for being stupid and inexperienced, how about pull up along side and see if I am teachable and help us out. We are strugggling with getting our bouyancy right still and we want to know the names of fishes. I come here to learn and have learned a lot (and thanks by the way to those who took the time to teach) but it is this type of attititude that ruins trips for people like us. One thing we did learn in our OW was "don't touch anything", period. Look and watch and listen. Perhaps a better drive briefing from the DM would help stupid and inexperienced divers know what NOT! to do.

Where in SC are you?

Come dive at LKN Quarry in NC (I-77 exit 36). Plenty of practice and helpful people.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

My wife and I are brand new OW baby divers, my prayer is that I don't run into you or people likewise on our dive trips. Before you jump our cases for being stupid and inexperienced, how about pull up along side and see if I am teachable and help us out. We are strugggling with getting our bouyancy right still and we want to know the names of fishes. I come here to learn and have learned a lot (and thanks by the way to those who took the time to teach) but it is this type of attititude that ruins trips for people like us. One thing we did learn in our OW was "don't touch anything", period. Look and watch and listen. Perhaps a better drive briefing from the DM would help stupid and inexperienced divers know what NOT! to do.

The big difference between you and what the OP was griping about is attitude. New divers have difficulty with bouyancy and trim. That's a virtual certainty. Most will be trying to learn better control, and will be encouraged and helped by more experienced divers. Some few, sadly, just don't give a rats rectum. These are the ones who will incite the lynch mob.

 

[Hank49]

Not just "poorly" experienced divers destroy coral-
Water temperature is the biggest killer of reef on the planet, so getting off fossil fuels would be the first priority to save reefs.........fusion reaction is needed, oil and fossil fuel companies hate the idea, "they" try now to slow it's induction.
BP, Mobil, Shell, etc has killed so much more coral then all the divers that have lived or ever will live.

Not to mention hurricanes and El Ninos. The El Nino of 98, followed my Hurricane Mitch here in Belize did more damage than divers could do in a thousand years. (just a guess but it was bad)

 

[Hank49]

Mother Nature kills humans too ... does that somehow make it OK for us to?

I have a hard time with that argument ... damaging the environment we pay big bucks to go down there to see just doesn't sound real sustainable to me.

We can't control Mother Nature's actions ... but we can control our own ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Are we not part of Mother Nature too? Just like the turtles, bigger fish etc that also inadvertently crunch some corals when going after prey? Ever see videos of sharks feeding on reef fish at night?
I'm all for developing good skills to avoid damaging the reef but some folks are a little over the top on this, imho.

 

[FireInMyBones]

My wife and I are brand new OW baby divers, my prayer is that I don't run into you or people likewise on our dive trips. Before you jump our cases for being stupid and inexperienced, how about pull up along side and see if I am teachable and help us out. We are strugggling with getting our bouyancy right still and we want to know the names of fishes. I come here to learn and have learned a lot (and thanks by the way to those who took the time to teach) but it is this type of attititude that ruins trips for people like us. One thing we did learn in our OW was "don't touch anything", period. Look and watch and listen. Perhaps a better drive briefing from the DM would help stupid and inexperienced divers know what NOT! to do.

I live in the upstate of SC. If you are up my way, come dive with me. I dive Lake Jocassee often. If you are teachable, you may learn something from me...if I am teachable, I may learn something from you. I see a lot of divers that are not teachable and seem to like silting up the bottom. It doesn't mean that they know any better. What a good opportunity to learn from each other.

Those I come alongside to try and help by modeling and as best UW communication as I can that keep on doing what they are doing I jokingly call River-dancers. I mean nothing demeaning by it, but I do try to find humor where I can to try and not be angry. Up here, I learned to dive in 10'-20' viz. I have dove on days where viz is 2'-5'. I do my best not to silt stuff up for others even on those days.

That being said, I was in Panama City Beach two weeks ago and saw someone standing on one of the maybe three coral formations off the St. Andrew's Jetty. I went over and asked them to hover up. I took the time to swim to the bottom of the lady's fins and point out the coral. She looked at me like I was an alien. I did my best with what I had. I only wish I would have had my wet notes with me to try and peaceably communicate the harm she was doing. C'est la vie.

On a side note: I aspire to be a GUE diver, I for one am not opposed to the DIR moniker, though I know many who are. That does not mean I will not dive with my dad who never plans on using anything other than a jacket BC or my brother or any new diver. As a DMC for SDI, I love diving with new divers. I have so much to learn from how they learn and how I can improve.

 

[endurodog]

No doubt that a hurrican can cause more damage than 1000's of bad divers but bad divers cause preventable damage and usually those bad divers are on the parts of the reef that the rest of us want to dive.

 

[enzo2564]

The argument about turtles and natural disasters causing damage to reefs and humans being another part of nature is really rather irrelevant. If mother nature wanted humans to be on the reefs then she would have given us gills or some other way of surviving underwater. Humans are not meant to be underwater, we are visitors and as such we must respect our host.

The quarry diving argument is also irrelevant. I recently got my OW certification in a quarry and the first dive the majority of my peers stirred up the bottom and we were in 5' visibility, on the rest of our dives that improved significantly. Our instructor mentioned it to us and everyone did their best to improve. Buoyancy control is huge on a bottom that is so easily stirred up even when you are a distance off of it.

 

[Culcuhain]

To be a good diver (not great, but just good) all it takes is a LOT of diving and focus on learning the basic skills. Basic skills, you know, like buoyancy, gas consumption, mastering the basic kicks.
Unfortunately, VERY few people are actually good divers.
First off, there is NO freakin reason to be vertical in the water
Well, from experience, my son and I expect all quarry divers to pretty much suck.
Excuse me for my holier-than-thou attitude but when I get on a plane with 300 other people that are all going to some location that is only for diving, I think that at least 250 of these people are REEF KILLERS.
And it is not because some of us are skilled while others are not. The real issue is some people only dive 20-30 dives a year and at that rate, they will never acquire the skills to become good enough to just enjoy the dive without worrying about buoyancy and other basic skills necessary to protect the environment.

1. Don't judge everyone. We are all diving for different reasons.
2. Come to Texas and visit our quarries, we will show you what some good diving is all about. We may suck, be sure enjoy diving and everyone we meet.
3. No excuse for your holier than thou attitude.... See #1.
4. The real issue is snobs like you have to vent about people that do not have the luxury to dive in the Caribbean for every dive....
5. Some people don't want to do 20-30 dives a year.
6. Some people are lucky they can do 20-30 dives a year.
7. I think you need a vacation and think about WHY you dive and remember, that isn't the same reason EVERYONE dives.
8. Have a beer, relax and go get freaking wet!