When I'm diving with my LDS on their checkouts, I spend my stop watching for other people having problems until everyone else is up. (If I splashed first and on air, I can easily end up with "safety stops" well over 10 minutes.) Sometimes I'll throw in bubble rings, "standing on my head" hovers, or other entertainments (it's fun to show the students how much fun trim and buoyancy can be).
Diving with others or not, I also make it a point to observe all the small things. To get back on a boat without having seen the wonderful tiny transparent things floating along in the water would be a great travesty. The same could be said about all the whatevers are around on shore dive ascents.
And then there was the night dive just over a week ago. We were sitting there, lights off, just enjoying an extended stop. Out of nowhere, I heard a rapid clicking sound which I couldn't immediately place. Then I saw what looked like the silvery sides of a couple large fish circle by. A moment later, a whistle joined the clicking -- even *I* can figure *that* one out.
I tried to point out the fact to the other three divers hanging there, but they didn't look quickly enough to see a large pod of dolphins circle around us and take off into the dark. It took what seemed like quite a long time to explain "dolphins! *lots* of dolphins!" to the others, and my friend with whom I was diving theatrically rubbed crying eyes when they understood.
Then, a few minutes later, I suddenly heard the clicking again! I gesticulated madly, "LOOK! LOOK! DOLPHINS! DOOOOLLLLLPPPHHHHIIIIINNNNSSSS!!!" and the three of them knew exactly what I was saying. We all turned and watched as a pod of dolphins came in on us, circled around in grand procession, and headed off into the dark. High fives and mask-flooding smiles abounded.
When we climbed back onto the boat, the rest of the divers all experienced varying degrees of regret that they hadn't chosen to hang out at the stop with us. To myself and my diving friends, stops have always been lagniappe. If we get too cold, run toward the end of our gas, or are the last divers down*, we'll head up, but otherwise, we'll just enjoy the shallow part of the dive.
*Especially on the last dive of a day boat trip, we could probably stay at the stop for maybe even a good hour or more, but we'd consider it quite rude to hold everyone else up that long. Since it's a "cattle boat", by splashing first, we can use our time at depth and still end up with a nice long stop before everyone else is aboard. With OW classes along, first-in-last-out works fine -- it's not deco on the Oriskany or anything. :biggrin:
Diving with others or not, I also make it a point to observe all the small things. To get back on a boat without having seen the wonderful tiny transparent things floating along in the water would be a great travesty. The same could be said about all the whatevers are around on shore dive ascents.
And then there was the night dive just over a week ago. We were sitting there, lights off, just enjoying an extended stop. Out of nowhere, I heard a rapid clicking sound which I couldn't immediately place. Then I saw what looked like the silvery sides of a couple large fish circle by. A moment later, a whistle joined the clicking -- even *I* can figure *that* one out.
I tried to point out the fact to the other three divers hanging there, but they didn't look quickly enough to see a large pod of dolphins circle around us and take off into the dark. It took what seemed like quite a long time to explain "dolphins! *lots* of dolphins!" to the others, and my friend with whom I was diving theatrically rubbed crying eyes when they understood.
Then, a few minutes later, I suddenly heard the clicking again! I gesticulated madly, "LOOK! LOOK! DOLPHINS! DOOOOLLLLLPPPHHHHIIIIINNNNSSSS!!!" and the three of them knew exactly what I was saying. We all turned and watched as a pod of dolphins came in on us, circled around in grand procession, and headed off into the dark. High fives and mask-flooding smiles abounded.
When we climbed back onto the boat, the rest of the divers all experienced varying degrees of regret that they hadn't chosen to hang out at the stop with us. To myself and my diving friends, stops have always been lagniappe. If we get too cold, run toward the end of our gas, or are the last divers down*, we'll head up, but otherwise, we'll just enjoy the shallow part of the dive.
*Especially on the last dive of a day boat trip, we could probably stay at the stop for maybe even a good hour or more, but we'd consider it quite rude to hold everyone else up that long. Since it's a "cattle boat", by splashing first, we can use our time at depth and still end up with a nice long stop before everyone else is aboard. With OW classes along, first-in-last-out works fine -- it's not deco on the Oriskany or anything. :biggrin:
