"That" diver

[Kharon]

... I have to wonder if the problem is the camera or the diver. If perhaps, camera or not, these would still be bad divers and uncaring of the reef and their impact on it. I don't think the camera will turn a conscientious diver into a careless diver but rather it's a careless, self centered diver that just happens to have a camera.

+1. I watched a Dutch woman on Bonaire cruise directly through not one but two huge stands of soft coral. Just plowed right through them. I finally got her attention just before she hit the third one and pointed to the damage she had done and got a shrug as an answer. On shore she told me that she was always very careful. Yeah, right.

 

[SteveInMD]

I've always thought there should be a sign for "Stop and Check Your Buoyancy". I have a sign for this I use with my family. It pays to actually briefly stop swimming to check, at least for beginners.

 

[DaleC]

All those divers with all those cameras, most of the pictures end up in a file folder never to be looked at again. Today's dive pictures are the vacation slides of yesteryear, if you notice your friends eyes glazing over when you start showing them dive pictures, give them a break. Don't be that diver

I see this in video with people who run their go pros continuously through the dive. It's probably the worst way to video. All you get is 30 minutes of shaky, fire hosing that never seems to focus on anything long enough. Far better to stabilize, shoot specific scenes and learn the basics of editing.

I also don't think it's gopro's fault, other than it is a cheap platform that probably allows more people access. Gopro actually allows the diver to be more aware of their surroundings than a more complex camera because there is very little adjustment involved and no view screen to become myopic about. You observe your surroundings directly rather than through an LCD. I can shoot and look around while my SLR buddies spend a lot of time staring at their camera and their settings.

Skills are skills. Although I do agree that cameras are a great distraction and add task loading. I consider them to be the most dangerous piece of gear I have ever added to my diving kit.

 

[tstormdiver]

+1. I watched a Dutch woman on Bonaire cruise directly through not one but two huge stands of soft coral. Just plowed right through them. I finally got her attention just before she hit the third one and pointed to the damage she had done and got a shrug as an answer. On shore she told me that she was always very careful. Yeah, right.

I believe there are, many divers that have a gross over estimation of their skills, some bordering on delusions of grandeur. Don't get me wrong,..... there are good divers out there also, but you have to wonder how many are just going on inflated (excuse the pun) egos.

 

[Scuba7]

Ideally it would be like first AID where you have to do a refresher every 1-2 years.Although some divers should not be in the water at all, but there is really nothing you can do.

 

[crabbyfiddler]

One of the worst divers I ever saw was a "famous" National Geographic Videographer who was giving a course at the place we were staying in Egypt. His students probably paid a king's ransom to be in that course.

The guy probably had more dives under his belt than I do (and I have quite a few) but he took his entire crew out an crawled around on the reef with their bigass cameras in such a toe-curling display of abysmal diving, harassing the wild life and even breaking off bits of coral because it was "in the way" that I literally no longer watch the National Geographic channel and have become quite cynical about it.

In the restaurant every evening they showed the video they got that day and ... it ... was ... amazing. The results were out of this world. But what they did to get that video just about made me want to puke.

R..

I think I have been diving with some pros who dove with the above mentioned videographer a number of times. They have stories of holding on to him as they dove to keep him from mowing down and laying on the coral. They all laughed ruefully about it, shaking their heads.

 

[alarick]

I don't think that more training is the answer. If OW was more than just a crash course and spent some time on getting the bacic skills. I was competition swimmer, lifeguard , free diver and surfer before I started OW and while I had a good instructor and had no trouble with the basic skills the classes still felt incomplete. Maybe I'm crazy but I think that instead think that there should be fewer classes with more information. Peak Performance buoyancy shouldn't even be a specialty. It should be covered in basic open water as it is one of the most important skills in diving. I also think that there should be some focus on kicks things like the helicopter turns should not be left only for advanced divers.

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[Centrals]

I had never met a diver with poor buoyancy using underwater camera until several yrs ago!!! Time has changed.