I work for a busy dive operation and see people with cameras all the time that have no business bringing them on a dive. I honestly can't tell you the amount of times I have wanted to take one of those poles and wrap it around the owners head.
I don't find a problem in talking to people after the dive who have bad skills/attitude. Often they pick this stuff up from diving somewhere in their past, not knowing it is bad and when addressed, if done in the right way then they try to work on it. I don't think DMs hold back because of concerns about their tips, think about it this way, if 8 people are pissed off with one person because of their behaviour, you talk to that one person about it then you have 8 potential tips that are happy and one who may now consider themselves a little more educated. But it's not about tips, for me anyway.
It's about education, setting a norm.
The thing is people just don't know what they don't know. A good example recently was an open water student asking if it was OK to bring a go pro along on their OW course, talk about a distraction! He had no idea why that would be a bad idea. People don't understand what they are doing is wrong or bad and it's for that reason that I like to have the conversation with them, in a relaxed non condescending way when on the boat or at the bar.
I'll always remember a guy who was on the boat for a week who had a crazy expensive camera set up and his dive skills were atrocious. Diving a 100cf in fair conditions would get him around about 25-30 mins underwater spent dive bombing coral and bicycle kicking along in full 45 degree trim. At first when I approached the subject gently he shrugged it off, politely enough but clearly I was not the first to raise this with him. So after the next dive I sat down with him and talked it through. His big deal is obviously taking pictures. Because he had no skills underwater his time (opportunity to take pics) was limited so working on buoyancy to get more bottom time became appealing. Secondly the pics he was able to get sucked due to shaking, silting etc so again demonstrating the need for control to help end up with better pics was easy to articulate. He got it and ditched the camera for a while.
The go pro generation is a little different. Many people who probably won't stay in the sport for long and therefore don't have much interest in personal development as a diver buy them for their vacation to have a keep sake of that time they went diving.
Either way, I think it is up to us as people who recognise the issue to help try to correct it, not from a pompous stand point but from an educational one. If you see something you know is wrong then help the person who is getting it wrong. As a rookie diver I was reliant on the experience of those around me for my development and am still grateful for it.
People are people so of course you'll get those ones who just won't listen for whatever reason but many will, even if they don't show it at the time.
I don't find a problem in talking to people after the dive who have bad skills/attitude. Often they pick this stuff up from diving somewhere in their past, not knowing it is bad and when addressed, if done in the right way then they try to work on it. I don't think DMs hold back because of concerns about their tips, think about it this way, if 8 people are pissed off with one person because of their behaviour, you talk to that one person about it then you have 8 potential tips that are happy and one who may now consider themselves a little more educated. But it's not about tips, for me anyway.
It's about education, setting a norm.
The thing is people just don't know what they don't know. A good example recently was an open water student asking if it was OK to bring a go pro along on their OW course, talk about a distraction! He had no idea why that would be a bad idea. People don't understand what they are doing is wrong or bad and it's for that reason that I like to have the conversation with them, in a relaxed non condescending way when on the boat or at the bar.
I'll always remember a guy who was on the boat for a week who had a crazy expensive camera set up and his dive skills were atrocious. Diving a 100cf in fair conditions would get him around about 25-30 mins underwater spent dive bombing coral and bicycle kicking along in full 45 degree trim. At first when I approached the subject gently he shrugged it off, politely enough but clearly I was not the first to raise this with him. So after the next dive I sat down with him and talked it through. His big deal is obviously taking pictures. Because he had no skills underwater his time (opportunity to take pics) was limited so working on buoyancy to get more bottom time became appealing. Secondly the pics he was able to get sucked due to shaking, silting etc so again demonstrating the need for control to help end up with better pics was easy to articulate. He got it and ditched the camera for a while.
The go pro generation is a little different. Many people who probably won't stay in the sport for long and therefore don't have much interest in personal development as a diver buy them for their vacation to have a keep sake of that time they went diving.
Either way, I think it is up to us as people who recognise the issue to help try to correct it, not from a pompous stand point but from an educational one. If you see something you know is wrong then help the person who is getting it wrong. As a rookie diver I was reliant on the experience of those around me for my development and am still grateful for it.
People are people so of course you'll get those ones who just won't listen for whatever reason but many will, even if they don't show it at the time.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/e26D2P]
