The burn! (Negativity towards tech divers)

[boulderjohn]

I have normally had natural separation by dive site, meaning that in most of the cases in which I have been diving, everyone else was a technical diver, too. Last year I did several local dives with people I met via ScubaBoard, and those were extremely positive interactions in which they asked a ton of questions about the gear I was using and why. In one case we talked about the advantages of wet suits v. dry suits, and he was pretty sure he liked diving wet. Of course, we had to cut our second dive severely short when he started shivering. That was the only faint glimmer of an us v. them tone.

This past February, I did a lot of typical recreational dives in Florida while FULLY rigged out because I was taking some classes and had to perform a lot of skills. Because these were skills associated with deep diving, I had to be rigged for it; because the skills could be done in shallow water, we were taking the path of least resistance and diving off of regular recreational trips. There was no hostility whatsoever from anyone else. There was some joking comments like, "Dudes, you do realize this is going to be a 60 foot drift dive, don't you?" Other than that, it was like we were just any other divers on the boat.

During that same trip, I went alone on such a trip so that I could simply practice my skills for those classes. I got grouped with 3 people who looked to be in their late 20s. I told them why I was there, and I said if they see me doing something without wagging my light at them as an emergency signal, they should ignore me. Even though I made that warning up front and repeated it before the second dive, they very alertly came up to me a couple of times on each dive to make sure things were all right when they saw me switch bottles, shoot a bag, or go through valve drills. It was nice to know they were paying attention. On the boat, they were very pleasant and respectfully inquisitive.

So, no, I haven't seen anything like it, frankly.

 

[boulderjohn]

Well, I just finished a couple of recreational dives this morning over on Coz(I'd never been there before) and my insta-buddy remarked on how flat I was in the water during the dive, so I'd call that a positive encounter.

Last year on a dive in Florida there was a DM in the water for some reason not related to me. Later on the boat he suggested that if I used ankle weights, I could probably get my feet down.

 

[JamesK]

Last year on a dive in Florida there was a DM in the water for some reason not related to me. Later on the boat he suggested that if I used ankle weights, I could probably get my feet down.

That is freggin awesome!!!! How did you reply?

 

[Slamfire]

Before yesterday I would have said all positive interactions from the non-tech folks.

My buddy and I were at Whytecliff. He was on his Megalodon and I was on backmounted OC with two deco gases. Our SOP is to go drop bailout and deco bottles down to the shore and then climb up the hill, gear up with our backmounted gear and walk down the hill grabbing the slinged cylinders on the way into the water. I leave my slinged bottles very close to the water's edge to minimize the amount of dragging to the water. I clip bottles together and pressurize the regs but leave the valves closed. These are negative because they are full and have no helium. If for some reason they end up in the water they'll sink to the bottom together and it's easy to find them.

While we are up in the parking lot a guy comes up to us and asks me if those are my cylinders down by the water. I say yes, cringing about what his reply is going to be as I imagine a dog mauling my regs. He just looks at me and says, "brave man" and walks away. I look at my buddy with a WTF??? face. I shrug it off.

We get down into the water. I clip my bottles and my buddy discovers that he has a leak in his glove. So he gets out again, takes off his meg and walks back up to the parking lot to get a new marigold glove. As he is putting his Meg again, this pudgy kid that looks like he's just 17 is coming out of a dive with a single aluminum 80 on his back. The kid saw my buddy get out and now he's watching him put the Meg back on. As he watches he just yells out, "Ha, Ha these rebreather people!" I look back at to stare at him as I image myself unclipping my Al 40 and using it as a battle mace. Apparently he got intimidated and immediately said "just kidding". And then proceeds to exit apologetically saying "have a good dive". I just wave him off.

After we're done with our dive, and as I'm carrying out the deco cylinders another guy approaches and tells me that I wouldn't need so many cylinders if I worked on improving my sac rate. He immediately tries to clarify saying, "just joking". Maybe I had a low tolerance day yesterday, but I do not recall ever being the target of so many comments like this in such a short span of time.

 

[JamesK]

After we're done with our dive, and as I'm carrying out the deco cylinders another guy approaches and tells me that I wouldn't need so many cylinders if I worked on improving my sac rate. He immediately tries to clarify saying, "just joking". Maybe I had a low tolerance day yesterday, but I do not recall ever being the target of so many comments like this in such a short span of time.

Come to think of it, I have had one comment like that. A guy told me "wow you must really suck at breathing" when he saw me in SM AL80's. I just replied, "Yeah, this will last me about 30 minutes at 40 feet, shook my head and walked off. Most of the time I get "How long you gon' be down there?"

 

[waterpirate]

The only even sort of negative attitude I have gotten is from rec charter operators, and even then it is just stern, not negative. They watch as I load my gear, doubles/stages ect. At some point just before the first dive splash I usually find the mate, dm, or captain on the bench next to me and it allways goes the same. " look pall, no more than 60 minutes run time or your sitting out dive two, I got to be some where later"

It allways makes me laugh and my response is allways the same. " you are my ride back, and I am not going to mess that up" lol

Eric

 

[mathauck0814]

Lots of divers write off my kit as excessive or unnecessary. A smaller percentage ask a lot of questions. One or two occasionally turn up to the next set of dives with new kit and more questions.

It's a lot like culling any population. Those who want to, excel. The rest sort of stagnate, languish and wonder why they're not having as much fun or telling as interesting stories and never get any better.

 

[boulderjohn]

That is freggin awesome!!!! How did you reply?

I just smiled and said I was happy with my feet just where they were.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

There are a couple places local where instructors do not allow their students to talk to me and one that has asked me to use a different entry point and even different quarry on the property when they have classes going. I often see other instructors students watch me and my students gear up, see them turn and ask their instructor something, a short conversation and then I get the stink eye from the instructor. It's why I like diving the Ohio sites. No one says a word or even looks twice when I enter a 60 ft deep quarry with doubles, an al80 stage, and an al40 stage. Other than maybe "what are you working on this dive?" Lots of Great Lakes wreck divers use them for practice and it's a common sight to see the whole gamut including rebreathers.

 

[ajtoady]

Throw them all a curve, wear your underwear on the outside of your wetsuit or dry suit. Will take their mind off of the tech aspect and probably dumbfound them. I find all aspects of diving fascinating and still kick myself in the butt for starting late in life. I care less what others think about my personal choices, I'm happy diving my way. I still stand by the saying, "It's not worth sweating the small sh=t, and when you come down to it , most is"