US vs British Diving Vocabulary
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fisheater
Contributor
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I had a customer from the UK touring the engineering department when he said "You Yanks, even your rubbers are electric". For all you divers born after CAD dominated, electric erasers were pretty standard on drawing boards.
The weird part is Rubbers were (are?) pretty common on school children"s feet in the US Northeast while the British used Wellies (Wellington Boots). Wellies are pretty standard boots on saturation divers in the North Sea as well.
Most stuff is pretty interchangeable but there are some basics I find slightly different...
Doubles (US) vs. Twinset (UK) (Never heard doubles referred to as twinsets in US)
Scuba Unit (US) vs. Kit (UK) (I tend to use kit a lot more in Boston but probably because I work with a lot of British instructors)
Tanks (US) vs Cylinders (UK) (interchangeable in Boston)
Lights (US) vs. Torch (UK) (Never really used in the US)
Then you obviously have PSI vs. Bar. Feet vs. Metres.
I know a lot of diving in UK is off RIBs which are obviously not unique to UK but I know a lot of people just call them Zodiacs even if they're not that brand.
Doubles (US) vs. Twinset (UK) (Never heard doubles referred to as twinsets in US)
Scuba Unit (US) vs. Kit (UK) (I tend to use kit a lot more in Boston but probably because I work with a lot of British instructors)
Tanks (US) vs Cylinders (UK) (interchangeable in Boston)
Lights (US) vs. Torch (UK) (Never really used in the US)
Then you obviously have PSI vs. Bar. Feet vs. Metres.
I know a lot of diving in UK is off RIBs which are obviously not unique to UK but I know a lot of people just call them Zodiacs even if they're not that brand.
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What we refer to as "ditchable weight", the Brits seem to call a "spanner". They all are likely to dive with them, even in the Caribbean.
What we call "dive training students", the Brits call M.U.P.P.E.T.s (Mentally unstable people PADI eventually trains)
They seem to refer to "bollocks" in regard to everything we Yanks just write off as "embrace the suck".
The Brits off-gas by drinking a lot of fluids, especially beer. They improve SAC by smoking shisha in Sharm.
They call the Caribbean that they go to~ the Red Sea.
What the English call "kit", American wives refer to as "that moldy smelly crap in the garage" (a place that is not pronounced "gare-Ij")
They put their kit in the boot, whereas North Americans when seasick sometimes boot in their kit.
To the Limeys, sea life is a Shark. We Americans have better eyesight (and teeth), so we can see things smaller than Sharks.
On a liveaboard vessel, they are likely to begin the day with rave reviews of the ship's cuisine of "Mixed Grill with Bangers and Mash". In America, we refer to this as a mixture of Cat and Dog Food, heated directly upon an electric hot plate.
BSAC (Bee-Zak) has more levels of competence ratings than any hierarchy of British Peerage. We in the US have Chevron Patches for Specialty Class Royalty.
The British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) is managed by Royals. The American system uses heredity as well.
Stuff like that.
What we call "dive training students", the Brits call M.U.P.P.E.T.s (Mentally unstable people PADI eventually trains)
They seem to refer to "bollocks" in regard to everything we Yanks just write off as "embrace the suck".
The Brits off-gas by drinking a lot of fluids, especially beer. They improve SAC by smoking shisha in Sharm.
They call the Caribbean that they go to~ the Red Sea.
What the English call "kit", American wives refer to as "that moldy smelly crap in the garage" (a place that is not pronounced "gare-Ij")
They put their kit in the boot, whereas North Americans when seasick sometimes boot in their kit.
To the Limeys, sea life is a Shark. We Americans have better eyesight (and teeth), so we can see things smaller than Sharks.
On a liveaboard vessel, they are likely to begin the day with rave reviews of the ship's cuisine of "Mixed Grill with Bangers and Mash". In America, we refer to this as a mixture of Cat and Dog Food, heated directly upon an electric hot plate.
BSAC (Bee-Zak) has more levels of competence ratings than any hierarchy of British Peerage. We in the US have Chevron Patches for Specialty Class Royalty.
The British Sub Aqua Club (BSAC) is managed by Royals. The American system uses heredity as well.
Stuff like that.
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I was describing a deletion, or relegation to obsolescence. Change in usage can be a good thing if it contributes to precision and clarity. Usually, these changes do not. They push the language into multiple meanings for single words dependent on context and local convention.
Many of the very finely shaded words that entered the language from multiple sources, frequently overlaid during infusions over time (French Latin, Roman Latin, Church Latin), are becoming regularized, reduced to simple broad definitions by ignorant but repetitive influential mass culture usage
In connection with dive/dove we enter the realm of aesthetics and/ to a degree, clarity.
You consistently do a nice job, though. Sometimes fantastic.
Something that I've come across from time to time (fortunately very rarely) is people - instructors even - referring to the regulator set as an octopus. Took me a while to figure out what they wanted the first time.
I try to refer to those things as such at every possible opportunity.
My regulator is also my 'sucky-blowy thing' and everything else is the 'thingy' as in "pass me my thingy"
DazedAndConfuzed
Contributor
having recently book a trip in an area that is heavily visited by the brits, I encountered a few terms that the yanks use it for something else.
liveaboards are referred to as safari boats.
dive boats are frequently referred as day boats, probably because many shops has boats of the day and safari kind.
liveaboards are referred to as safari boats.
dive boats are frequently referred as day boats, probably because many shops has boats of the day and safari kind.
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