What are your expectations of a guide

[Sas]

I've only really had guides on one interstate trip and one trip to Fiji. On the interstate trip they pretty much hovered in the background following us around and on one dive I asked where to find pineapple fish and the guide took me straight there and then went back to hovering in the distance. If I have to have a guide, that's pretty much what I'm looking for.

In Fiji the first dive the DM said to follow him. I told him to go very slow then. He went at the speed of light and I got really annoyed but the viz was such that I would just let him get ahead, he'd turn around and look for me and wait until I caught up. The second dive I told him if I had to follow him he needs to reduce his speed to 10%. The rest of the trip was fine as they went much slower or would appear to be taking underwater naps in midwater whilst we looked at stuff and once I got up to the tops of the coral head (we'd usually spend 20mins or so using up the rest of our gas just near the boat in about 5-7m of water) they would get back on the boat (mostly because of coldness it appeared) and I'd take pictures for a while.

I really dread getting one of the DMs that I hear talked about on SB and other diving forums - big group, taken around really fast, etc. So far so good but I do check ahead at what to expect. Queensland in Australia, for example, (the place I got my OW certification to dive but still haven't yet) is quite offputting to me because of what I have heard about the silly regulations they have for diving.

 

[rivers]

While I still have limited diving experience (20 dives in Cozumel), my favorite DM would always chat with us on the boat as we headed out about what we wanted to do that day (my friends and I usually charter a boat and head off), and what, if anything we wanted to see or do (big fish, lots of swim-thrus, c-53 wreck, etc). Based on what we told him, he picked dive sites where we would likely see said animal, coral formation, etc (ex. we hopefully wanted to see nurse sharks so we went to Dalila. Saw 2). Our only expectations of him were that he would take us to new sites and maybe find some critters underneath some rocks. He would then give us a briefing about the site, conditions, etc, and we'd roll off the side of the boat, descend, and we'd dive. We did not expect a babysitter, we were all responsible for monitoring our own gas, etc. And as we dove (dived?) more with this particular DM, we did not do the "follow the leader" type dive. As long as we stayed fairly close as a group, we could go where we wanted.

 

[Web Monkey]

It seems all responses are similar and reasonable given the experience levels indicated by number of dives in profiles. One may be living in a more perfect world than the rest. Shops usually don't have the luxury of putting every level of experience on a different boat to a different location. If you've ever tried keeping a group of photographers together, looks like herding cats.

The solution is easy: "Don't do that".

Just tell everybody to be back on the boat with their buddy and a non-empty tank, and "have a nice dive"

Terry

 

[Web Monkey]

Being led into current is one of the few real peeves I've had with guides. On one dive in Indonesia, we swam for ten minutes into horrendous current, to see . . . a TURTLE. Now, turtles may be unusual sightings on those dives, but in Hawaii, you can see half a dozen of them on a dive, and I certainly didn't think it warranted the effort we put in.

That's like the guides that keep showing me "The Lobster".

BFD. They just aren't that fascinating if I'm not allowed to catch and eat them.

Terry

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Not knowing the way operators work in the Red Sea, and not finding any info on "the saddle", all I can comment on is "others" posts.

When booking boat dives it might be a good idea to do some investigation; ask the operator how they do things, by phone, email or in person, ask other neighboring operators how they do things, ask activities sales people in the area who (and why) they recommend, come on SB and ask in the proper regional forum. If you ask no questions how can you complain about what you get?

The issue of guides going too fast is a fact of guided diving. Imagine a circular tour of a specific site; 6 guests with over 200 dives but a couple "big" divers and a couple "small" divers (everyone on 80cft). Even with over 200 dives, some "big" divers still "hoover" so the guides job is to get everyone back to the line with a proper ascent pressure. To do the whole circuit and get the "hoovers" back in time, the dive will likely be faster paced than the non-hoovers require/want. The non-hoovers are not typically forced to end their dive when the hoovers have to go up, but the group needs to be near the up-line for the hoovers to properly go up.

If the boat's policy is guided dives and you want to be treated "special" hire a "private" guide! If you only want to dive from boats that operate like So Cal boats, make sure before you pay that they operate like So Cal boats. If you go on a guided boat trip, complaining about being guided is pretty lame IMHO.

 

[Web Monkey]

The issue of guides going too fast is a fact of guided diving. Imagine a circular tour of a specific site; 6 guests with over 200 dives but a couple "big" divers and a couple "small" divers (everyone on 80cft). Even with over 200 dives, some "big" divers still "hoover" so the guides job is to get everyone back to the line with a proper ascent pressure. To do the whole circuit and get the "hoovers" back in time, the dive will likely be faster paced than the non-hoovers require/want. The non-hoovers are not typically forced to end their dive when the hoovers have to go up, but the group needs to be near the up-line for the hoovers to properly go up.

If the boat's policy is guided dives and you want to be treated "special" hire a "private" guide! If you only want to dive from boats that operate like So Cal boats, make sure before you pay that they operate like So Cal boats. If you go on a guided boat trip, complaining about being guided is pretty lame IMHO.

If someone wants to show me where the octopus lives, that's great, but after that he should leave me alone. Everybody doesn't want a circular tour. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that very few people enjoy being herded.

Even with over 200 dives, some "big" divers still "hoover" so the guides job is to get everyone back to the line with a proper ascent pressure.

That's the diver's job, not the DM's job.

Terry

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

The person who owns the company/boat is who gets to decide how the operation will operate; the owner/captain decides what the DM's job is, not the customer. If most people do not enjoy how the boat operates how does it stay in business and end up recommended? Different parts of the world do things differently. If you only want things done "your" way, it's "your" responsibility to chose boats that will let you do it "your" way. If you chose to go on a boat that does not do it "your" way, complaining about the fact that they didn't do it "your" way is lame.

I prefer to solo dive, but when I go on boat trips I dive the way the crew asks me to dive. It's their boat and I can enjoy almost any dive. If they do their normal trip and don't deliver a trip I am happy with I very likely made a bad choice, but if they did what they normally do how can it be their fault?

 

[boulderjohn]

Different parts of the world do things differently. If you only want things done "your" way, it's "your" responsibility to chose boats that will let you do it "your" way. If you chose to go on a boat that does not do it "your" way, complaining about the fact that they didn't do it "your" way is lame.

I learned this lesson years ago when I vacationed in Grand Cayman. I learned that there was a dive shop on the premises where we were staying, and I thought "Great ! How convenient!" I arrived in the morning (coming from Cayman Brac) and scheduled an afternoon dive. We went out to the site and the DM announced that we were doing a 35 minute guided dive of a reef. We splashed and did exactly a 35 minute dive, with me getting back on the boat with roughly half my air left.

I immediately did everything I could to find an alternative, and luckily got a good tip on another operator only a few miles away who would pick me up at the hotel. I then had an outstanding week of diving with one of the best operators I have ever used.

I later learned that I could have easily gotten all the information I needed to make the appropriate choice in the first place had I taken roughly 10 minutes to do an Internet search.

 

[Becca_007]

I have 300 and some dive's give up logs but i'm still only a holiday diver not as fit as i'd like but ok . They must think we are stupid we ask for three dive but always the second dive end up being a reverse drift dive ;to me drift diving is go with the flow not against it

Do they do this just to do our air in??? ;thing is every time we ask for three dive on the boat trip second dive is always against the flow after that most people don't wish to do the third dive we did the saddle in sharm against the flow if i'd could of got hold of the guide i would have ripped their regs out; it was like hyper ventilating for 40 mins

At no time did they look round to check on us;if i had a smb i would have aborted the dive; all they said at the end of the dive was ; think your self lucky not many people have done that against the flow and i know why i was; no we where ffcked after that but hay still did the three dive's just to prove a point.

From that moment i realised how in portent your buddy is my point is stay close to your buddy because your guide is sometime's just a guide and would not miss you as much as you miss them belucky stay safe look after your buddy
I must say most of the guide's are the best but just one bad egg ; well??? and we see nothing it was like doing a marathron before the 100 metre sprint

You ask what others expect of a guide but fail to state what you were after or the policy of the dive op. I have never believed it was a guide's responsibility to look after me or make sure I was keeping up. If I was really struggling and hyperventilating I'd signal such to my buddy and we'd make a decision as to whether to abort or how to proceed. Abort and I have my spool and surface marker. Continue and I am with my buddy but certainly not unable to breathe.

I feel a lot of things are left unsaid here. Was it supposed to be a drift dive where the boat dropped you off then picked you up? Or, was it supposed to be a dive where you swam out then back to the boat? I've done both now and the dive briefings beforehand on the swim out and swim back dives they told us which way the current was going but we still had a choice of which direction we wanted to go in.

300 dives? No surface marker and not calling a dive when you were that uncomfortable says to me that you need to claim some responsibility for your own diving.

 

[FloridaRanger]

A competent guide will know the area and the most interesting features, and where the resident aquatic life tends to hang out and check out those areas, and using a dive light point out things for you to see, and give you time to take a photo if you're so inclined, before moving on.

That sums it up perfectly.

Of course the people who don't want or need a guide can go off on their own.