What would you do??

[TMHeimer]

Those are interesting stories as I've never been on those boats. I would guess it is difficult for such a dive op to just talk to each customer to find out if they wish to set up their own stuff or not, or if they are even capable or not. A worry about legalities maybe, or just that the majority are vacation divers with standard equipment and it makes things go faster if crew sets it up? Or maybe if there are more that 4-6 divers it could be cumbersome to figure out who wants to do it themselves?

 

[dmaziuk]

... we were told to just get off the boat at the end of a dive and get back on the boat at the appropriate time for the next dive. Our gear would all be set up for us. It became a standing joke to see how they would screw it up on each dive. Since it was the same people taking it off the boat (after I had done it correctly) as it was putting it back together, we wondered how long it would take them to get it right. They never did. No harm done, though, as long as you are checking it anyway, and it was always good for a chuckle.

Heh. I suppose you could always take the wing with you. The sit on the pier and watch heads explode trying to figure out if they should set you up to dive without an air cell or let you set up your gear yourself.

 

[boulderjohn]

Heh. I suppose you could always take the wing with you. The sit on the pier and watch heads explode trying to figure out if they should set you up to dive without an air cell or let you set up your gear yourself.

Taking my gear off the boat and then bringing it back on later would have taken a heck of a lot more effort than just getting back on the boat and making a minor correction to what they did. I guess I'm just a lazy SOB, but on a week of 4 dives (or more) a day, I was happy to let them do that. Some people are phobic about not letting anyone touch their gear. I'm not one of them.

 

[dmaziuk]

Taking my gear off the boat and then bringing it back on later would have taken a heck of a lot more effort than just getting back on the boat and making a minor correction to what they did. I guess I'm just a lazy SOB, but on a week of dives (or more) a day, I was happy to let them do that. Some people are phobic about not letting anyone touch their gear. I'm not one of them.

Well I was thinking hole in the wing specifically. If the rules were "we set up your gear" and "you can't dive without the aricell", them pinching a hole in your wing -- so now you don't have an aircell -- would be a fun one.

 

[Redshift]

How can a person who doesn't know how to assemble the gear check if the gear has been assembled properly?

 

[shoredivr]

"They usually do it for me" sounds like the guy just booked a wrong boat. I'm sure one can find a crew in Ontario that will assemble one's gear and, for a little extra, pour warm pee in one's wetsuit. On my budget, they don't assemble my kit for me in the Caribbean...

i can't think of a single Ontario Great Lakes charter boat that would do that. There is a captain and depending on the size of the boat, a crew member. You set up your own gear and dive your own dives. It's refreshing.

 

[boulderjohn]

How can a person who doesn't know how to assemble the gear check if the gear has been assembled properly?

I don't know what you are referencing with this question, but the only person I have talked about in terms of checking to see if it was set up properly is me.

The case I just described was pretty extreme. In that Philippines trip, I actually spent two weeks there, one at one location and one at another, both owned by the same company. Both had the same policies about setting up customer gear. In the first week, the person who set up my gear saw how I did it one time and then did it perfectly for the rest of the week--not one mistake. In the second week, the person who did it never got it right once, and, amazingly, it was usually not the same mistake on consecutive dives. In other words, he did everything there was to do right most of the time, but never did everything right at the same time.

 

[kafkaland]

I always have trouble with this, "They are vacation divers so please give them a break!" approach...is there something about vacation diving that makes it inherently safer than other forms of diving so much so that you don't need to stay current or keep your skills up so long as you only dive on vacation. Are you less likely to get in trouble in unfamiliar waters just because you are on vacation? Are "vacation climbers" less likely to fall off rock faces than climbers who practice regularly? It is NOT a condescending attitude nor is it pathetic...it is a genuine concern that someone who discloses that they can't remember how to assemble their rig might also have forgotten buoyancy control, gas monitoring, paying attention to NDL's. I don't mean to sound harsh or elitist or anything else but in my 40 odd years of diving I have seen this far too often...a boat full of well-intentioned folks who were certified a long time ago and only manage to get in the water when they are on holidays and they seldom realize the very real danger to themselves and others. If you can only dive on vacation then at least budgrt for a short refresher course at home before you leave home.

Actually, I do think there is something to the notion of giving "vacation divers" a break, in the following sense: if aunt Annie got certified a few years ago at a resort, and does a few warm-water dives on a concierge service boat with the DM in the water each year, she is probably quite safe even if she has forgotten some of the OW material. And if she ever shows up for a dive on, let's say, a Great Lakes boat, she probably knows how much she has forgotten and or never learned in the first place and seek professional assistance.

The same cannot be said for the SAE bro who got certified at the local quarry and knows it all, and shows up with his brothers for that advanced recreational cold water dive with his brothers, and not listen to anyone. He's a certified diver, after all. So in that sense, I'm willing to give the former s break, but not the latter.

---------- Post added January 10th, 2016 at 01:55 PM ----------

Those are interesting stories as I've never been on those boats. I would guess it is difficult for such a dive op to just talk to each customer to find out if they wish to set up their own stuff or not, or if they are even capable or not. A worry about legalities maybe, or just that the majority are vacation divers with standard equipment and it makes things go faster if crew sets it up? Or maybe if there are more that 4-6 divers it could be cumbersome to figure out who wants to do it themselves?

My experience with concierge service boats boats has actually been pretty good, as long as I dive with them several days in a row. Usually, when they ask me how much weight I want, I tell them exactly how to distribute it, and this together with that I'm diving a BP&W setup starts a conversation about how I want my rig set up. On the first day, I usually have to make a small adjustment or two, but by the second day they understand and usually get it right. And then I appreciate the convenience of it. I have not tried to bring my sidemount rig on one of those boats, though.

 

[Redshift]

I don't know what you are referencing with this question, but the only person I have talked about in terms of checking to see if it was set up properly is me.

I wasn't addressing anyone in particular. Several people mentioned it was only a question of checking the gear before diving and others said one can be a good diver and not know/remember how to set up the equipment. In those situations how can they do a pre-dive check, something that is taught by all agencies? If they can't assemble it, how can they see if it was well assembled? How can they perform a buddy check?
If they want to be that kind of divers, they should be supervised divers.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

The same cannot be said for the SAE bro who got certified at the local quarry and knows it all, and shows up with his brothers for that advanced recreational cold water dive with his brothers, and not listen to anyone. He's a certified diver, after all. So in that sense, I'm willing to give the former s break, but not the latter.

I like to think the SAE Bro has more smarts than say the Alpha Epsilon Pi bro... Now that is a better analogy...