What's wrong with being a recreational diver?

[HJeffreyM]

Just a quick question for the forum:

I'm AOW and Nitrox certifiied and approaching 50 dives. It's been just over a year since my OW cert. Almost all of my experience so far has been warm water, excellent vis vacation diving from both shore and boat. I've been to a max depth of 105fsw.

I wonder what is the mad rush some divers have to move so quickly from recreational to "tech" diving? I'm not saying you shouldn't be learning something every time you dive, or continuing dive education...but I think a lot of people bypass much of what we dive for as recreational divers in the persuit of "deeper and longer."

All of our training in recreational diving tells us NOT to exceed the parameters of recreational diving...we all know what those limits are. Yet the first thing so many divers want to do after some advanced recreational training is to figure out how to exceed those limits.

There are so many places to go and so many things to see <130fsw. What's the rush to go >130fsw where there's little light, less coral, etc? If it's done correctly, planned deco diving is so much about the equipment, gas management, and the dive plan that there seems little time to...actually enjoy the dive...go sightseeing, etc. What's the attraction?

Finally, deep, tech, wreck and cavern diving put you in a whole different risk category. You are putting yourself in the realm of pro divers, generally without the support structure upon which pro divers rely (like a deco chamber on the ship directly above you!). So again, why do it?

I wonder...with less than 200 lifetime dives...have you been everywhere in the world and seen all there is to see and learned all there is to learn <130fsw on one tank?

What's wrong with being a recreational diver?

 

[bsumner]

You pretty well summed it up. The answer is nothing.

 

[Peter Guy]

What's wrong with being a recreational diver?

Nothing at all. I am, most definitely, a recreational diver even though I sometimes go into a cave, go below 130 feet or even plan to have a mandatory decompression obligation.

BTW, you nailed it with your statement regarding planned deco -- something that a friend of mine calls "Gasturbation."

One of the best instructors I had, a technical diving instructor teaching a recreational class, said, "Don't go to the 'next level' until you are bored with this one."

For me, I went to "the next level" not because I was bored with "recreational diving" but because I got infected with the cave bug quite unexpectedly and by accident.

 

[flw]

Nothing at all wrong with being a recreational diver - if you can see what you want to see in the required depths/times. However it does depend very much on where/when you dive and where you live.
In the UK, diver's are taught deco diving right from day 1, though they may never actually go into mandatory stops, so there tend not to be the aversion/fear of deco to start with. I'm a wreck diver, with a particular interest in steamships/engines - and I happen to live in a part of the world where it is extremely easy to find wrecks beyond the 40m mark - to find intact wrecks it is far better to go deeper.
Once there, the effort required to see a deep wreck, you might as well stay awhile and explore it properly - hence the need for planning - but a typical square profile 30 minute 60m dive dive plan will always be the same - so you only need to plan it once
I'm off to the red sea on Tuesday for a week, there it will be shallow/longish reef dives to see the coral/sharks - I'm looking forward to it, but it all tends to blur into one after a while.....and there's always a new/collapsing etc wreck to explore at home...

 

[psychocabbage]

I am a 100% rec diver. I have 0 desire to get into tech or wreck diving..

I do like going deep just cause.. Its like when we top out our cars and are hitting 170mph.. why do we do it? Its cause its something neat and fun to do.. with a bit of risk.. right?

I dont forsee myself ever going deeper than 130ish ft. Just have no desire to do so. I dont really care for checking out coral or anything.. My kick is really just being underwater and around things. Always in my own mental documentary of underwater worlds.

I have done advanced dives and its fun to do them but you really dont get much out of them other than to say you did them. Spiegel Grove, 10ft seas, super strong current? Done. Nothing like hanging onto the mooring line like superman as the current threatens to pull your body off the line into the blackness of open sea... That was wild and pretty fun.. but it was over so quickly..

I do think far too many biased people from the higher levels are hanging around in the basic discussion and in effect pushing their thoughts onto many newer divers.. for good or bad..

 

[SCUBA482]

I am definately new to diving and only OW certified. I will share why as a new diver I find the tech diving interesting:

I am a gadget guy by nature and enjoy the ability and challenges diving presents. I think as a kid growing up watching JQ and all the Discovery Channel programs on the mystique of the ocean's underwater areas we all can feel like explorers in our own way. We get to see things firsthand that most of the world will NEVER see. How cool is that!

I agree there is plenty of time to see it from a recreational standpoint, but once bitten by the diving bug we as divers tend to have a voracious appetite for more. Probably more than we should I admit, but then again we are told in our training to continue our diving education.

Is tech diving in my future? During my OW I would have nearly concluded that is what I wanted to do. Now with only 14 dives under my belt I realize how the technical & equipment aspects of recreational diving bring me joy. I am setting up a pony tank on my rig now and have a ton of questions on just doing that, so I now can see I am clearly not ready for tech. For some I believe its the destination & not the journey, I am forcing myself to slow down & enjoy the journey. (I would add that perspective came by some of the SB diving OG's gentle nudges too. Thanks to those guys!) I dont have a personal diving mentor as of now so while I aspire to tech dive, I also have realized I need to gain experience at what I'm doing in the recreational arena first. I think the coolest thing about diving is the diversity and multiple levels of experience needed to do such a variety of specialties. Maybe others will take the time to become a real "Advanced" diver vs. just somebody who does a few extra supervised dives (no offense meant by this & not intended to minimize the training of course). I believe in order to be advanced at anything you should have the skills well beyond the average. I don't think a diver is "Advanced" just because of few extra classes. I'd like to see more requirements on logged dives before moving to the next phase, but that's just me. Again, another cool thing is I can chose that path if I want just as I can chose the manner on how or when I get to tech.

 

[flw]

I am a 100% rec diver. I have 0 desire to get into tech or wreck diving..

II do think far too many biased people from the higher levels are hanging around in the basic discussion and in effect pushing their thoughts onto many newer divers.. for good or bad..

There is nothing technical about wreck diving at it's most basic level, nor does it require any special training, just an awareness of your surroundings.
What makes you think anyone is pushing anyone else to a 'higher' level? - not that I would necessarily regard deco/deeper diving as 'higher' anyway. I don't remember ever starting out aiming for deeper - nor was I ever pushed into it

 

[khacken]

One of the best instructors I had, a technical diving instructor teaching a recreational class, said, "Don't go to the 'next level' until you are bored with this one."

This is a really good quote, and even applies to technical diving. Well, really applies to technical diving. I still love going to Cozumel even though I know all the sites pretty well. So no, no nothing wrong with being a recreational diver. In fact, I like your attitude. Too many people get into technical just to say they are a technical diver or something.

Now, I would recommend Intro to Tech, just for the buoyancy, trim, and kick techniques. Also, you might like some of the gear configuration from the class. But again, that is only if you WANT to.

The most important thing of scuba is to go out and enjoy yourself.

 

[halocline]

There are all different kinds of people diving, so what's enjoyable and 'recreational' to one may be something entirely different than to another. Internet boards like this one tend to attract a disproportionate percentage of divers that are probably geared towards technical and/or professional involvement with diving; if you were to ask the general diving public you'd find only a very small percentage that are interested in tech diving.

It's not that different from recreational hiking vs technical mountain climbing. Ideally you get involved in the activity you need to go the places that you want to see, not to prove anything about yourself. I took one dive in a cenote and immediately knew I'd pursue cave diving some day in order to see more of that environment.

 

[Crowley]

What's wrong with recreational diving? Nothing.

Tec is not something that a diver needs to progress to in order to be a better or safer diver. Yes, there are skills learned and theory applied that will benefit the average rec diver but one could draw an analogy between hill walkers and mountain climbers. Some people are happy tootling about the hills and vales and have no desire to shuck up a vertical wall with no obvious handholds.

You will often find the attitude from certain groups that Tec/DIR/GUE etc. is the only way to dive. That's like saying the only way to drive a car is like Lewis Hamilton and anything less than that is inferior. It's ridiculous.

*popcorn moment*

Tec diving of any sort is for those that want to do it - but it's not something you have to do in order to enjoy the underwater world. If you want to do it, find out about it and go for it - tec/DIR/GUE training may well improve your dive skills but don't ever think that they are necessary to be underwater.

Yes, some tec divers sniff at recreational diving - same way that base jumpers sniff at parachute jumping. There are some books written which clearly insinuate that recreational divers are somehow inferior, yet the same books involve fatalities that occured because of stupid, basic errors.

Tec and Rec are not the same thing and Tec is for people who want to do it and that's fine, but don't let anybody tell you that you must have xyz configuration to get underwater. Don't rush into it, and if you wish and want to do it then go for it, but as great as the extra training might be, it's neither required not necessary for recreational diving.

I have run out of popcorn but I have chips and beer so I await the flames with anticipation!

Safe diving, however you do it,

C.