What's your style?

[Mike Veitch]

Get in, swim around, take pics, come up... easy

 

[Divingnthedark]

Depends on the dive environment and what type of photography I am doing if I decide I feel like taking photos. Overall, I'm a lazy diver and find more critters if I'm going slow like the golden tail moray, juvenile pipefish, or that baby nurse shark in the bottom of the barrel sponge that everyone just passed by in their hurry to run out of air and/or reef at the same time =(. This may be the reason I will not dive with cattle boat operations and prefer 6 pax max. Honest to God, there is a whole ocean out there, so why do people need to be in herd mode? I didn't even know I had a dive buddy until the halfway through my last dive trip when he asked me how his dive buddy was doing! I told him just fine and thanks for being such a good dive buddy and never running in to me :05: or requiring any assistance from me. I did start finding things for him to photograph on the last day or two:05:

 

[DiveMaven]

- because mostly DM's have to do with a special kind of diver--the underwater tourist--who expects to see as many different things as possible in one dive. To these kinds of divers, quantity is what counts. The Loch Ness monster could swim up and pose for 1/2 hour and some people would tick it off on their list and want to move on after 10 seconds. "Yep... seen the Loch Ness Monster, now where's the Parrot Fish?"

R..

I had to laugh when I read this, since it's 100% true and we see it all the time while diving on vacation!! On our last trip to Maui, there was this really cool free swimming turtle that was slowly swimming near us. My husband and I stopped dead and hovered to watch the turtle. The DM leading another group slowed way down to give time to watch and wound up being passed by most of his group as they had clearly seen the turtle long enough!!! It wound up being wonderful that they moved on quickly, as the turtle continued doing it's thing and didn't bolt away. We must have watched him for a good 2 minutes before abandoning the section of reef we were on. My husband got some great pictures too.

 

[DivesWithTurtles]

It's interesting that the majority of the people answer say that they like to move slowly. Given that, why do the DMs who lead tourist dives move so fast?

On our South Florida drift dives, the DM is towing (or, more accurately, being towed by) the float ball, which is often moving faster than the divers due to the stronger current at the surface than at depth. It's sometimes hard work for them to slow down.

The DM is also sometimes in so much better condition and has so much better skills and trim than the group that it is easier by nature for them to move along more quickly.

 

[kiwiman]

btk127

 

[scubaguy655]

do you all move faster as the viz improves? Do you want to go as slow in 150 ft as 50 ft viz?

It really depends. In some cases I cover more ground with the better viz, but in others, I am likely to just hang out and look around in a small area.

Unless I am looking for something specific in the macro world, I usually let the dive determine the pace. I am amused by the little things!

I don't usually dive in groups. It is more likely that I am diving with my wife (buddy) and we set our own pace regardless of the viz.

 

[cudachaser]

Slow & Easy...try hard to induce that into my students...With this method I can get an AL80 to last 2 1/2 hours in shallow water (15ft)

 

[Rick Inman]

do you all move faster as the viz improves? Do you want to go as slow in 150 ft as 50 ft viz?

My nature is to speed up as the vis improves, but, unless I'm headed for some destination like the feeding station or something, it doesn't take me long to realize that the same stuff that's 100 yards away is usually right in front of me, too.

 

[Charlie99]

It's interesting that the majority of the people answer say that they like to move slowly. Given that, why do the DMs who lead tourist dives move so fast?

I find that I tend to go faster when leading a group. It's something I try to avoid, but I still catch myself from time to time getting focussed on leading the group to specific spots and back, rather than just hanging out and watching. I've noticed that relatively new DM's tend to speed along faster --- maybe they are falling into this same trap.

 

[Cacia]

Most generally, the last thing people see of me as I hit the water is the back side of my fins dissappearing into the blue. Especially if on a cattle boat, I go into warp drive and I am outta there, out of the mayhem of people bobbing up and down and ramming into one another and strobes going off and people giving me the OK sign over and over and over with this odd look when I don't return it. You can see so much more when your fast and silent, stop and investigate and then move on, before the group catches up. When I get back on the boat I always ask if they saw the shark, or the turtle or the whatever and no--they did not---all the bunched up divers did was ask each other over and over if they were OK. I am not OK, I am getting old, I am grouchy and I like it. N

I had to read that again! hilarious. add Nemrod to the "fast when I need to be" roster.

But Mike, how do you you breathe?