Why is Scuba Diving a Transitional Sport?

[chris kippax]

I dive to take photographs, take away the camera I would possibly become bored quickly and would have to begin to make deeper/longer dives to keep up the enthusiasm for diving I imagine. I struggle with dive operators and at times even the other people on the boat. Dive operators and their pesky rules and as for the people on the dive boat I find them relatable to people flying, those who are polite and know whats up sit quitely and get all there gear ready quickly and sit down and are no hassle at all. Others constantly are up and down fluffing with unimportant things that they do not need at the time or could have organised earlier. Ask questions about things that have/will be covered in the briefing. They put their fins on at the furthest point from the splash zone and stumble around the boat, they stand up and their intergrated weights fly out and almost smash your toes, I could go on for days. If you can not recognise these people chances are it's you.
Thank god for shore diving.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Interesting. I didn't' vote because no options really fitted me

I guess, I transitioned from typical to non typical.

I took OW in 2007 I booked a vacation specifically for it. It wasn't until 2011 that I got the opportunity to dive again. I was abroad on a work trip with some free time, so took my AoW.

After that nothing until 2013 when I started divign here in Dubai and the surrounding area.

The main reasons for my lack of diving, were cost of vacations, and availability of free time. Local diving in the UK wasn't an option (for me) apart from cold water diving being unappealing, the deciding factor was equipment cost. Also as a single diver it required "effort" for me to put myself out there and make new dive buddies.

Fast forward to 2013, I'd been in Dubai for over 6 months and wanted to expand my (non existent) circle of friends outside work) I found a dive club. Expat communities are generally very welcoming because everyone has been in the position of arriving knowing no one.

This gave me the opportunity to dive with friends, who were willing to mentor me. Circumstances had changed so that purchasing my own equipment wasn't an issue, and we had access to diving with little effort.

My first club dive in Jan 2013 was dive No#22

I never looked back.

If diving had been a chore, i.e. still required vacation or extensive travel I'm not sure I would have continues other than being an occasional vacation diver. I think most people gravitate to activities that are reasonably accessible for them - whether that be living near a dive site or having the means to take vacations. People here on SB are the exception in that they get the bug and make a real effort to continue with this hobby to different extents.

I'm incredibly lucky, that my wife (whom I met through diving) loves diving as much as I . We dive at weekends and organise our vacations around diving, so I'm not torn about pleasing myself whilst pleasing an non diving partner.

Having achieved a certain level of experience, I'm non longer concerned about jumping on a boat solo and hooking up with an insta buddy - which can be quite daunting for the newer diver.

 

[ofg-1]

I am glad people get bored and drop out, that's how I get my gear.

 

[markmud]

What happened with the operators?

Hi Jimmy,

Thanks for your question. I will answer it using one example. This example can be used for many situations that come down to the same issue. All different situations in terms of time, place, and people.

A Scubaboard buddy and myself decided to go on an advertised Advanced boat dive to Carmel and Monterey. He is a DM and I am Tec 40 and solo certified (important to note as it is proof of 100 logged dives--I was not an OW with 10 dives).

We board the boat, sign the waivers, listen to the briefing and head out for the approximately 1 hour boat ride.

As we are chit-chatting on deck and enjoying the calm seas and beautiful warm day in Monterey (in Monterey, no way!), we are told that we are not going outside toward the advanced dive sites, because we have some newbs onboard. The Captain and crew don't want anyone getting hurt.

We objected but agreed that we did not want to be on a vessel where someone got hurt, for any reason.

We dived a spot where I had dived 4 times before. A relatively shallow spot with a sandy bottom and rock piles strewn about. It has a nice pinnacle that is fun to dive, but I was hoping for those two dive sites outside, that truly were advanced.

I can tell many stories like the above from St. Croix, to Manzanillo, to Moorea, to other places.

I am an explorer by nature. I love wall dives. I like exploring from 130' to 0 feet. I am not crazy or looking for tough sites with current or surge or low viz. I love the recreational zone of scuba diving. I don't get many chances to explore my scuba passion.

Dennis and Roxanne have saved diving for my wife and I.

thanks,
markm
PS: The above dive operator did not offer to refund the surcharge for the advanced dive trip (to cover extra diesel and crew time).

 

[Germie]

I did my first dive in 1994 and allways could dive if I said I forgot my open water cert. Got certified in 2010 and directly knew: I want to do technical diving, deeper than deep. 10 months later I was DM. Time to buy a twinset. My first 'tech' cert was in april 2012, my cavern,intro and full cave was also in april 2012 done, 18 months after open water, normoxic trimix was june, and my full trimix and first 100m dive 2 years after getting certified as open water diver. So I did all tech certs in 6 months.
When becoming instructor I wanted to become trimix instructor. Cave was a secundairy choice, as it looked to be a difficult path. But when I had the chance to do, I did. I have signed off 1 or 2 open waters, 5 advanced, some Dm's, but most of my certs done are in the adv. nitrox region or higher. I would have quit diving for sure if I had to stay within NDL and shallower than 30-40m depth. I like to have freedom to dive everywhere water is, shallow and deep, and caves.

On vacations I don't like guides and don't them. I know my own safety limits. A lot of divecenters are not used to divers with >300 dives, so experienced divers. This means I am not a big customer of commercial divingcenters. I normally rent tanks, sometimes pay for the boat (as taxi to the divesite), but don't pay for guides. If I only have to dive with divecenters, I would have quit within 150 dives. I am no muppet.
Happely technical divecenters most times understand that you don't need guides.
Not all of my dives are technical dives, but it gives me the freedom that NDL's are not for me, and I can go to wrecks or caves where not everybody comes. I do solodiving also, even outside sportsdiverlimits.

I dive with everybody, and I don't mind if you only like to stay shallow. But if there is an interesting divesite you can dive, and I pay for it, I want to do it. Divecenters must understand that the experienced divers have other needs than beginners. AND that solo is normal and safe also.

One time I was buddied up with an open water diver. But we went to a divesite where also a wreck was (35m). I told the divecenter: You know what I am going to do, deco, to the bottom of 35m, to the wreck, penetrate the wrecks and I don't stay withing NDL. I take the biggest single tank you have (18L). So if you agree that that open water diver also takes an 18L, and goes to 35m outside NDL, then he can be my buddy. Otherwise not. They agreed and we had a nice dive. And I was not responsible because I told them. But sadly a lot of divecenters think: ah an experienced diver, we can use his experience with another inexperienced diver.
But it is allways funny to have a discussion with a dm with just 62 dives that wants to tell you how to dive with all certs you can wish.

If you cannot dive on your own, you allways need a boat or a divecenter, then I completely understand why it is a transitional sport. I would have quit also. Now I can think after a day in the office: I want to go diving, take my car and jump in. On holidays I rent tanks, rent a car and go to caves. Or drive my own car to divesites. This is a big big reason to stay diving or quit diving.

 

[lexvil]

I think it’s more “temporary” than “transitional” but each person getting into diving has their own reasons from the “that looks cool” to “I love the water” for those that start young (I started at 16, now 64) life happens, things like marriages, kids, jobs etc.

Diving is, at least for cold water, hard and it takes a lot of stuff to comfortably dive, a lot of exposure protection, lead etc. I can fit everything I need for a warm water dive into a 10L dry bag attached to my bp/w, for cold water it’s a tub of gear and a small tub for my drysuit, not to mention the tanks and lead but that because it’s the local dive situation, cold just involves a lot of stuff.

In my observations most cold water divers get bored because they never slow down or get close to the bottom to see what actually lives in the water, they tend to stay 10 or more feet from the bottom and flail about, visions of all of the things they’ve heard will kill them flashing through their head. Most people need 100 dives under the weight belt in under 3 years, before they can calm down and enjoy themselves. The hassles of cold water gear, generally poorish viz and things like kelp grabbing every protruding piece of gear tends to make the average person into a warm water “vacation” diver.

Join a club if you’re a joiner to meet other divers, slow down and look for stuff, list keepers will set goals for them selves, these are people who can’t relax and need to identify every fish in the ocean, collect cert cards and have “goals” to their diving, others spear fish or harvest other marine life to “justify” the time and cost of diving.

Find your zone and dive it.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I started scuba diving to further my underwater adventures past freediving. I started as an abalone freediving and scuba was a natural progression foreward to get deeper and stay longer to get some of the big lings and scallops, etc. I’m a hunter and have always been into fishing from the time I was a kid. Scuba is just another tool to be able to fish.
I’m not a gear head, I don’t care how old or fancy my gear is as long as the stuff works, that’s all I care. I also don’t give damn how cold the water is or other minor inconveniences, I just dive in and get it done.
If I lived somewhere landlocked I doubt I would have gotten into diving since travel sounds expensive and too logistically and schedule intensive for my tastes. If I did get into diving while living landlocked I would have moved to somewhere where there’s ocean diving.
I’m a local boy and local diving keeps me in the sport.

 

[lexvil]

I started scuba diving to further my underwater adventures past freediving. I started as an abalone freediving and scuba was a natural progression foreward to get deeper and stay longer to get some of the big lings and scallops, etc. I’m a hunter and have always been into fishing from the time I was a kid. Scuba is just another tool to be able to fish.
I’m not a gear head, I don’t care how old or fancy my gear is as long as the stuff works, that’s all I care. I also don’t give damn how cold the water is or other minor inconveniences, I just dive in and get it done.
If I lived somewhere landlocked I doubt I would have gotten into diving since travel sounds expensive and too logistically and schedule intensive for my tastes. If I did get into diving while living landlocked I would have moved to somewhere where there’s ocean diving.
I’m a local boy and local diving keeps me in the sport.

Hey Eric, some of my buddies and I have a trip to Curacao in mid April, probably cost less than $1400 food and all, whipouta few back plates and you can do some warm water diving on the cheap.

 

[Divegoose]

I got certified back in 1982. My original intent for getting certified was to have a skill that I could use in fisheries management. I had recently graduated as a Fish & Wildlife Technician, and being certified was a skill that I felt to enhance my opportunity for a full time fisheries management position. Unfortunately I never succeeded in getting full time work.

In the late 80's I became interested in public safety diving, after having completed my Divemaster and Master Scuba Diver certifications. I took a great program from Dive Rescue International, that was hosted by the Calgary Fire Department, and got certified as a "Dive Rescue Specialist". Did a few dives for the local RCMP detachments, but was never able to secure a position on the dive team once I moved to B.C.

I had done several liveaboard trips on the west coast, and vowed one day to live on Vancouver Island. In early 2000 I was transferred to the Island with my job, and hooked up with the local dive club. Being close to the ocean, with almost unlimited diving opportunities my diving "career" took off. I have been able to dive on a regular basis with some very good dive buddies. I can also help out with some fisheries projects such as the annual ling cod egg mass survey conducted by the Vancouver Aquarium. Santa was kind enough to bring me a camera outfit for Christmas, so now I am learning to be an underwater photographer.

In 2009 I went to Cozumel with a group from my local dive shop, and became hooked on warm water diving. Cozumel is now an annual event.

As long as my health permits, I intend to keep on diving on a regular basis, whether it be the local cold waters, or the warm waters of the Caribbean. If funds permit, there are a number of other warm water locations I intend to dive over the next few years.

Dive safe !!

Divegoose

 

[Laurie S.]

Condolences on your husband's passing. I recall your story from a few years ago, and am sure we were in contact about the shells in San Carlos. Hope you continue travelling and enjoy the boat--maybe we'll meet yet before it's time to hang up the fins.

Thank you, yes, we were, I'm also a shell collector. Russ was an expert on shell identification. I have a big trip coming up in August--Red Sea, Anilao, and Alor. It will be an adventure!