Can You 'Really' Dive?

[Wormil]

As most know, I have welcomed the odd dog pile however that is not what this is right now. I have in fact kept out of this thread more than I normally would have (most my posts likely would have been edited or deleted anyways ). When someone posts something as controversial as the OP did - this is a nice way of saying it for some - a barrage of conflicting posts is sure to follow.

While there may have been a pile at some point near the beginning, this is just people and posts that strongly disagree (or agree with) with "her" words. Closing the thread? We would all get along just fine if it was but it would not change the fact that the post was put up in the first place.

Man, hot chicks are attacking me, I can't fend them off.

 

[Cave Diver]

Man, hot chicks are attacking me, I can't fend them off.

Ditch the 3 wolf shirt.

 

[mbwilliamn]

Your kind of diver are far and few in between. Seems like "experience" divers have forgotten what it was like when they were "new" divers.
If the shoe fits, wear it.

Actually there are more of us out there than you probably realize. I agree with Walter...I became a DM and later an Instructor because I like to dive with new people, help them learn and get better at something I love doing. If you are a new diver or in an area (or situation) you've not been in ask questions of the DM. What you will find in many cases is there is an "off duty" DM or Instructor sitting nearby that will offer help (or the DM who knows them will ask them). Because of our litigeous society, many may not offer first, but if asked almost all will help. They can usually be spotted by the fact that their gear is set up, checked out and bags stowed before half the boat is loaded.

I've got quite a few dives in various environments, but if I'm in a new place, I'M the guy bending the DM's ear on what the site looks like, what are the hazards, boat peculiars (do loose items wash out the back?).

 

[netmage]

As most know, I have welcomed the odd dog pile however that is not what this is right now. I have in fact kept out of this thread more than I normally would have (most my posts likely would have been edited or deleted anyways ). When someone posts something as controversial as the OP did - this is a nice way of saying it for some - a barrage of conflicting posts is sure to follow.

While there may have been a pile at some point near the beginning, this is just people and posts that strongly disagree (or agree with) with "her" words. Closing the thread? We would all get along just fine if it was but it would not change the fact that the post was put up in the first place.

No what is being lost are the specifics that led to the post to begin with.....
The only thing that stands is the OPs original remarks, standing on their own.... which left without the proper context (as provided by the 40 pages which no one seems to read anymore), leads to a very disproportionate view of a very compassionate, heartwarming, and loving individual....

So, to the dismay of the entire dive industry machine, and I'll stand up and say, ya know... some folks shouldn't be diving...... There is a word,.... contraindication.....

And no... I'm not talking about HSA, SUDS, or Wounded Warrior programs where everyone is on the same page about what assistance may be required... (if any)....

 

[netmage]

Man, hot chicks are attacking me, I can't fend them off.

Ditch the 3 wolf shirt.

That might work.... if he wasn't staring at the tramp stamps....

 

[mbwilliamn]

... some folks shouldn't be diving......

Yep! I've said it before and will again! Diving is a thinking game more than a physical game.

 

[walke121]

I agree with part of what you posted, but only part. There are divers (yes, they are real divers) who have had injuries and can no longer lift heavy objects. They don't carry their own gear (does one have to be a DM or instructor to carry gear?) and some even need their gear lifted out of the water (that's a job a deck hand can't handle?). Some of these folks will put you and me both to shame in the water.

I know someone just as you discribe. He has muscular distrophy and can barely walk, put him in the water and you can't catch him. I haven't heard from him in a year or so but to the last of my knowledge he was still doing tec cave diving in the Florida springs.

 

[netdiver]

So, to the dismay of the entire dive industry machine, and I'll stand up and say, ya know... some folks shouldn't be diving......

I disagree. Diving is not an elite activity for the skilled, trained, intelligent, athletic, wealthy, or considerate. Diving is for everyone even if they are annoying or stupid.

I just believe some folks shouldn't be diving with me. :blinking:

Diving is special to me, but it's not for special people with special skills.

You get on the road everyday on the highway with the same idiots and worse doing 70 MPH and faster. Why does that get not even a first thought but someone you dive with one time where you can easily choose not to do so is such an especially bad case?

If someone chooses to approach diving in a cavalier, lazy, and/or dangerous manner then that's their choice to take risks and the charter choosing to take their money to take that risk.

How many folks posting have had a single alcoholic beverage or more and driven their car? Endangering your life and literally hundreds of others. <those that haven't don't respond. It's rhetoric> Now for those who have, ask yourself if you would do the same diving? Would you drink a beer before hand? And would chastise someone else who said they drank something before diving and let them know how dangerous that is and how it endangers their buddy diving with them?

It seems a lot of divers use diving and it's related skills as an outlet to make themselves feel special and apply rules and laws that they ignore in the rest of their life to elevate that feeling and do the "right" thing they don't normally do in the rest of their life.

If all theses risks are too much for you then only dive with buddies your know and dive operators you know.

In short... Get real.. Get grounded. Dive, have fun and just don't dive with those that are contrary to the experience you want.

Oh... And sell your car and quit driving.

 

[String]

I have the opposite problem. Down here in the BVI all divers are treated like they are made out of fragile crystal, but only possess the brains of a child who has had a traumatic head injury.

I was out on the boat the other day and politely asked the DM if I could go off with two of my other friends who were on the boat (and who are both DMs themselves) and do our own thing. No, all divers have to be lead by a DM from the LDS at all times. That's just the culture down here - the assumption is that unless you tell all divers on the boat to breathe in and out during the dive, most of them would forget to do so. And it is not healthy.

That is generally what its like here too unfortunately. Divers get a shock when they're told where the tanks are and are expected to set the gear up themselves and some look shocked when they're asked to load it onto a trolley ready for boat loading.

I hate guided dives when im a customer but without them here i can guarantee there'd be a huge number of fatalities as most of the divers are incapable of navigating to their exit point, monitoring their own depth, air or time or anything else. A large number of divers are completely reliant on their guide.

Half the problem IS the guided dive culture to start with - people emerge from courses expecting to have a nanny with them and as a result aren't practiced in actually conducting their own dive at all. Its not a good state of affairs at all but its the way things are in lots of places.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

I almost Never get to dive with a truly skilled, easy diver. I take the new guys. I take the "haven't dived in decades", guys. I take the weakest ones on my boats. It's my boat. It's my job. I never mind anyone who needs help.
Help, assistance, aid, care.
These words are very different from coddling a lazy self-centered brat. I think those are the ones the OP was actually referring to, not the new inexperienced divers, nor the handicapped of physically weak.
There is a big difference between needs help and demands to be waited on. I have seen both. The first kind are welcome and loved. The latter tend to straighten up or not return to my boats.
Having said all this- I dearly treasure those rare just-for-me fun dive days.