Carribeandiver
Guest
To be a good diver (not great, but just good) all it takes is a LOT of diving and focus on learning the basic skills. Basic skills, you know, like buoyancy, gas consumption, mastering the basic kicks.
Unfortunately, VERY few people are actually good divers. Time and again I see divers who either have poor skills or super poor attitudes. I title them REEF KILLERS.
Last month, I was diving down in the Florida Keys. A couple of old guys were on the boat with us. We did a couple of dives that morning and both times I noticed the idiots standing on the bottom, right on top of coral. I approached and gave the OK signal thinking something had to be wrong. But, nooooo, they were 'OK', just idiots.
On the boat, I asked the guys if they liked diving and all the splendor they see. I then said, wouldnt it be nice if all who went diving after them could see the same splendor.
They gave me the Idiotic answer, "everyone leaves their mark"
First off, there is NO freakin reason to be vertical in the water and absolutely no freaking reason to stand or kneel on the coral. Hey, why not learn buoyancy and hover? Now, there is a thought?
Then this past week, I was diving in Bonaire. We were diving the reef just short of the Hilmer Hooker wreck. (I really love that reef, tons of neat, cool, little stuff poking out of the coral heads).
As we were hovering above the coral heads (I like to look at the fish as they interact with each other while my dive-buddy son likes to find micro this and that) a boat from one of the resorts pulls up and moors on one of the buoys. Then the REEF KILLERS hop in. It was like a seen from a movie with astronauts. Ten or twelve divers came swimming toward us. They were all vertical, swimming with their hands, moving through the water as if they were moving through space while wearing jet-packs.
My son and I moved away to a new spot and resumed our dive. A few minutes later, I noticed this guy kneeling on some coral. He was just there, not moving, not doing anything. I swam over and offered the "OK" sign. After a few moments he responded with OK and I swam off. I still wonder, what the heck was that guy doing?
And then another example. last week, early on Sunday morning, we were at the dive shop picking up full cylinders and checking the tanks and noting the chart set up for the Nitrox station. This guy approaches us and asks if he can dive with us since he had no dive buddy. We each said sure, come on.
In talking, we find out the guy just completed his DM training and was waiting for his DM cert card. He was from one of those frozen states where people only dive in quarries. He stated,, and get this,,,,that he did not know how to do a giant stride since all of his diving was in quarries. He did some boat diving before but he used the ladder since he did not know how to do a giant stride.
That seemed kind of nuts to me since everyone I know at least did giant strides off the side of the pool while in OW training. I mean, how hard is it to do a a giant stride? Just take a step and that is it, how is that hard?
Well, from experience, my son and I expect all quarry divers to pretty much suck. They about all only dive vertically because the quarry has little to know visibility and there is no sense swimming around since there is pretty much nothing to see except a bus, car and the one fish that swims around. Not to mention the water is colder than cold.
This guy was no exception, he swam using his hands, was grossly over-weighted and was just about fully vertical. Bicycle kicked the entire time. Had to fight with buoyancy (probably because his trim was so bad, each kick powered him to the surface and he was so over-weighted) He missed about everything we pointed out.
To his credit, he was at least 10-15 feet above the reef. But, I guess because he was not much of a ocean diver, he did not know the identity of the fish.
After the dive, we talked about some of the cool stuff and his questions were --- what was that yellow and blue one? What was the big one with the gold striping? And other similar questions. It was kind of cool for my son and I to try and identify the fish he asked about because it made for an exciting time --- like introducing the ocean and the animals to someone appreciative of them.
Anyway, my point is, while I never really considered myself to be a great diver (although my son is as good as anyone I have seen, and that includes the "nose-up-in-the-air" GUE divers that think they are too good to dive with anyone except other GUE divers, but after watching all the horrible divers, I must at least rate myself as good.
I can hover, stay off the reef and coral, do some kicks including helicopter, back-up, frog and my son and I have practiced some skills so we will be proficient if the need ever comes up for air exchange or rescue. Then again, my son and I have done 200-300 dives together so we are pretty familiar with each other.
Excuse me for my holier-than-thou attitude but when I get on a plane with 300 other people that are all going to some location that is only for diving, I think that at least 250 of these people are REEF KILLERS.
And it is not because some of us are skilled while others are not. The real issue is some people only dive 20-30 dives a year and at that rate, they will never acquire the skills to become good enough to just enjoy the dive without worrying about buoyancy and other basic skills necessary to protect the environment.
I could go on and on using other examples from just last week but I think we all get the picture.
People, practice, even if in a pool. The diving will be a whole lot better for you and for the environment if you gain the skills.
Unfortunately, VERY few people are actually good divers. Time and again I see divers who either have poor skills or super poor attitudes. I title them REEF KILLERS.
Last month, I was diving down in the Florida Keys. A couple of old guys were on the boat with us. We did a couple of dives that morning and both times I noticed the idiots standing on the bottom, right on top of coral. I approached and gave the OK signal thinking something had to be wrong. But, nooooo, they were 'OK', just idiots.
On the boat, I asked the guys if they liked diving and all the splendor they see. I then said, wouldnt it be nice if all who went diving after them could see the same splendor.
They gave me the Idiotic answer, "everyone leaves their mark"
First off, there is NO freakin reason to be vertical in the water and absolutely no freaking reason to stand or kneel on the coral. Hey, why not learn buoyancy and hover? Now, there is a thought?
Then this past week, I was diving in Bonaire. We were diving the reef just short of the Hilmer Hooker wreck. (I really love that reef, tons of neat, cool, little stuff poking out of the coral heads).
As we were hovering above the coral heads (I like to look at the fish as they interact with each other while my dive-buddy son likes to find micro this and that) a boat from one of the resorts pulls up and moors on one of the buoys. Then the REEF KILLERS hop in. It was like a seen from a movie with astronauts. Ten or twelve divers came swimming toward us. They were all vertical, swimming with their hands, moving through the water as if they were moving through space while wearing jet-packs.
My son and I moved away to a new spot and resumed our dive. A few minutes later, I noticed this guy kneeling on some coral. He was just there, not moving, not doing anything. I swam over and offered the "OK" sign. After a few moments he responded with OK and I swam off. I still wonder, what the heck was that guy doing?
And then another example. last week, early on Sunday morning, we were at the dive shop picking up full cylinders and checking the tanks and noting the chart set up for the Nitrox station. This guy approaches us and asks if he can dive with us since he had no dive buddy. We each said sure, come on.
In talking, we find out the guy just completed his DM training and was waiting for his DM cert card. He was from one of those frozen states where people only dive in quarries. He stated,, and get this,,,,that he did not know how to do a giant stride since all of his diving was in quarries. He did some boat diving before but he used the ladder since he did not know how to do a giant stride.
That seemed kind of nuts to me since everyone I know at least did giant strides off the side of the pool while in OW training. I mean, how hard is it to do a a giant stride? Just take a step and that is it, how is that hard?
Well, from experience, my son and I expect all quarry divers to pretty much suck. They about all only dive vertically because the quarry has little to know visibility and there is no sense swimming around since there is pretty much nothing to see except a bus, car and the one fish that swims around. Not to mention the water is colder than cold.
This guy was no exception, he swam using his hands, was grossly over-weighted and was just about fully vertical. Bicycle kicked the entire time. Had to fight with buoyancy (probably because his trim was so bad, each kick powered him to the surface and he was so over-weighted) He missed about everything we pointed out.
To his credit, he was at least 10-15 feet above the reef. But, I guess because he was not much of a ocean diver, he did not know the identity of the fish.
After the dive, we talked about some of the cool stuff and his questions were --- what was that yellow and blue one? What was the big one with the gold striping? And other similar questions. It was kind of cool for my son and I to try and identify the fish he asked about because it made for an exciting time --- like introducing the ocean and the animals to someone appreciative of them.
Anyway, my point is, while I never really considered myself to be a great diver (although my son is as good as anyone I have seen, and that includes the "nose-up-in-the-air" GUE divers that think they are too good to dive with anyone except other GUE divers, but after watching all the horrible divers, I must at least rate myself as good.
I can hover, stay off the reef and coral, do some kicks including helicopter, back-up, frog and my son and I have practiced some skills so we will be proficient if the need ever comes up for air exchange or rescue. Then again, my son and I have done 200-300 dives together so we are pretty familiar with each other.
Excuse me for my holier-than-thou attitude but when I get on a plane with 300 other people that are all going to some location that is only for diving, I think that at least 250 of these people are REEF KILLERS.
And it is not because some of us are skilled while others are not. The real issue is some people only dive 20-30 dives a year and at that rate, they will never acquire the skills to become good enough to just enjoy the dive without worrying about buoyancy and other basic skills necessary to protect the environment.
I could go on and on using other examples from just last week but I think we all get the picture.
People, practice, even if in a pool. The diving will be a whole lot better for you and for the environment if you gain the skills.