Diver to diver etiquette

[Timoblue]

I did not say anything to the diver directly, mostly due to the insistence of my dive buddy who said that if I said anything then I would be the "pompus, know it all jerk". I struggled with how to say something nicely and off hand, but could not come up with anything so I let it go.

You did the right thing then

 

[Hatul]

Greetings all,

First time post for me. I just wanted to see what the general feeling is regarding an experience I had recently.

My question is what do you do when you are on a boat with a know it all diver who may not be as great of a diver as he (or she) thinks he is ?

I was on a boat for several dives with a guy who claimed to be a "wreck diver" and had advice for everybody else, but also grabbed on the reef at every opportunity (I mean, full on grab right arouond the base of some fan coral and anything else he could find to hold on to), came up with a very low amout of pressure in his tank (to the point of damage to the cylinder and making the crew upset), and used a couple other techniques that bugged me, but were not really hurting anybody or anything.

My real problem was with the damage to the reef. I asked the crew to ask all the divers not to grab on the coral at their next dive briefing, which they did, but to no avail as the guy continued to grab on to the reef seemingly every time I looked at him.

I did not say anything to the diver directly, mostly due to the insistence of my dive buddy who said that if I said anything then I would be the "pompus, know it all jerk". I struggled with how to say something nicely and off hand, but could not come up with anything so I let it go.

So curious if anybody would share like experiences and/or ideas for future situations.

I think you're overly concerned about the bad diver and about yourself appearing negatively. That he was giving advice or acting like a know-it-all is not really relevant. Nor is it important if he is or is not a wreck diver.

Regardless, he should be told he's damaging the reef and to avoid touching the coral.

Adam

 

[TSandM]

It is never easy to figure out what to do, when what you want to do is criticize a complete stranger's technique or behavior. It's not likely to be taken well, unless you are lucky enough that the person is very new and very open to feedback. If said person is orating all over the boat about his experience and his perfect skills, you can be fairly sure he will not take well to being criticized at all, but it will be worst if it is done in public, because that's humiliating.

I had someone come up next to me on a shark feeding dive, where we had been told to get down in the rocks and the coral. I had tried to hover, but the DM had come over and told me in very clear and emphatic gestures to get the **&# down. I had found a patch of bare rock to use as a stabilizer, but this other diver (not one of our own group) came over and just grabbed a big hunk of healthy, live staghorn coral. I sat there for a moment and then couldn't let it go -- I got his attention, pointing to the coral, shook my finger for "no", and then pointed out a nice protruberance of bare rock that was ideal for hanging onto. He glared at me, shook his head, and went elsewhere.

I tried.

I don't know how you educate people who are not looking for any education.

 

[koog]

My first post here & unfortunately about poor diver etiquette. I'm a recently certified OW diver (& immediately followed it up with the AOW). During our AOW deep dive, we noticed another recently certified OW couple (with their own DM) descend to 28 meters/ 92 feet(where they had no business going), then proceed to break off chunks of coral as souvenirs, cut across our noses while finning vigorously and knocking our first stages. Our instructor immediately told them to ascend and regroup with their DM(it turns out they ignored his instructions not to descend & separated from him). Then the guy drinks down his air and was left with less than 5 bar & had to do his safety stop off the DMs octo. Turns out he had lied to the DM about how much air he had left to get more time under. Anyway we get topside & I'm ready to give them a piece of my mind, but am requested by the DM not to as they would take their business elsewhere. Go figure.

 

[redacted]

The damage done by divers is minuscule compared to reef damage done by so many other sources including acts of man and nature. One big difference, though, is that damage by divers is almost entirely avoidable. In most cases, it just takes a little friendly help and education to make divers more aware of the impacts of their actions.

 

[boulderjohn]

Anyway we get topside & I'm ready to give them a piece of my mind, but am requested by the DM not to as they would take their business elsewhere. Go figure.

And therein lies a problem. Economics is a motivator, but it works both ways.

A few years ago in the summer in Belize, I saw a father and his two sons start gearing up for the dive, and I was puzzled. Because the water was so warm, they wore only swim trunks and T-shirts. They also wore 5 mm gloves. Once we were diving, I saw why. They barely used their fins for propulsion--they instead gripped the goral and pulled themselves around. I tried to signal my displeasure, but they ignored me. After the dive, I went to the DM and asked him to say something to them. He said he would, but he obviously did not because they did the same thing on the next dive. The company must have been afraid of offending a paying customer.

Also a few years ago, I was in Grand Cayman when a diver put on gloves while gearing up. The divemaster (I will name the operator--Ocean Frontiers) looked at him sternly and said that he could be fined up to $500,000 for wearing gloves while diving in Grand Cayman. He laughed. She didn't. She calmly said, "Take them off!" without a trace of a smile. He took them off.

Obviously, Ocean Frontiers was more concerned with protecting the environment than keeping customers. It doesn't seem to hurt--the last I saw, they were still a successful and respected operator with a former customer who recommends them on ScubaBoard.

I had both incidents in mind last year when I was the designated group leader of a group diving in Ambergris Caye in Belize. We had a specific dive master assigned to us for the week. On one of the first dives, he saw a turtle and herded it over toward us. On that same dive, we saw another DM from that operator with a nearby group provoke a puffer fish into inflation.

As soon as we broke the surface, our whole group started talking about both incidents, and we were not happy. I went to that DM and made it very clear that we did not want to see any harrassment of the sea life on our dives, and I made it very clear that there would be consequences if we did. The DM was probably anticipating a whole week of tips from a large group going down the drain, and I am pretty sure he knew he would have heard about it if our LDS told the owner we would never bring another group there. It worked.

So it works both ways. If the operator is afraid to criticize people abusing the reef for fear of losing a customer, you can make it clear that he can lose customers if he does not control thosedivers as well.

 

[Nemrod]

You could just politely ask him not to touch the reef. Maybe make up some BS story about how it is against the law since in some places it is. Try to do it with him aside so other people do not hear which will embarrass him and perhaps make him defensive, I will show you attitude develop.

Often, even the most dense "wreck diver" get's the picture if it is pointed out politely. This is really the responsibility of the crew to take him aside and make him behave or let him sit out.

Everyone is going to touch or brush the reef one time or another but knowing you are not supposed to and working not to is a beginning. Why isn't this universal knowledge, not to touch or harass the wildlife.

This is what you are not supposed to do, notice the little green fish looking at him destroy his home:

This is me and my wife in the background, close we are but not touching and I am using a frog kick to direct my fins away from the delicate whips and fans:

Stay the h-E-double LL off the reef-----PLEASE! The animals will love you for it.

If you must touch something I suggest these:

N

 

[Dr Neil]

You misunderstood this "experienced" diver. He was proclaiming that he was a "wreck of a diver" not wreck diver.

I was on a dive trip a couple of years ago and there was a guy taking pictures. He was totally oblivious to the coral that he was crashing into and the destruction he was leaving in his wake. I started photographing him.

Once we were back on the boat he asked me why I was taking pictures of him. I told him that I was going to use the photos of him as examples of what not to do when taking underwater photos.

 

[Nemrod]

Or you could have told him you were a deputy ranger and they were to be used to prosecute him for damaging endangered species. It has come up before and just my general observation, divers with a camera are the worst, especially the ones who just bought a huge camera rig and think they are on the hunt for that cover shot.

N

 

[boulderjohn]

Or you could have told him you were a deputy ranger and they were to be used to prosecute him for damaging endangered species. It has come up before and just my general observation, divers with a camera are the worst, especially the ones who just bought a huge camera rig and think they are on the hunt for that cover shot.

N

Here is another factor. Many basic underwater photography books advise photographers to get that shot with a camera angle looking up toward he surface whenever possible. With those low hanging fish, that puts the diver down in the coral to get that shot.

I was once buddied with an insta-buddy whom I saw wrap his fins around a barrel sponge while he took such a shot. I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to his fins and the sponge.

He turned around and took a picture of the sponge.