I've never understood why people who just got certified want to go there when there are so many more appropriate places for new divers to get some bottom time before taking on diving conditions that are going to require them to place themselves in the hands of someone else for their safety.
I've traveled and worked in a few corners of the world where the diving has been fantastic. However it seems that with fishing and ocean-degradation out of control around the world, only the most extreme dive sites are living up to the expectations of today's divers. They want sharks, turtles, mola mola, mantas, whales etc.
Take Sharm el Sheikh as an example. The Straits of Tiran and the Ras Mohamed Peninsular are the most incredible geographic locations for diving and the currents and steep dropoffs make it so. When I worked there I was told wistfully that diving in these locations used to be 'by invitation only', as the local shoreline offered enough fish and coral to satisfy the 'normal' diver who wanted to see a few fish, a turtle, a couple of sharks and maybe a manta. Nowadays the gardens are pretty much trashed except for a couple of beauties like Ras Nasrani (site of the shark attacks a couple of years back) and Ras Umm Sid.
The only places left to go are Tiran and Ras Mohamed where (because of the special conditions) there is still some excellent diving which today's divers expect to see on any given dive.
To dive these far-off places required a fair bit of planning and sometimes luck. Camping in the desert, camels, that sort of thing. Today there are planes and fast boats capable of carrying 30+ people that will see you from your arm-chair in London to 40m at Jackson Outside (Tiran) watching schooling hammerheads in a matter of hours.
This is going a little off topic so let me bring it back by saying that the customers' demands and expectations often outweigh their diving capabilities. They aren't taking the necessary time and training to prepare for the big dives. It takes more than basic skill to dive some of the 'big name' dive sites which are well known around the world. The likes of Palau's Blue Corner or Sipidan where you need current (and plenty of it) to make the dive happen. This is also true here in the Maldives for pelagics like sharks and eagle rays on the outside channel dives. Without a proper current.... well, it is still nice diving but it lacks the OMG factor which people are after. The (locally experienced) DM is needed in these places to avoid a host of problems which can otherwise end up in tragedy. What gets me mad sometimes is that if the DM decides to abort dives early due to deteriorating conditions, or are forced to bring divers up from dangerous depths, it brings complaints rather than thanks.
Again, I agree that divers who can't demonstrate that they are competent to dive after certification shouldn't be able to dive without either running through a scuba tune-up or re-taking the entire course. But there are no police to enforce this. If you crash your car because you are an incompetent driver, you have your license either revoked or suspended. This could never happen in the scuba industry as there wouldn't be an industry left after 3 months.
