We often use the term "dive guides" when referring to the instructors and divemasters who work at resorts because a big part of their job description is to lead underwater tours. After all, the local reefs are their neighborhood. They know where to find interesting marine life, the resident denizens of the deep, and the way back to the boat.
Having been a dive guide myself in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands, I highly recommend buddying with the guide unless the guide is going to be dealing with a group of novice divers. We really do know where the big moray eel might be hiding or when conditions might mean seeing something exciting. I could almost always find our large green moray on the Benwood or locate sharks on Molasses Reef.
But we are not infallible. I once got lost leading a tech dive off the stern of the Ash Island Barge in the St. Lawrence River in Canada - a site I knew quite well. Nothing is more embarrassing than getting lost when you are there so no one gets lost.
I remember one day when I got a dive guide lost when diving with Stuart Cove's operation in New Providence Island (Nassau) Bahamas. I was elected by my small group of insta-buddies to lead us on a wall dive at 130 feet while on vacation myself. Our dive guide, a young man from the United Kingdom, would be taking a group of divers on a more shallow tour of the wall. Three divers and I would be doing our own dive. We entered the water first.
On the return trip, I spotted a shiny thing glinting in the sun atop a gorgeous purple tube sponge. It was a 3/16" bolt. I imagined the bolt damaging the beauty of the sponge over time so I picked it up and tucked it into my wetsuit sleeve.
Back onboard, we waited for the second group. We saw their bubbles approach the boat about 30 - 40 yards away, but instead of making a perpendicular or angular turn to leave the wall and return to the boat, the bubbles just kept on going along the wall... and going... and going.
Once we picked up the guide and the group, the embarrassed guide explained, "I missed my marker." As we secured everything to move to our second site, I unzipped the torso section of my wetsuit to put on a T-shirt to not lose body heat. I pulled the shiny 3/16" bolt out of the sleeve and asked the crew, "Can you guys use this for something?"
"Hey! That's my marker!" the dive guide exclaimed. We all had a good laugh about me being responsible for his navigational error.
Has your dive get ever gotten lost? If so, what were the circumstances?
Having been a dive guide myself in the Florida Keys, the Bahamas, and the Cayman Islands, I highly recommend buddying with the guide unless the guide is going to be dealing with a group of novice divers. We really do know where the big moray eel might be hiding or when conditions might mean seeing something exciting. I could almost always find our large green moray on the Benwood or locate sharks on Molasses Reef.
But we are not infallible. I once got lost leading a tech dive off the stern of the Ash Island Barge in the St. Lawrence River in Canada - a site I knew quite well. Nothing is more embarrassing than getting lost when you are there so no one gets lost.
I remember one day when I got a dive guide lost when diving with Stuart Cove's operation in New Providence Island (Nassau) Bahamas. I was elected by my small group of insta-buddies to lead us on a wall dive at 130 feet while on vacation myself. Our dive guide, a young man from the United Kingdom, would be taking a group of divers on a more shallow tour of the wall. Three divers and I would be doing our own dive. We entered the water first.
On the return trip, I spotted a shiny thing glinting in the sun atop a gorgeous purple tube sponge. It was a 3/16" bolt. I imagined the bolt damaging the beauty of the sponge over time so I picked it up and tucked it into my wetsuit sleeve.
Back onboard, we waited for the second group. We saw their bubbles approach the boat about 30 - 40 yards away, but instead of making a perpendicular or angular turn to leave the wall and return to the boat, the bubbles just kept on going along the wall... and going... and going.
Once we picked up the guide and the group, the embarrassed guide explained, "I missed my marker." As we secured everything to move to our second site, I unzipped the torso section of my wetsuit to put on a T-shirt to not lose body heat. I pulled the shiny 3/16" bolt out of the sleeve and asked the crew, "Can you guys use this for something?"
"Hey! That's my marker!" the dive guide exclaimed. We all had a good laugh about me being responsible for his navigational error.
Has your dive get ever gotten lost? If so, what were the circumstances?