caruso
Banned
I'm wrapping up a week in South Florida, and having dived the Pompano/Ft Lauderdale area for several days with 4 different dive Ops I've seen a lot of excellent, competent diving and some not so great diving, and 3 particular examples stuck out, to the point that I decided to have a word with each diver in 2 of the examples, even if I was going to get into an uncomfortable/awkward, and potentially antagonistic situation. But I felt it was the right thing to do. The third was an instructor supervising a large group of at least a half a dozen divers, and me being your typical AOW diver I felt it wasn't my place to tell an instructor how to run his course.
The first was a fellow that I got friendly with on the boat before the dive, his name was John and he said he just recently started diving again after a 20+ year break. I had mentioned the reef conditions weren't all that great and he (ironically) said "yeah the reefs are dead". The DM had asked me to buddy up, and I was resistant but after getting friendly with this fellow I told her I'd dive with him. On the ensuing dive he continuously dragged his fins across the reef, kicking the tops of numerous barrel sponges and actually breaking off pieces, and he even grabbed onto several barrel sponges to steady himself in the current. I spent most of the dive thinking of a tactful way of pointing out that his diving skills were not conducive to healthy reefs. We spoke on the boat and he took it just fine, saying "yeah I'm rusty". Hopefully I left an impression on him that he'll take with him on future dives.
Yesterday I found myself on the AquaCat, a large pontoon boat operated by South Florida Diving Headquarters and filled with 28 passengers including a half a dozen or so snorkelers. There were at least 2 groups being instructed. We did the Copenhgen, which is a real wreck that sits in about 25' of water off of Fort Lauderdale, just off one of the reefs that run parallel to shore. On this dive I watched both dive groups being instructed while all of them were kneeling on the bottom- at least they were in the sand off the reef and wreck, and kicking up tons of silt.
On the second dive there was a strong surface current, and I popped up at one point to do a boat check, took a compass heading, and within a short while found myself right under the boat. The bottom swim was easy, but as soon as I hit the surface I felt the strong current. The DM threw me the line with the ball as she did with the other groups so they wouldn't have to battle the current. After I geared down I watched the rest of the divers approaching the boat. One of the instructor led groups were battling the surface current for what I estimated to be at least 75 yards. One by one they got to the boat, one woman was clearly exhausted, she was very out of shape and morbidly obese so no surprise there. Another started vomiting on the ladder and at least 2 other divers got seasick on the boat shortly thereafter- my guess is the overexertion on the surface is what did them in. Why the heck didn't the instructor take the opportunity to do compass navigation which would have given them an easy swim to the boat on the bottom rather than battling waves and current on top?
A group of 3 divers then approached the boat which was rocking quite a bit in the waves, and as one diver climbed the boarding ladder one of his buddies grabbed the rung directly below him. I was standing right next to the DM and noticed she didn't say a word. I asked her why not. She said "it's a tough call, sometimes they get offended if you point this sort of thing out". I get that diving is largely about customer service but it's also about safety!
I gave the guy a chance to settle in and walked over to him and sat down and told him "I dive a lot in NY and we had one boat captain that banned me from his boat for doing what you just did". Now I had his full attention. I told him what I had seen and added "If that diver slipped off the ladder or his tank fell out of the strap you'd have a crushed skull", and he nodded and said "I'm a new diver and I really appreciate you letting me know, what's the best way to do it?". I explained simply to stay clear, back up on the tag line or hold the ladder but stay well to one side of it.
Hopefully other new divers reading this thread can also get some good take-aways from it.
The first was a fellow that I got friendly with on the boat before the dive, his name was John and he said he just recently started diving again after a 20+ year break. I had mentioned the reef conditions weren't all that great and he (ironically) said "yeah the reefs are dead". The DM had asked me to buddy up, and I was resistant but after getting friendly with this fellow I told her I'd dive with him. On the ensuing dive he continuously dragged his fins across the reef, kicking the tops of numerous barrel sponges and actually breaking off pieces, and he even grabbed onto several barrel sponges to steady himself in the current. I spent most of the dive thinking of a tactful way of pointing out that his diving skills were not conducive to healthy reefs. We spoke on the boat and he took it just fine, saying "yeah I'm rusty". Hopefully I left an impression on him that he'll take with him on future dives.
Yesterday I found myself on the AquaCat, a large pontoon boat operated by South Florida Diving Headquarters and filled with 28 passengers including a half a dozen or so snorkelers. There were at least 2 groups being instructed. We did the Copenhgen, which is a real wreck that sits in about 25' of water off of Fort Lauderdale, just off one of the reefs that run parallel to shore. On this dive I watched both dive groups being instructed while all of them were kneeling on the bottom- at least they were in the sand off the reef and wreck, and kicking up tons of silt.
On the second dive there was a strong surface current, and I popped up at one point to do a boat check, took a compass heading, and within a short while found myself right under the boat. The bottom swim was easy, but as soon as I hit the surface I felt the strong current. The DM threw me the line with the ball as she did with the other groups so they wouldn't have to battle the current. After I geared down I watched the rest of the divers approaching the boat. One of the instructor led groups were battling the surface current for what I estimated to be at least 75 yards. One by one they got to the boat, one woman was clearly exhausted, she was very out of shape and morbidly obese so no surprise there. Another started vomiting on the ladder and at least 2 other divers got seasick on the boat shortly thereafter- my guess is the overexertion on the surface is what did them in. Why the heck didn't the instructor take the opportunity to do compass navigation which would have given them an easy swim to the boat on the bottom rather than battling waves and current on top?
A group of 3 divers then approached the boat which was rocking quite a bit in the waves, and as one diver climbed the boarding ladder one of his buddies grabbed the rung directly below him. I was standing right next to the DM and noticed she didn't say a word. I asked her why not. She said "it's a tough call, sometimes they get offended if you point this sort of thing out". I get that diving is largely about customer service but it's also about safety!
I gave the guy a chance to settle in and walked over to him and sat down and told him "I dive a lot in NY and we had one boat captain that banned me from his boat for doing what you just did". Now I had his full attention. I told him what I had seen and added "If that diver slipped off the ladder or his tank fell out of the strap you'd have a crushed skull", and he nodded and said "I'm a new diver and I really appreciate you letting me know, what's the best way to do it?". I explained simply to stay clear, back up on the tag line or hold the ladder but stay well to one side of it.
Hopefully other new divers reading this thread can also get some good take-aways from it.