To the OP:
I appreciate what you are saying concerning thoughtless divers who damage the reefs with their actions. As pointed out, sometimes that's through inexperience and lack of training, but sometimes it's due to a true thoughtless attitude. Also as mentioned, there is great benefit in in-the-know divers providing an example as well as a mentoring mindset in assisting less experienced divers to become better ones.
However, I do NOT appreciate your comments concerning divers who don't have the opportunity or perhaps even inclination to dive as you do. You mentioned how many dives you get in, but I have to ask...are you getting in 200-300 dives, or are you doing the SAME dive 200-300 times? True, quarry and lake divers learn to master their skills in much different ways than you do, but the divers I see in those locations generally have very good skills (except for the ones in classes who are just learning). As some have said, divers in quarries and lakes learn very quickly to stay off the bottom, just as you have learned to stay off the reef, in order to avoid silting and thus preserve visibility. That skill easily translates when diving salt. I say this from experience, and many SB'ers here can verify the same idea. Your condescending attitude tends to make one think that instead of being some vast repository of diving wisdom, you may well be rather limited in the scope of your own experience.
I remember being a part of a science excursion rather early in my diving experience. I had learned to dive in lakes and quarries, so in order to be accepted for the expedition, I was encouraged to get in some salt diving. I did so, and everything went well. I was talking to the trip leader with some others between dives, and I asked specifically about the need to get more salt experience. She replied, "That's just so you'd have some experience with the rigors of ocean diving."
I looked at her and replied, "Where I generally dive, the water is 65 degrees, I wear every stitch of neoprene I own, I can't see my fin tips due to the vis, and it's often so shallow my buoyancy has to be spot on to maintain my level. Here, the water is 80 degrees, vis is 100+, and I'm diving in a skin. What "rigors" are you talking about!?"
I still appreciate the main idea of your post. What I (and I think a lot of others) could do without is your own personal brand of snobbery that does much to alienate divers who would like to know more and be better divers. In a weird sort of way, that attitude contributes toward the damage on the reefs instead of making strides to prevent it.
