Rude Divers on the Boat

[LowDrag]

My recent experiences with truly rude diver behavior have nearly all involved GoPro camera divers, with their camera-on-a-stick rigs.
This is a relatively new phenomenon where these completely self absorbed "divers" seem to turn on their video cameras, and then zoom around the reef, "capturing everything".

Several times I have been watching critters, and even carefully setting up for a shot, only to have zippy-go-pro come racing over, shove their stick into whatever I am watching, trash the scene, and then race off again.
NO idea at all what I was looking at, but confident that they have captured it, to view later.

They also seem to have no idea where I'm seriously wanting to shove their camera on a stick if it happens again.

Thanks gypsyjim! I will add your comment to my list of DON'T DO THIS CRAP AND BE ONE OF THOSE GUYS!!! I have a GoPro on a "stick" that I will be using in Cozumel and I will make sure that I am not annoying anyone with it. Like I said in an earlier post, this a great thread and I am glad I found it. I am learning a lot from everyone about how not to be, "THAT GUY".

 

[Lorenzoid]

Ah, the GoPro-on-a-stick. Yeah, one time in Roatan there was a woman who would swim to and fro, sticking the camera right up in the face of every marine creature she could find. I call that harrassing the marine life. Not to mention occasionally sticking it in front of other divers. There's nothing inherently bothersome about a GoPro-on-a-stick, so long as the user doesn't use the stick as a means to compensate for not being able to get close enough to the subject. If you want to take close-ups/macro, get the proper camera gear.

 

[LowDrag]

Ah, the GoPro-on-a-stick. Yeah, one time in Roatan there was a woman who would swim to and fro, sticking the camera right up in the face of every marine creature she could find. I call that harrassing the marine life. Not to mention occasionally sticking it in front of other divers. There's nothing inherently bothersome about a GoPro-on-a-stick, so long as the user doesn't use the stick as a means to compensate for not being able to get close enough to the subject. If you want to take close-ups/macro, get the proper camera gear.

Yeah, not into macro at this point. I just want to record my dives to bore my family with later...LOL!!! No photo bombing here, I promise! Along with that, I really like video editing. I wish I had known about it when I was a lot younger. I might have had a great career in movies.

 

[Saltyhawg]

I don't like the stick mounts anyway. I use this pistol grip. It is on a lanyard which is clipped to a retractor and the whole mount + camera fits in a pocket in my BC leaving both hands free if I need them to. I have a similar set up that has two lights on it for night dives. That one won't fit in my BC pocket though.

I've seen rude photographer types with all kinds of equipment, not just GoPros.

 

[UserNameBella]

My recent experiences with truly rude diver behavior have nearly all involved GoPro camera divers, with their camera-on-a-stick rigs.
This is a relatively new phenomenon where these completely self absorbed "divers" seem to turn on their video cameras, and then zoom around the reef, "capturing everything".

Several times I have been watching critters, and even carefully setting up for a shot, only to have zippy-go-pro come racing over, shove their stick into whatever I am watching, trash the scene, and then race off again.
NO idea at all what I was looking at, but confident that they have captured it, to view later.

They also seem to have no idea where I'm seriously wanting to shove their camera on a stick if it happens again.

This EXACTLY. I worked so hard to master my buoyancy and my reverse frog kick to get some of the shots I do. Last week, many of them had a go pro stick in the back ground. At least he didn't shove me. But, thanks to Mr. Go pro I did get a lot of fish butt pics...seriously get a better lens and just approach softly.... I don't go-pro. I am practicing with an intova until my birthday rolls around and I get myself a serious underwater contraption. If anyone wants to see a video I shot from about ten feet away of a sea turtle doing a hell no to a gopro I'd love to upload it. Poor turtle was just swimming and you could tell it was thinking please mess off....

 

[gypsyjim]

I did not intend to slander all GoPro users..

On the other hand there is just something about that camera that seems to attract the most self centered, unskilled of divers.

The camera is small, and relatively inexpensive, so it is a "perfect gift" or self purchase for/by a newly certified diver, who should still be practicing buoyancy and other control skills, before task loading with chores like operating a camera.

The camera does seem to be perfectly adapted to those who would zip around like a cartoon character, seeing nothing, hoping to enjoy the show later from their couch.

---------- Post added April 13th, 2015 at 05:56 AM ----------

I have also dived with plenty of divers who have the same camera who were not THAT diver, but that small video camera does seem to attract an awful lot of rude, unskilled divers.

 

[Lorenzoid]

This EXACTLY. I worked so hard to master my buoyancy and my reverse frog kick to get some of the shots I do. ...

Until I felt confident of my ability to position myself any way I wanted AND remain able to handle events that could affect my buddy's and my safety, I did not feel it was appropriate for me to have a camera. I have long thought a camera was something for super-experienced divers. (Of course, I starting developing this perspective back when dive cameras used film, and there was hardly an underwater point-and-shoot in existence much less a GoPro.) Only now after several hundred dives and a lot of time spent practicing skills do I feel a camera would be appropriate for me. I realize I am in the tiny minority with this thinking. I try not to let it get to me when I see a brand-new diver with a camera flailing all over the place. However, I still have not ventured into photography because I do not want to be competing for shots with those people.

 

[miked]

I did not intend to slander all GoPro users..

On the other hand there is just something about that camera that seems to attract the most self centered, unskilled of divers.

IMO any group determined by their choice of equipment, including camera, contains both good and bad, polite and rude divers/people.

Regarding the "self centered" aspect: I saw a Youtube video posted by a guy I recognized from a trip last summer: it was a 5 minute video, so I watched it. It was 5 minutes of him on the dive. No coral, no fish, no wrecks, etc.......Well they do call it a "selfie pole"

 

[Lorenzoid]

....Well they do call it a "selfie pole"

Or as noted in another post above, a "narcisstick."

 

[Diverkip]

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
—Balzac