My first Rant - Do Not Endanger Me or Ruin My Dive. I'm steamed...

I don’t rant. Much. So I’m not very good at it – so pardon me if this sounds whiney – its not supposed to. It supposed to sound angry. Angry, but with firm resolve and conviction.

So today we’re diving in San Diego, CA. Wifie and I (BTW – her name is Jaye… someone mentioned that I never call her by her name in my posts…) left last night, had a great dinner downtown, flopped in a hotel moments from the boat, etc. Beats the snot out of driving 2+ hours pre-dawn before a dive.

3-cylinder dive - diving the Yukon and whatever else suits our fancy. On a non-exclusive boat trip scheduled by one of my LDS’. So its Jaye and I, 2 leaders from the shop, and three other customers of theirs (7 total from the LDS) and then some other non-shop customers – basically our gang of 7, and the rest of the boat (about 6 or 7 others)

Jaye and I are on the boat early (I’m a punctuality nut) and we’re setting up, and I hear some loud woman swearing like a longshoreman over my shoulder, coming down the dock. I know this voice…it’s the same chick that was among the 25 on the recent 2-dayer (my first BP trip.) Let me paint the picture – easily 300 #, loud, vulgar, piercing shrieking laugh, etc. GD this and MF that…You get the picture – a petite flower she ain’t. Momma must be so proud. What a slice of heaven.

On top of this, she can’t don her gear. “I have a bad back…” so when the gate opens, she dons the mask and flops her finned feet over the side, someone brings kit to her, she arms into it, and sort of giant-slips into the ocean. I won’t even get into the party on the swimstep.

SIDEBAR: I saw two threads this past week: “Should kids dive?” and “Should the Elderly dive.” Here’s the scoop: If you’re morbidly obese, do not dive. If you can’t don your rig on your own and get to the gate, find another sport/past-time/pursuit.

This chick is a whale (pun intended) at the shop – there isn’t anything that isn’t attached to her ample BC – sausage, lights, Octo Holders, fin holders, clips, buckles, snaps, whatever wasn’t nailed down. She put the chuck in chuckwagon. She got certified in November, and is still pretty new. I presume she is tolerated on shop-sponsored/arranged dives because she has clearly spent enough to outfit 2 divers. Maybe I'm wrong, but that's my guess.

However, what happened today will never happen to Jaye and I again.

Jaye and I were paired up with one of the shop instructors (so we’re diving 3) and the other instructor took the other 3 customers, (for a foursome.) Dive 1 on the Yukon was a short dive. Viz really sucked. Jaye and I descend and hang by the bow of the Yukon as the rest of the 7 join us. One of the guys from the foursome can’t stop his descent. Seriously, this guy keeps going past the Yukon into the abyss. I’m sitting and watching this go on, and on… I’m about 1 second from breaking ranks to go get this guy when he sort of floats back up past the rest of us, then back down to us. It was easily a minute or two. So we’re sitting here, burning gas while this guy try’s to get a grip. His shop leader is just hanging out watching. Maybe he was about to go get this guy, maybe not. But it made me a little nervous.

The dive plan called for hitting the upline at 1500. Jaye and I peel off and along the wreck. At about 2200 and the shop guy in our threesome waves us back. I’m like, WHAT? So we spin, and take our time, and hit the upline right at 1550 and emerge with about 1200. I can appreciate having lots of gas in the bottle for safety’s sake, but heading up on a 70’ line with 1500 in the can is just a waste, IMO. We made a slow ascent, a stop at 15’ and still rolled onto deck with 1250 (Jaye with about 1000.) Apparently, our shop designee had some issues clearing on this first dive and burned a lot of gas early.

On dive 2, the 7 of us went down the chain into the La Jolla Kelpbeds… a bit cool (50 – 51), bad viz for So Cal (maybe 15’) and surgey. We’re diving, hanging out and Jaye and I look for our shop guy. We find him and the other shop guy over with this mouthy chick. She has a small (maybe 5” – 6” across) starfish in her hair, and the two instructors / Shop Reps are sort of working on her.

Jaye and I continue diving, and we take another routine look for our third, I see him ascending with starfish girl. I have 1900 in the can, and Jaye has about 1700… We’re a little miffed to go top side, and really don’t want to – but a threesome is a threesome. It should be made known here that our third never came to us, never got our attention to signal ascend, never made contact before he escorted this chick to the top. Jaye and I followed because buddy assignments are buddy assignments.

We hit the deck, and the girl is freaking – MF this and GD that…

Apparently, the shop guy in her foursome dropped the starfish into her hair (no hood… water’s 50 degrees, but no hood…nice.) and it got tangled in her hair. It was pulling on her hair and it sort of freaked her out. She needed to head topside, and for some reason, the shop guy from our threesome (and not the dolt that dropped the starfish in her hair) was the escort. So Jaye and I had to scuttle a perfectly fine dive to tag along with our guy and this girl.

I’m down with her getting out of the water…better to freak out top side than in the water. I’m down with the less experienced guy (our 3rd) escorting her and the more experienced shop guy staying in the water. But if it wasn’t this it’d be something else. This person is diluting the experienced resources of our team and is putting the rest of us at risk.

Topside was just a mess. I can deal with cussing, I usually just ignore the person. But not only is my great dive trip being littered with her expletives, but she’s now being a danger to our team. She can’t kit up, she’ll pulling our third and is generally a big load.

Man. I’m still steamed. I later made a third dive with this shop guy. Jaye and the rest of the boat sat out the third dive (it was pretty cold). I didn’t talk to this shop guy, but I should have.

In the car on the long drive from SD back to LA, Jaye and I talked about this. I told her that we are rapidly approaching the point where our skills and our dive focus will surpass most of the other divers on these boats and the instructors and Dive Con’s the shop sends out with us on these trips. For an instructor to freak out a new diver like that is inexcusable. For another instructor to abandon my wife and I without an acknowledgement is just as bad. The other 4 divers in the group were nowhere near our skill level (which is fine) and I still consider us intermediate divers. I’m sure that’s why the guy from our threesome ascended and left the more experienced instructor with the group.

Jaye and I don’t need escorts – we’re perfectly capable of planning and conducting these dives ourselves. I need to call the shop when I calm down. This stinks more the more I think about it.

It occurred to me that the ONLY person I can count on is Jaye, and the only person she can count on it me. She and I dive a lot together, and she’s not (forgive the shameless GI3 reference) a complete stroke. We’re careful, conscientious, aware, communicative, we drill together, etc. It’s sad to see people who have been at this for so much longer than me just being jerks. It’s uninspiring and sad. I told Jaye to drill a 9mm into my ear if I ever become one of these clowns. I expect more from shop reps.

Rant over. I don’t feel better. I probably will when I call the owner and tell him he needs to slap his guys around.

K


**** EDIT ****

I've recieved several PM's asking what boat this experience took place on. The experience related above is in no way an indictment of the boat we were on. They did everything right on this trip, were over-the-top attentive, curtious and very compitent.

It was the leadership contingent from my LDS and a few of the divers they booked onto this trip that blew it. The boat had nothing to do with my bad experience. They were great and I'll be diving them again soon, I'm sure.....without the baggage of my LDS leaders.

get your own boat.

I'm darn glad that I have my own....

HI K
Great Story, always a bummer to hear about dives that get stuffed up by others be it DM's or other divers on the boat.

My wife and I have come to a similar conclusion to you guys, when we dive off boats now as full paying passengers we will only ever dive as a buddy pair.

If we have not dived the site before we will get a through understanding of the Dive Site from the captain as they always seem to know more about the site than the DM's.

And if asked if we would like a guide or let another diver tag along the answer is almost always a resounding but very polite No thank you

Sorry to hear about your experience, may I ask why you bothered diving with the guys from the shop and not just the two of you alone as a buddy pair?

Come on over to the East Coast, Mo. The vis sucks and the water is 35* but when you and your buddy get in the water, it's up to you when you get out.

Seriously, I would suggest that you and Jaye just go in as buddies and forget going with more than 2 at a time. All that does is increase the chances that you will have to call a dive before you are ready. That's one reason why I dive solo.

BTW, not only am I envious of your warm water and good vis, I am jellous that your wife is your dive buddy. My wife refuses to get in a boat or worse... water that may have fish in it.

Mo2vation,

Remember rule #1.

I just ignore divers like that. I don't dive with them, I don't assist them and I don't acknowledge them on the boat. It's so much easier this way.

It's better to just get a group of people you can trust, and dive with them exclusively. I does not always work out like that though.

I would say dive with your wife only. You guys are similarly trained and probably make a good buddy team naturally. If someone wants to join you guys, just tell them no. You know what kind of diver your wife is, you don't know about some stranger.

Safety is more important than being polite on a dive boat.

I was news to us. We went to the bow for a "briefing"....and for some reason, they paired the one guy with us. That's never happened before. It surely won't again.

Agreed - if new to a site, get a thorough briefing, be aware and leave time for something to go wrong.

It was kinda funky. Its like, they booked to trip (for $19 over posted trip costs, mind you...but the compressor was broken on the boat, and they brought 2 more cylinders...so I didn't complain) and I guess they thought it was a guided trip or something. It was weird.

K

with Chris.

On a paid trip I will decline an additional unknown buddy. It would really frost me to pay money to go diving and then be saddled with baby sitting.

This scenario actually happens quite frequently. The captain, or DM takes charge in making assignments. They use their influence in groups to "make things happen" even putting people on the spot. So divers must be be preparred for this. Now your situation may have been different from this little rant but here goes:

Never allow someone else to make themselves or someone else your buddy. Even instructors or divemasters. It has to be your decision alone who you will entrust your life to and who you will take responsibility for. And this should only be done after you've had a chance to evaluate them. Never in an on-the-spot situation like a dive briefing, or donning gear, or at the mooring line on the surface, or even underwater (unless it's a rescue situation or scenario requiring life-or-death emergency response, but as this would end the dive anyway it clearly supercedes any issue of comfort.)

In the case where a bunch of people are standing around and you feel uncomfortable saying no in front of them, I can understand you may be concerned about embarrassing the person who needs the buddy, or appearing uncooperative with the person in charge, or just generally disagreeable. However, you must be bold though tactful, and forget "looking good". Why? The primary reasons are:
It gets much more uncomfortable, and you'll "look worse" if you say nothing when the assigment is made and then afterwards start making "waves" about it. During the briefing when everyone is gathered is the best time for the needy party to find another buddy pair to team up with. Everyone is gathered together and attentive, not busying themselves all over the boat with gear and their setup. It is at this moment when you speak up that someone else has the opportunity to save the moment by volunteering to replace you and your buddy as the adoptive buddy pair.

A person in this situation could say: "I'm sorry but my wife and I had decided to make this a couples-only dive day." Or if you're with a friend: "I'm sorry but my buddy and I had designs on being alone today." The key is advanced preparation. Having experienced this once you now know it can happen and are prepared in advance if it happens again. Next time speak up quickly and boldly. No one will be offended if you make your purpose clear. Now if you're already underwater it may end that dive, as in your case. But you must speak up back on the boat during the surface interval in order to prevent a repeat occurance.

I'm sorry this happened to you it can ruin an otherwise perfectly great diving day.

Just my $.02 worth

Mo2vation once bubbled...
I don’t rant. Much. So I’m not very good at it – so pardon me if this sounds whiney – its not supposed to. It supposed to sound angry. Angry, but with firm resolve and conviction.

<snip interesting story>

K

Click to expand...

K,

I can relate to your story. If you want a solution, try this: Talk to the DM before the dive and specifically request "indirect supervision". "Supervising" is in every DM's blood but you obviously don't want nor need direct supervision so ask for a longer leash. A good DM will accomodate you if he/she is reasonably convinced of your abilities. In the case you described, you and your wife could dive alone, the 1st DM could take down the 4 beginners (2 buddy pairs) and the 2nd DM could remain onboard the boat and "supervise" from there. They may want you to tow an SMB or something depending on the local conditions but you'll hear it from the DM. In this scenario you could also descend with DM #1 and then break off once on the bottom and do your own dive. Arranging stuff like this is easy (I do it all the time) but you have to say it out loud. The hardest thing about getting what you want is daring to say what you want. And ideally you should say it before you pay. The power to just say "no" gives you a little leverage...

R..

Jaye and I don’t need escorts – we’re perfectly capable of planning and conducting these dives ourselves.

Click to expand...

..but you are on the money with this statement. If I can't run my own dive plan, I usually won't dive. It just isn't worth it...