dive vs dive

Hi,

i only have been diving in the UAE and during my thailand vacation this month.
What i have experienced by now, is that diving in thailand seemed to be more professional, meaning diving schools are better equiped and they take more care of their customers. During any fundive there was at least one instructor/dive master that was swimming ahead and so on. Today, i was diving again here in the UAE. I was with 3 friends, one as "experienced" as me, one who's last dive was 2 years ago and one who had never been diving in salty water. Those two did an refresher first, and then a fun dive. The instructor went diving with us but didn't really care about the 2 beginners. Didn't look behind once. He actually said he is teaming up with the friend of mine, but he was always 10 meters ahead of him. On the other fun dive, we were on our own.
My question is now: how is it normally? Is there always an DM/Instructor around or is it okay, if you go on a dive with only your buddy aside?

Cheers,
Sascha

I have only ever been in the water with a dm or instructor during training and off a boat in cozumel. so like 5% of my diving or less has been supervised.

Greetings from Abu Dhabi..........

Most of my diving is without a DM or guide.......just a buddy........

The dive boat takes you to the location, briefs the dive and then you go.......

Back home in the US I dive with my dive club so we take turns leading the dives.......

When I go on vaction to the Caribben, normally a dive guide leads the dive........

However, a place like Bonaire is known for self-guided shore dives........

In my eartly days of diving I prefered diving with a guide, as I didn't have to worry about underwater navigation and getting back to the boat, now with more expeirence I prefer un-guided dives, Unless it is a special type of dive, such as the the Grotto in Saipan..........

Hope this helps......M

esskar:

What i have experienced by now, is that diving in thailand seemed to be more professional, meaning diving schools are better equiped and they take more care of their customers. During any fundive there was at least one instructor/dive master that was swimming ahead and so on.

Click to expand...

I've never dived in Thailand, but what you've described sounds like not letting people accept responsibility for themselves and making them dependent on a DM. In my opinion, that's a very bad practice that can lead to serious problems for the divers who've been babysat when they finally do get out on their own. They won't be ready.

About half of my dives have been with a DM. Personally, I prefer to dive with a DM. It's up to him/her to get me back to the boat which leaves me more time to look for lobsters and other things of interest.

In California unless you're in a class you are normally on your own. (Occasionally folks will arrange a DM if diving a new area too)

I'd have to agree with Walter that divers that have become dependant on having a DM around may have problems when transitioning to an area/environment where they are on their own may have difficulty.

My understanding is that once you get your OW cert you can dive on your own. It's up to you who you buddy up with , how you plan your dives, think out risks and mitigation strategies take responsibilities etc. You do not need a DM to do that for you. And the way they babysit divers has nothing to do with professionalism.

When I dive with my buddies we agree on the plan. In case something falls out during the dive we can still agree on the direction under the water.

I consider it's a must for every person in the dive to take care of tracking his/her location relative to the boat or shore despite who is leading the dive. Even when I'm going with my more experienced buddies I try to take azimuths and count my kicks to have an idea of where we are located.

One of very experienced divers told me in the beginning of my diving that no matter where you dive and with whom, you are the only person responsible for your safety. This strategy is very well put into one phrase but not as easy to implement. Since that conversation I treat every dive as a solo dive. I'm still working on implementation of this strategy but that our conversation has completely changed my views on the diving procedures.

Did you or you buddies pay for the Dive Master's services? If you did then he was negligent in not earning his keeps. If you didn't then why should he be the babysitter?

I've got about 3.500 dives and at least 3.450 of those I have not been supervised by a DM or Instructor. The last 3.000 or so I have been the one supervising others and I have to say that what the guide did in your example is unacceptable. When a diver is going on holiday there is a lot of money involved and it's more or less down to the guide to make every minute in the water worth that investment.

I don't think its so much a matter of geography though. There are good Dive Centres and Bad Dive Centres everywherer. There are also Good, as well as Bad, DMs and Instructors in all over the world. There is a link between price and quality, and in some locations the price is generally lower...

Web forums like this and others are excellent. Here you get a chance to learn from other peoples mistakes rather than making them yourself. There are plenty of experience out there in the diving comunity. I answer at least 10 emails every week about the Red Sea and I'm happy to do it. This mainly from people I never met but they found me through web forums.

...a...

thank you for all the answers. I actually didn't feel uncomfortable myself yesterday - my friends, especially the two unexperienced looked a little bit worried underwater. I was just noticing the difference and i tried to get an feeling what i have to expect on divesides around the world.

So next question: What exactly are "loged dives"? Who is logging them? In thailand, for example, we sat down after every trip, loged down the dives, got a stamp and a signature + PADI/SSI number of the DM/instructor. Yesterday, it was really hard for me to find somebody that gives me a stamp. So, are "logged dives" logged by an DM/instructor or is just up to the diver by himself to log the dive??? Sorry, for the silly questions.