diver camaraderie

Hi am a diver writing an article on diver camaraderie as shown through chat rooms and forums like this. I am new to the board so i am not sure how many questions i can ask so i will just stick to a few...

In what ways are chat rooms and forums bringing the diving community closer together?
Compare the discussions here to those that take place say after a dive on the boat, are there any similarities?
Before such forums, where did divers go for the info they seek here?

well, I personally prefer to put my feet under the same table and talk face-to-face about diving. Seems that some on the board are all about how they can attack someone for not doing something perfectly. Sometimes, I feel like there is a courtroom atmosphere where you have to defend anything to everyone. I'm a big believer that the only stupid question is the one not asked. So keep asking, because others are learning.

All the down sides aside, I also gleen a great amount of information from both the instructors and DMs form the other agencies. I also get a lot of insite from the newer divers. Because the board is rather anonymous, some really great questions that never really get addressed when discussing face-to-face get asked and answered.

I, for one, have considered much of what has been posted, and sifted through things. I honestly confess that it has made an impact on how I do business and how I teach classes.

Some still want to play one agency against another, but it has been my experience that they all teach about the same with some minor differences. It has been good to read what each agency professionals puts emphasis on.

In short, you got to wade through the flak to get to the objective (sage advice for those that care to make things better). This is the only board that I feel is worth the effort to contribute.

PS. I don't mind the spelling and grammer errors. If I can read it, I can comprehend it. I never did that well in English, either.

It's hard being 17 in the diving community at times. When I am face to face with some older divers, they usualy don't listen to me. They just assume that since I am young that I am immature and that I don't know what I'm talking about. They wont even open their ears and minds long enough to realize that I DO have some helpful and knowledgable information. Not all are like this though, just most that I have come across.

This forum is a different story. I've only gotten one negative remark for asking a question and I have asked a lot. I have gotten some great advice. Other than that one time, I have never been looked down upon for asking about something. I have even given some advice and it has been welcomed. I guess it's because that most of the divers on here are truly into diving and are here to learn and help out.

Before this forum, I really didn't have any place to get information. Sometimes I was too embarassed to ask some questions to my old instructor. But here, I can ask whatever I want and I get good answers.

As for how our discussions on here differ from those encountered on a dive boat after a dive, I personally think it varies greatly. After a dive, I usualy just talk about how that particular dive went, maybe I'll talk about others I've been on. On here, people talk about anything and everything. And we can get far more opinions on topics than on a dive boat.

There is a great similarity to the debates that rage here and on the deck of Dive boats,
Gear Debates
Agency Debates
Deco Debates

Unfortunately most of us can't sit on the deck of the Dive boat 7 days a week, jeez how good would that be

As for me I get massive withdrawal syndrome sitting here in the office looking out to the Heads of Sydney Harbor.

It is also a great spot to learn how others teach the sport, as an Instructor I take a great amount of interest in postings and answers from other instructors.

>>In what ways are chat rooms and forums bringing the diving community closer together?<<

Well here in Ireland we don't get many tourists diving so the board gives me contact to the international dive community which I wouldn't have otherwise.

>>Compare the discussions here to those that take place say after a dive on the boat, are there any similarities?<<

Loads of similarities but here you can take as long as you want to discuss in depth whereas usually on boats etc it can be quite a superficial conversation as people are time limited etc. Also, if people have had a bad event while diving, on boats they're usually still upset over it and can't really discuss rationally, whereas here they can discuss in hindsight etc after they've calmed down. Which I think is one of the most valuable things about the board, it can really help people learn and get over things by discussing objectively with people who weren't involved.

>>Before such forums, where did divers go for the info they seek here?<<
The people they dive with.

I would have to agree with everone else. I have not been on this fourm very long but find it interesting in the respect of the different levels of experiance that are out here. You can talk to people from all over the world to see what their experiance are and how some of their advise may help you. I think alot of the time on dive boats, you are diving with people you know and who you have spent some time with. My experiance on the boats is normally about the dive and what ya saw then most other things. This gives people an avenue to discuss anything.

I think that before these types of boards, people were having to discuss things with the people they knew and dove with all the time. I think limited new ideas and experiance levels. He, you get brand new divers to guys who have been doing forever. You can also get the spirited conversations and the differencece in opions. I think it is a great tool.