The stairs at Casino Point (griping and venting thread)

Okay, I realize this post might be better suited to the “Whine and cheese” forum, but I figured that posting it here would get more responses from people who actually dive at Casino Point and know what I’m talking about.

My gripe is with those people who seem determined to cause as big of a traffic jam as possible on the stairs going into the water at the Casino Point dive park on Catalina. The last few times I’ve dove there, everyone’s entries and exits have been stalled by oblivious nitwits standing on the steps having group discussions, apparently unaware of everyone they’re holding up from actually getting into and out of the water. I’m not talking about dive classes or large groups like that who obviously take a little longer to get in and out, but rather the people who seem to think the steps are a great place to relax and enjoy the view. I don’t want to make a blanket generalization here, but it usually seems to be snorkelers, especially family groups who figure the lower steps are good for a waist-deep sit-down while they look around and talk about their plans for the day. I’m all for politeness, but there’s also a part of me that would love to heave a blunt object (a 5-lb. weight comes to mind) at these people and ask them if they know how to read the sign at the top of the stairs telling them NOT to do what they’re doing at the moment.

I have nothing against snorkelers, mind you – after all, I’m sure most of us tried it a few times before actually learning to dive. But when I see them treating the stairs like bleachers, it makes me want to pointedly remind them that there’s a perfectly good cove on the other side of Avalon Harbor that’s off-limits to divers and designated for snorkeling only, with an easy beach entry that makes it an even better place for them to be as opposed to a dive park. This is obviously a worse problem in the summer, when the park gets more crowded. And I’ve only seen this on weekdays, since I tend to avoid the dive park on weekends due to the huge crowds of actual divers on Saturdays and Sundays. I can’t imagine how bad the traffic jams must be then.

Am I the only person who has noticed this problem, or am I just venting hot air? All opinions welcome…

Here is my big whine for the stairs:

I always try to be as courteous as possible - with everything checked out and ready to go before we even get on the stairs. Then, all I have to do is put on my fins and my mask and jump in. My problem is, even with all this prep work I don't like to block the very bottom steps because I'm afraid that others will be faster than me and want to enter first. So I stay up a few steps. THIS is what really gets me (and it's happened a few times). Instead of the next group waiting a few seconds for us to finish up and get in the water, they maneuver around us to the very bottom step (where the water is usually surging a bit) and proceed to do all their checks and finish suiting up. They usually have a conversation or two. I continue my role as the polite idiot and stand there waiting with a blank expression on my face.

Is it just me, or is that rude?

And yes, I've had problems with the snorkelers too, but for some reason they don't annoy me as much as the other divers - the snorkelers seem more willing to move on demand.

First of all, snorkelers don't count. Toss them over the rails.

B, nice guys finish last. Toss them over the rails.

And 3, just toss them over the rails.

Actually, what I would do is act like I'm talking to my buddy, just loud enough so the snorkelers can overhear and say, "Wow, I heard that the snorkeling over at Lover's Cove today is incredible. They haven't seen it that good in decades. And oh, did you hear about the shark they just saw at the bottom of these steps? Sucker was HUGE. Glad I have my knife"

This is easy - just go around the students, the obese, the feeble and the slow. The down side of the stairs are wide enough to get around these slowpokes. I won't wait. I just walk down the up side and re-enter the down side at the entry point, excuse myself and flop in.

No way I'm standing around in a drysuit in the sun while some idiot trys to figure out how to do a Figure-4 fin don with their plastic Mares or atomic whatever fins and that rocket-science buckle crapola... or worse - gives up and SITS DOWN to try to get their damn fins on. I have no patience for that. Get real fins, get spring straps or learn to work your Rube Goldberg nonesense at home - or get the heck out of the way.

I've done this entry so many times I don't need to Braille around for the rocks, and I'm not stupid enough to attempt a belly-first entry. I'm quick, agile, and behind me the line moves. Just go around them.

No biggie.

K

I agree completely. To me comes down to situational awareness...most of the "divers" in the water don’t have any. They simply don’t realize they are intruding on others. Nothing frustrates me more than waiting for these people to get off the stairs. I have taken a new approach. I actually tell them if they are not ready to directly enter the water GET OFF THE STAIRS. If your not ready, I am, and I'm going past you. I'm not trying to be an *******...I'm just overheating!! My intention is to make it a training issue and raise their level of awareness.

I was actually yelled at (by an instructor w/ 3 students) this past weekend. Her group was 30 feet off the stairs and swimming slow as I swam in past them for the stairs. She yelled at me that they have been waiting for a long time and I just cut them off. I would have been out of the water and to my area with my kit off before they made it to the stairs if I had continued at my current pace. I decided to let them go ahead of me-at that point I thought the entertainment value might be great. I think I said "OK...lets see it...this should be funny to the passing instructor". I am actually glad I did. As they made it out of the water, she was knocked by a wave (why she was trying to remove her fins on the bottom stair instead of going up a few where it would be easier / safer I don’t know...). Well as those who have dove there, the bottom few stairs can be quite slippery. She fell and was all getting washed all over the place (side note: if she was in any real danger I would have helped her right away). As I walked past her I commented with “nice technique…did you learn that at your IDC??? Students you will be tested on this!!!” Yeah an ******* comment but she deserved it.

Going forward I'm with Jim...over the rail they go!!!
Christopher

Hold on, I want to make it perfectly clear: Mo2vation mentioned the feeble. I would NOT toss them over the rail. I would HELP them over the rail.

I am NOT an animal !!

Perhaps most of this was just in fun, like Dr. Bill wanting to spear the Girabaldi poachers repeatedly, or the other guy wanted to stone them to death. I would ask you if you ever just said "Excuse me" or "Pardon Me" and walked on by? The 1st poster seems to know these guys just don't know any better. Digressing into throwing obese, feeble, non-DIR, people not named Ken or Arnaud, into the water just seems silly. It's a public park, so your going to have to deal with the PUBLIC!!!! Take a deep breath and deal with it.

"If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace."
-Franklin D. Roosevelt

divebuddysean:

Perhaps most of this was just in fun, like Dr. Bill wanting to spear the Girabaldi poachers repeatedly, or the other guy wanted to stone them to death. I would ask you if you ever just said "Excuse me" or "Pardon Me" and walked on by? The 1st poster seems to know these guys just don't know any better. Digressing into throwing obese, feeble, non-DIR, people not named Ken or Arnaud, into the water just seems silly. It's a public park, so your going to have to deal with the PUBLIC!!!! Take a deep breath and deal with it.

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Its perfectly civil, after waiting for a clueless student or newbie wrestling with their fins to step around them, and get into the water. I'm not advocating walking the plank here - I am however not going to bake in the hot sun while the uncoordinated try to get a grip and roadblock the steps.

Its been my experience in a zillion times to the park that, by and large (sometimes very large) the ones who hold up the line are generally the new, the uncoordinated (read: feeble skilled and/or feeble minded... not disabled) or the very out of shape divers.

This isn't gov't work - I don't need to be fair to all. If one of the above are in my way, I'll politely step around them and let them block the lane for someone else. It is a public park, and I'm not going to park it in public. Be able to manage the steps on your own or get out of the way for the rest of us.

Same thing on the way in. If the down lane is un-occupied, I'm not gonna bob around while newbie counts the swells and waits for the perfect set to ride in. I'll go around them up the down-side, then step over and get out. The longer I sit, the longer I'm waiting for a fill.

People can get a clue or get left behind.

K

Ken, I was going to say that it's not the fin straps, but the users of the fin straps that are an issue. It's crowded in the summer there with classes and those who only dive when the water is relatively warm, vacationers who have not been there before, etc. You will not see me back there until after Labor Day, at least not on a weekend.

kelpmermaid:

Ken, I was going to say that it's not the fin straps, but the users of the fin straps that are an issue. It's crowded in the summer there with classes and those who only dive when the water is relatively warm, vacationers who have not been there before, etc. You will not see me back there until after Labor Day, at least not on a weekend.

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On the way OUT is where the circus with the rocket-science fins straps actually gets rolling. Watching new, or tired, or inflexible, or clueless divers, or those with ill fitting exposure suits trying to pretzel themselves to unhook those contraptions while on their knees with 3mm gloved hands.

What a goat-rodeo. I could sell tickets.

K