SCUBA Colloquialisms and acronyms

[Deefstes]

I'm wondering if it is because the word "SCUBA" is already an acronym that divers have such a propensity to use all sorts of acronyms and initials in their everyday talk. I noticed the term LDS being used often and only recently Googled the meaning (only to be directed to a thread on this very scubaboard forums explaining it as "Local Dive Store"). BP/W I figured out much stand for "Backplate with wings" and the list goes on.

What I find even more interesting is colloquialisms that divers use like "thumbing the dive" meaning to abort and head for the surface.

So here is a thread in which you can post your colloquialisms and acronyms and explain their meanings. Even if it is a phrase you'd think everyone will know already, post it anyway, chances are I don't know it.

One I can start off with perhaps is, at the charters I've used diving in Sodwana Bay, upon seeing an excessively weighted weightbelt, they'd refer to it as a "home gym".

 

[Sas]

I think most people will use acronyms whenever they can - don't think it has anything to do with whether or not you are a scuba diver. I work in IT and on my second day at my first IT job I realised it was possible for someone to say an entire sentence in just acronyms ;p Before that it was accounting and there were many acronyms used there too (just nothing compared to IT).

As with any specialised activity or industry etc, it is hard starting off to see all the acronyms thrown around. I spend the first few days on this forum learning all the slang like BP/W, LDS and so on just like you

A glossary might be nice for Scubaboard noobs (though given the vast amounts of thread about nearly every topic it might have been done before!) but yea, most are easy enough to work out.

 

[Deefstes]

OK, that's nice and all but you didn't post a colloquialism or abbreviation :no

 

[RJP]

TLA - as in "SCUBA divers are known to use many TLA's"

Three Letter Acronyms

 

[Sas]

Haha yea, actually I got distracted at work whilst I was composing my list and just posted instead sorry. Here are some that I didn't know before Scuba Board (in my OW my instructor did not abbreviate much!) - some are pretty obvious I know...

OW+AOW+CW: open water + advanced open water + confined water (the last one took a while to work out, the first two were obvious )
C-Card: certification card - I thought this was a special type of scuba qualification at first!
EAN: Enriched Air Nitrox
DIR: Do(ing) It Right - still don't know much about this at all...
SMB or surface sausage: Surface Marker Buoy
BFK: Big ***king knife
FFM: Full Face Mask
SSBA: as I understand it, it is hookah diving but I don't know what it stands for!
DPV: Dive propulsion vehicle
AAS: Alternate Air Source
P-Valve: Valve to pee out of your drysuit - this was not what I was expecting at all...

 

[chrisP42]

Thanks for this thread! English is not my native language, so I'm frequently wondering what people are talking about ;-).

My entries:
BCD - Bouyancy Control Device
OOA - Out Of Air
CCR - Closed Circuit Rebreather
MOD - Maximum Operation Depth

Hope I'm right with those :-D

 

[Deefstes]

SSBA: as I understand it, it is hookah diving but I don't know what it stands for!

Surface Supplied Breathing Apparatus if I'm not mistaken. I actually saw this one only very recently. Thanks fr the others, there actually were a few that I had wondered about.

So what colloquialisms do you use down under?

 

[Zoomer]

SSBA = Sustained SCUBA Breathing Apparatus..... I think....

DOH... your right, it's a Surface Supplied Breathing Apparatus

 

[8thElementDiver]

Pigpen diver = a diver who kicks up a lot of silt (from the Pigpen character in the Peanuts comic, who always had a cloud of dirt around him).

Master diver = sarcastic term for divers who talk a lot about all their experience and qualifications, but aren't nearly as good of a diver as they believe they are. I never actually dove with a real master diver from the navy, but the navy folks I've met seem to have a great sense of humor, so I don't think they'd be offended by our use of the term.

Air hog = someone with a high SAC rate; should not be used derisively or you risk becoming an air diva. Most new divers are air hogs.

Air diva = someone who's oh so proud of their low SAC rate. They inevitably compare how much air they have left at the end of a dive with everyone else they dive with, apparently expecting applause.

SAC = Surface Air Consumption. It's a standardized way of measuring how quickly you consume air on a dive. Most people on this board who toss out their SACs don't include the units of measurement (which is usually cubic feet per minute); the other 90% of the world who uses metric probably prefers to measure SAC in liters per minute, so be careful about comparing apples to oranges.

Comparing apples to oranges = ....

 

[MarkUK]

SPORE = Stupid People On Rental Equipment...

You've all seen 'em...

Mark