Divers vs Underwater Tourists

[Slonda828]

Personally I prefer new diver, or learning diver, rather than underwater tourist.

Personally, I prefer "English language knowledge impartation specialist", but everyone still just calls me a teacher. Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade.

Besides, he is not calling new divers or learning divers tourists. He is calling people who refuse to better their skills and depend shamelessly on DMs tourists. Using that criteria, if you are learning, then it does not apply. Read his post again.

 

[Web Monkey]

Here's the part I do not like about being a DM:

"No man, your tank is in backwards."

"Miss, your low pressure inflator hose isn't hooked up. No, it's that hose. Yes, the one with the quick release on it."

"What do you mean your computer died and you didn't bring tables?! Here, use mine. You do not know how to use tables?!"

That's pretty much the current job description.

When did we become such a bunch of mollycoddlers? When did people stop taking personal responsibility?

I'm guessing about the same time that anybody with $400 and 2 days could get a C-Card.

I tried to get an actual date by checking the old PADI website on the Wayback Machine, but they apparently have a robots exclusion file, so it wasn't archived.

Terry

 

[Slonda828]

That's pretty much the current job description.

I'm guessing about the same time that anybody with $400 and 2 days could get a C-Card.

I tried to get an actual date by checking the old PADI website on the Wayback Machine, but they apparently have a robots exclusion file, so it wasn't archived.

Terry

We do not agree often, but in this case I find our views align precisely. I love being a DM, but man do I wish people knew their gear and skills better. It makes me wonder how effective the new way of certifying divers really is, but that is for another thread.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Personally I prefer new diver, or learning diver, rather than underwater tourist.

I don't think the two correlate all the time. When I was a fairly new diver I met a woman who'd been diving for 14 years and had logged more than 100 dives. Yet she'd never dived without a DM, and hadn't a clue how to plan her own dive. When she found out that Cheng and I ... who were much less experienced than her ... regularly went diving on our own her response was "But isn't that DANGEROUS?"

She was a tourist ... with no intention of ever being anything other than a tourist.

That's not an insult ... it's simply an acknowledgement of what she considers herself to be.

And FWIW - Cheng, with almost 800 dives now, still calls herself an underwater tourist, because by comparison with a lot of the people she dives with, she is. Cheng has no interest in decompression diving, diving in caves, or even using a scooter. If she can't take a picture of it, it doesn't interest her. Hence her self-chosen use of the term.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[W8less]

I get the gist of the post and see where labeling becomes polarizing.

BUT Two episodes both coasts, boat out of Pensecola, older guy from Nebraska with son-in-law, 4 - 5' wind whipped swells by the time the guy got to the anchor at 50' he had 12 min of gas left, lost buoyancy control on ascent, punched out to the surface. That was the end of that dive. La Jolla, guy and his wife from Utah, rough Ca. surf entry 200' swim to canyon lip, reg in kicking like crazy against the surge, descend to 50' to drop off, low crawl on the bottom for 10 min. low on air signal for her, husband was well below 1000 psi, That was the end of that dive.

They were all certified divers. THE POINT IS just because you know how to blow bubbles under water does not mean that you have arrived. To the contrary your apprenticeship has just started. You might be KING Kong in your quarry or local lake but you are green when you head to a new environment. It's OK to be green and rely on pros for help. It's OK to hire a guide to get the inside track on a location . Most of the people who become pros are care givers by nature and don't mind helping out but in the end you are responsible for your own safety, that means being honest about your strengths and weaknesses and dealing with them accordingly.

 

[AquaExplorer]

But it did refer to divers as "underwater tourists". Perhaps the OP could have been wiser in his choice of terms.

So in the end most do see, and generally agree with the OP's premise, but most are bent over his word choices?

Wow...what a crazy, mixed-up, PC world we live in.

 

[Teamcasa]

And FWIW - Cheng, with almost 800 dives now, still calls herself an underwater tourist, because by comparison with a lot of the people she dives with, she is. Cheng has no interest in decompression diving, diving in caves, or even using a scooter. If she can't take a picture of it, it doesn't interest her. Hence her self-chosen use of the term.

I feel exactly the same way and have zero issue if someone wants to label me an underwater tourist, it's fine with me.

 

[tomboyy]

When you and your buddy can plan a dive and not need a DM to make you safe. You can have 10 dives if they are current and you dive within your comfort range. If you have 100 dives and haven't been diving in 10 years and now only dive 5 times a year you're probably an underwater tourist.

If what one is actually doing is touring underwater with a DM responsible for your safety why would the title underwater tourist bother someone?

I'm sure I'm way late at posting this and its already been said, BUT, who in the hell died and made you boss. O.K I've fed the troll today

 

[rsldonk]

I find it funny and ironic how many who are professionals as in instructors/shop owners have for those who would be considered scuba tourists. Go into any dive shop in the United States and at least half of the sales are for equipment setups that will be used a few times and then either end up on ebay, a garage sale, or relegated to a closet never again to see the light of day. Scuba tourists are the bread and butter of the industry, sorry to break the news to many here. The majority of those who take OW and never get more than 5 dives (that you never reimburse their certification costs) are what pay your paychecks.

It would be more helpful to address why those who certify, dive once on vacation, and never dive again end up leaving the sport than to label them with the term underwater tourists and then to have a debate about semantics of what the term underwater tourist means.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Some people may take exception with the wording....I do not. I take exception with the basic premise posted that a new diver (with NEW still undefined I believe) is not capable of doing a dive unless with a personal guide / safety diver. Dive count does not equal skill. It improves the chances of skill existing but that is all. Way too many variables are being ignored which can make a diver much more dangerous IMO (such as an overconfident warm/clear water diver with hundreds of dives doing their first cold and dark dive).

It is far from what the OP posted.

I feel exactly the same way and have zero issue if someone wants to label me an underwater tourist, it's fine with me.

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