Rude Divers on the Boat

[Wingy]

Blimey Wingy, which boat are you diving with?

LOL it was one of Bali Dive Academies boats in about 2004......still traumatised a decade later

 

[TMHeimer]

It's interesting that a large % of the rude divers mentioned seem to be as they say "vacation" divers, on a trip. I posted my story years ago about my one tropical dive week in Panama and the guy from Spain who talked up a big storm about his exploits on the boat trip out, then proceeded to mess up the "line" of divers, leaving me & my buddy "cut off" (10' viz that day), and causing the DM to have to hunt for him. Interesting that happened on my one trip--= 1,000% of the time. Is that the general feeling--that there are way fewer of "those guys" on local charters with people who dive regularly? As mentioned, I can't really recall any real baddies on the varied local charters I've taken.

 

[Lorenzoid]

It's interesting that a large % of the rude divers mentioned seem to be as they say "vacation" divers, on a trip. . . . As mentioned, I can't really recall any real baddies on the varied local charters I've taken.

I'm not sure we can conclude that there are more rude vacation divers than rude local divers from the small sample of people who responded to this thread. I would have guessed it would come out the other way around: more rude local divers than rude vacation divers. I don't do much "local diving," but at the vacation diving destinations I've visited the people I have dived with seemed so happy in their own little vacation world that they pretty much left everyone else alone and said very little beyond the usual pleasantries. Maybe it depends on where we're talking about. Say, carefree vacationers in Cozumel ("golly, a turtle!") versus self-important photographers on an Indonesian liveaboard.

 

[gypsyjim]

My recent experiences with truly rude diver behavior have nearly all involved GoPro camera divers, with their camera-on-a-stick rigs.
This is a relatively new phenomenon where these completely self absorbed "divers" seem to turn on their video cameras, and then zoom around the reef, "capturing everything".

Several times I have been watching critters, and even carefully setting up for a shot, only to have zippy-go-pro come racing over, shove their stick into whatever I am watching, trash the scene, and then race off again.
NO idea at all what I was looking at, but confident that they have captured it, to view later.

They also seem to have no idea where I'm seriously wanting to shove their camera on a stick if it happens again.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

My worst time with rude divers was a very strange day trip out of Monterey, California.

Typically, California divers are well-trained, experienced and respectful. However, this day, for reasons that still mystify me, a group of tropical-only divers decided to try cold water diving. While I'm a strong proponent of local, cold water diving, I SO wish that they had stayed with warm water.

They are their gear was EVERYWHERE all over the boat. I tried to set up my gear at my station as quickly and neatly as possible (and then retire to the cabin to get out of everyone else's way), while their huge gear bags exploded gear all over the place, both on the dive deck and in cabin. They spend most of their time before the first dive trying to find where their stuff was. I sat in the corner and tried not to be seen rolling my eyes.

On our first dive, they lasted only 5-10 minutes before the low vis, 53F water, not to mention the "scary" kelp, sent them back on board. I was soloing, so I had a rather pleasant (decidedly uncrowded) dive.

Back on board, all I head about was how horrible cold water diver was. I held my tongue.

The second dive was much as the first. They were done within the first 10-15 minutes and I took my typical hour.

Upon reboarding the boat, I was truly shocked.

The dive deck was strewn with their giant gear bags and miscellaneous gear. Even worse, was the fact that they had piled up gear all over the dive bench, including a 2-3 foot high stack of crap (fins, hoods, gloves, wetsuits, you name it) covering my station. I was standing there, on a rocking boat, dripping from the dive, in full gear (including a 130 cf. steel tank) and I had nowhere to walk and nowhere to sit to doff my gear.

My boatmates were totally oblivious. I was so dumbfounded, that I was speechless. I wanted to yell at them, but I just was so flabbergasted, I just couldn't.

The DM was similarly disgusted. He carefully made his way past the giant gear bags and gear over to my dive station (which was fortunately near the stern) and he began to heave their crap off it. We exchanged quite the looks.

Meanwhile, the tropical divers remained clueless about what was going on or what should have gone on. Not a hint of apology. Not a clue about what they were doing.

Other than that, I've had great experiences with other divers. That day, there must have been a rude divers convention in town.

Sounds kind of like when I was lucky enough to finally go to the GBR out of Port Douglas on a day boat. Half the boat was dominated by a group of Japanese "barely" OW certified,
complete with "exploding" gear bags (good one!), and sht all over the deck. They were all happy though grinning ear to ear. As soon as food was out they MOBBED the galley, and when I finally got in there were a few crumbs left on a bare platter. Boy can they eat for such small people! I saw a few of them going back for seconds and thirds before half the line could even get to the food...an absolute free for all, reminded me of a pack of wild dogs fighting over a carcass.
And for the diving, these were all DM lead dives and when the first person runs low everyone goes up.
So I had three 15 to 20 min dives.

Such a long way to go and so much money spent only to get screwed, Oh well. 30 hours of flying and a lot of $$$ for an hours worth of diving. But we did other stuff too I guess.
From what I saw it was beautiful so I try to just hold that memory and forget the rest.

 

[TMHeimer]

My recent experiences with truly rude diver behavior have nearly all involved GoPro camera divers, with their camera-on-a-stick rigs.
This is a relatively new phenomenon where these completely self absorbed "divers" seem to turn on their video cameras, and then zoom around the reef, "capturing everything".

Several times I have been watching critters, and even carefully setting up for a shot, only to have zippy-go-pro come racing over, shove their stick into whatever I am watching, trash the scene, and then race off again.
NO idea at all what I was looking at, but confident that they have captured it, to view later.

They also seem to have no idea where I'm seriously wanting to shove their camera on a stick if it happens again.

I haven't seen this yet, but can believe it. I just spent 3 months in & out of the Biloxi casinos dodging those walking with their iPads (or other "do-hickies" as I call them) glued to their face. Ah, the modern world.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I haven't seen this yet, but can believe it. I just spent 3 months in & out of the Biloxi casinos dodging those walking with their iPads (or other "do-hickies" as I call them) glued to their face. Ah, the modern world.

iZombies

 

[Nemrod]

My recent experiences with truly rude diver behavior have nearly all involved GoPro camera divers, with their camera-on-a-stick rigs.
This is a relatively new phenomenon where these completely self absorbed "divers" seem to turn on their video cameras, and then zoom around the reef, "capturing everything".

Several times I have been watching critters, and even carefully setting up for a shot, only to have zippy-go-pro come racing over, shove their stick into whatever I am watching, trash the scene, and then race off again.
NO idea at all what I was looking at, but confident that they have captured it, to view later.

They also seem to have no idea where I'm seriously wanting to shove their camera on a stick if it happens again.

Last summer I went to Key West for some diving and on the trip to the Vandenberg there were some fellows, the dad, and two younger guys, son and buddy, all equipped with GoPros on a stick. I noted they looked fairly newbie and also noted they prefaced every word with an adjective starting with F. Their equipment was strewn all about. But it was a big boat and not a full load so I secluded myself into a little corner to prep.

So, being a slightly curious sort and kind of wanting my own GoPro I was observing the cluster and noticing they had no lanyards on their poles. The current was ripping as evidenced by the efforts being made to hook in (or maybe it was the buoys were pulled under) and the DM reported in, strong current. I mentioned, to the three that without a lanyard they would have problems going down the line and maintain a grip on their poles as the DM had told everyone we would have to hand over hand down. Well, I had my camera rig complete with strobes and the "buddy" quipped something back to me essentially telling me to kiss off and that if I could handle my "Kodak" they would be okay. Well, see, I was tethered and clipped between my crotch ring and my shoulder ring holding my camera lens down across my chest and allowing both hands free. So I splashed in, got to the wreck, had a nice quiet dive, no GoPros to be seen anywhere. So, see, apparently they never got to the down line nor did they get back on the boat with any single GoPro, all three gifted to the Davey Jones Locker.

Never missing an opportunity to drive a point home to the trio, you might want to consider a tether or clip for your next rig. Waaahhhhhhh, wwaaaaaahhhhhh.

N

 

[modustollens]

I have had a camera kamakazi or two bump me out of a place before. But they get told off back on boat. When I think of rude it is either camera Kamikazis or tobacco chimnies smoking upwind. As for those camera sticks - narcisticks - divers are not the only ones getting annoyed. See:

Ban these narcisticks from all our galleries - Telegraph

MT

 

[keyshunter]

Last summer I went to Key West for some diving and on the trip to the Vandenberg there were some fellows, the dad, and two younger guys, son and buddy, all equipped with GoPros on a stick. I noted they looked fairly newbie and also noted they prefaced every word with an adjective starting with F. Their equipment was strewn all about. But it was a big boat and not a full load so I secluded myself into a little corner to prep.

So, being a slightly curious sort and kind of wanting my own GoPro I was observing the cluster and noticing they had no lanyards on their poles. The current was ripping as evidenced by the efforts being made to hook in (or maybe it was the buoys were pulled under) and the DM reported in, strong current. I mentioned, to the three that without a lanyard they would have problems going down the line and maintain a grip on their poles as the DM had told everyone we would have to hand over hand down. Well, I had my camera rig complete with strobes and the "buddy" quipped something back to me essentially telling me to kiss off and that if I could handle my "Kodak" they would be okay. Well, see, I was tethered and clipped between my crotch ring and my shoulder ring holding my camera lens down across my chest and allowing both hands free. So I splashed in, got to the wreck, had a nice quiet dive, no GoPros to be seen anywhere. So, see, apparently they never got to the down line nor did they get back on the boat with any single GoPro, all three gifted to the Davey Jones Locker.

Never missing an opportunity to drive a point home to the trio, you might want to consider a tether or clip for your next rig. Waaahhhhhhh, wwaaaaaahhhhhh.

N

Some people have no (or very little) knowledge about currents. One thing I have learned over the last 40 years is that, in general, the less experience a "diver" has, the more vocal he tends to be.