Accomplished Bad Divers - John Chatterton's Blog

[MaxBottomtime]

I believe he felt safer with all the redundancy, but never accepted that all that extra gear was not necessary. I used to ask him why he needed two consoles when a single spg would tell him how much air he had. He said it gave him a way to know his air supply during his ascent in case of a failure. I told him that if he didn't have enough air to finish the dive, a second spg wasn't going to give him any more.
One day we were diving the Tuna Clipper wreck at Catalina (180'). After getting back onboard my boat, he dropped one of his lights overboard. I told him to forget it because he had so many. He didn't want to accept that, so he got back in the water and dropped to 180 feet again until he found his $69 light.

 

[kimbalabala]

My story isn't quite so dramatic but it points out the hubris that some divers possess. Last year we were diving a wreck and during the dive briefing the divemaster emphasized that it is imperative to go down on the mooring line because the current is unpredictable. There was a couple diving with us who mentioned that they were both rescue certified (and I think both my husband and I had more total dives). Of course they just descended nowhere near the line. There were no problems, but we've been told numerous times that the current on these wrecks can change quickly - even during the dive - and you can get swept away fairly easily. What's with divers who just don't want to do things safely? They didn't see anything we didn't see - or experience anything we didn't experience. I don't get it.