Better divers??????

[Colliam7]

What I'm talking about is general equipment knowledge (how to set up kit) Bouyancy controll, and what I call "awarness" in the water (how/where you are in the water collumn etc).

OK, thanks.

I'm talking about what I see at destination diving, and maybe it is the fact that many more americans are just 1 week a year divers, rather than more experienced.

Good point. I wonder if you see / there are more Americans who take up diving as just 'one of many' activities, and then pursue it only once a year. I have never seen country-specific statistics on 'certifications per year per hundred thousand population', but that might be revealing. Maybe, what you are seeing is that there are people in the US with the financial resources to do the certification, probably at a resort destnation to begin with, then dive again a year later, also at a resort. That kind of initial training and subsequent limited acitivity would not lend itself to proficiency.

 

[BDSC]

What I have noticed is no matter what country divers are from, PADI trained divers are the very best. Afterall, it's the way the world learns to dive.

 

[Keith.M]

What I have noticed is no matter what country divers are from, PADI trained divers are the very best. Afterall, it's the way the world learns to dive.

I can hardly believe it took until page 3 for this to come out...

 

[Ayisha]

I see divers who are proficient, pay attention and are aware as well as the opposite from all continents. I also believe it is a matter of experience, comfort, and training, and how often the person dives. If someone dives for one week a year on holiday, it usually shows. If someone dives often all year or much of the year, that shows too. Many DM's can tell how experienced and comfortable someone is just by the way they put their rig together before they ever even enter the water.

 

[Doomnova]

What I have noticed is no matter what country divers are from, PADI trained divers are the very best. Afterall, it's the way the world learns to dive.

Ok I've debated this for a while now in how to respond. I comes down not only to the instructor but to the individual. The instructor can be the best one in the world and if a person does not want to learn their skills properly but at a passable level and never progresses beyond that that is their choice not the instructors or agency or whomever. I also see crap instructors like I had for my OW whom I knew did not give me the time to get my skills beyond a "passable" level which I tend came here and found a a few mentors in my community and I chose to improve myself. Now I have good trim, good buoyancy control, and getting to the point I'm comfortable enough to start planning dives.

 

[farsidefan1]

Interesting. While diving in the red sea with a ton of Europeans I noticed no difference. In fact except for the ones with Euro pained on their butts I had a hard time distinguishing them from Those with the red white and blue wetsuits. Seriously? Who keeps track of this stuff on a dive trip. The only time I have ever noticed any counties divers being any different was in Palau when the Japanese divers descended in huge numbers around the German channel and they sat all over the manta cleaning station. I was not happy about that, especially since our briefing said stay well back from the station. On the other hand it may have been a group that just finished certifying. I would not condemn all Japanese divers for this. To make such an assertion would be ludicrous. Have you done much diving with Russians? Any other groups you consider inferior or superior?

 

[eelnoraa]

Drivers? Definitely yes. Divers, maybe not

 

[MarkHerm]

I can't say I see a significant difference between american and european divers in general but then again I've not seen that many american divers underwater to make an assessment. All I can say is that there is hugh difference in skill level across european divers as well (which doesn't seem suprising imo) and I'd be surprised to see a vast difference to american divers on average.

The only time I have ever noticed any counties divers being any different was in Palau when the Japanese divers descended in huge numbers around the German channel and they sat all over the manta cleaning station. I was not happy about that, especially since our briefing said stay well back from the station.

That is funny as I made similar observations. While doing a liveabroad in Komodo, we came across two groups of Japanese divers which were easily identified with all white and pink gear Anyways I've never seen worse groups as those divers were bumping into the reef and didn't seem to have any awareness or willingness to avoid damaging the reef.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Worst divers I've ever seen were some Asians I saw in the Maldives ... if you can call crawling around on your hands and knees "diving". Some of those people weren't even attempting to get off the bottom ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[xyrandomyx]

Worst divers I've ever seen were some Asians I saw in the Maldives ... if you can call crawling around on your hands and knees "diving". Some of those people weren't even attempting to get off the bottom ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I saw two German divers here who had pretty much the same technique. OK, they did make a few half-hearted attempts at 'swimming', which looked more like walking on their fins. I'm not sure there's any real correlation between a diver's nationality and skill.