Dive Unprofessionals

[seaducer]

Maybe you guys can let me know what you have come up with in your experience... and this applies to everyone - professionals, weekend warriors, and brand new divers alike. Can't wait to hear your ideas

Thanking you!

-- Nemo

I think you need to move. The very vast majority of divers and dive professionals I have met have been simply wonderful people. There are only a handful of jerks among hundreds. maybe most of the turds are in Cairns? Too bad, I always wanted to be Australian.

Anyway, welcome to Scubaboard. Quite a number of jerks here too, but most of the natives are nice enough.

 

[TSandM]

In all the fields that I've been in, there are great people and there are jerks, and when jerks get a little status or power, they often become mega-jerks. If you really want to see prima donna behavior, take a look in some operating rooms . . .

The good news is that the majority of people are NOT jerks. And jerks can often be ignored. If I had been so unfortunate as to get into a scuba class with an instructor who was a real jerk, I would have requested another instructor, or gotten my money back and gone elsewhere. However, of ALL the instructors I have worked with (including some who work in an area of diving which has a reputation for jerks) all have been professional, pleasant people doing their jobs, at least while they were teaching.

 

[marinediva]

LMO, I do think there are some instructors and dive companies in Cairns that leave a lot to be desired. It is unfortunate that because they dive on the Great Barrier Reef, and because the tourist is there to have the experience, they and I do speak generally, seem to wish to tag everyone as ABT. Another Bloody Tourist.

Some dive shop managers there will not employ instructors unless they sound foreign, and under the age of 25 plus they must come equipped with a bulge in the appropriate gender assisnment. WHen you start to travel and listen to some stories about Cairns and surrounding areas you do start to hear how bad they truly can be. And it is themselves the dive operators who have manufactured this situation. It all comes down to service or lack of. Up until recently if you didnt go on their boat so what, someone else will fill the position.

This will change with the economic climate, Cairns is already having a tough time getting the foreign tourist $ let alone there own Aust $ from tourist. To be really frank, to pay $210 aust for two dives on a boat with seventy others of which only 4 are certified divers, yeah mate,
thoses instructors should be really told, there ego is misplaced. They are nothing better than
cowboys looking after the herd.
yyyyeeeeeHHA

 

[mislav]

One instructor i know actually walked into a classroom full of students for an Open Water course, took off his sunglasses, sat on the desk and said, "For the next four days, you can call me God."

I hear what you're saying and I agree.

We need more people reporting the bad experiences they had to the Q&A departments. And some action taken. Only then, things might begin to change.

 

[NudeDiver]

Why don't people realise that at the end of the day, as complex and intricate as the sport of diving is, it remains exactly that - A SPORT.

I'd never refer to SCUBA diving as a sport. I'd never refer to going jogging as a sport either. In my mind, at a MINIMUM, a "sport" must have two basic elements:

a). Be strongly athletic in nature.
b). Involve competition.

I don't thinking recreational diving meets either requirement. Although one's diving can benefit from a high level of physical fitness, it's hardly what I would call strongly athletic in nature...and I don't know anyone who views recreational SCUBA diving as being competitive in anyway.

By my standard, things like playing darts, shooting pool, going bowling, playing poker and snow shoeing are not sports either. They're merely recreational activities. They're even recreational activities that I enjoy. But they're not sports, IMHO.

As for your point...yeah....there are ******** on the planet. Big deal. Rot has the right idea. Ignore them.

 

[vladimir]

I had an American chap come on board a boat once like he owned the place. Fat, loud, and obviously rich due to the thousands of dollars worth of gear he brought on, we had him spotted before he reached the turn of the U-berth.

What are the odds?

 

[BDSC]

I'd never refer to SCUBA diving as a sport. I'd never refer to going jogging as a sport either. In my mind, at a MINIMUM, a "sport" must have two basic elements:

a). Be strongly athletic in nature.
b). Involve competition.

I don't thinking recreational diving meets either requirement. Although one's diving can benefit from a high level of physical fitness, it's hardly what I would call strongly athletic in nature...and I don't know anyone who views recreational SCUBA diving as being competitive in anyway.

By my standard, things like playing darts, shooting pool, going bowling, playing poker and snow shoeing are not sports either. They're merely recreational activities. They're even recreational activities that I enjoy. But they're not sports, IMHO.

As for your point...yeah....there are ******** on the planet. Big deal. Rot has the right idea. Ignore them.

I'd throw golf in that mix as well!

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Quit listening to the squeaky wheels. The others are more numerous and deserve your attention. Let the others go.

 

[NudeDiver]

I'd throw golf in that mix as well!

I agree. It's a great game. I like to play. But it's not a sport

 

[vladimir]

Some less idiosyncratic definitions of sport:

sport   [spawrt, spohrt] Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.
2. a particular form of this, esp. in the out of doors.
3. diversion; recreation; pleasant pastime.