DIR- Generic Diver attitude! Be careful, experienced divers...

[Failed captcha]

What about something more objectively dangerous. Say someone with a tank of 36% planning on doing a 150ft dive... Would you attempt to stop them?

Yes. I would even be prepared to physically intervene if I thought they weren't aware of their folly. Ask yourself if their parents would be grateful to you for your actions.

 

[The Chairman]

but if you're diving with me, and I'm doing something unsafe, please say something.

Just let me know before the dive. If you want feedback, I'll gladly give it. But, I'm not going to be a ScubaKaren, giving unsolicited advice.

 

[Failed captcha]

You do you. After 50+ years of diving, I've learned not to give my opinion unless it's asked for. Even here my opinion is considered "silly", but on a dive boat no one wants to listen to a know-it-all. If it's bad enough, the Captain can and should make that call. It's his boat. I've been mocked enough without asking for it. I've been chided for having a long hose and also for diving without a bladder. I've even had people complain about my dive boots... twice. Every time I thank them for their input and go dive, all the while making a decision to never be that guy.

I think this is just cowardly. I'm willing to be thought a fool on the slight chance I might do some good. Dive and let die.

In fact I know I'm a fool and I might learn something.

 

[JoeTPhilly]

I agree. Hazing and a few brutal smackdowns when I got to my unit is the reason I made it home from my deployments. Fresh out of the OW course I had my first dive that wasn't part of a course and I saw two sidemount rigs all set up. All I did was look at it from several feet away and then I heard a voice in Spanish tell the DM guiding my group "dile ese gringo que no toke".

I have always been good at pretending I didn't know when a Mexican in Mexico was talking **** right to my face but I had a knee jerk "y no toke mio tampoco". Everyone on the boat started laughing including the captain. I'm still friends with them.

Sometimes you put two alpha males together and they don't fight but if you keep em seperated, they can't be friends. Sometimes they fight and still become friends.

Toque...if one were to speak up...haha

 

[Failed captcha]

Toque...if one were to speak up...haha

lol yeah not my first language and the extent of my reading in Spanish would be social media.

 

[tursiops]

Just let me know before the dive. If you want feedback, I'll gladly give it. But, I'm not going to be a ScubaKaren, giving unsolicited advice.

So anyone who give unsolicited advice is a ScubaKaren?
Isn't the issue that someone is about to do something dangerous and they don't know it, so how is it that they are going to solicit advice?

If you don't want to give any advice, fine. But saying that anyone who does is a ScubaKaren is....bashing.

 

[pauldw]

Let's see, do I want to spend my life offering help when someone needs it, or ignoring people's problems and letting them suffer (and then calling people names if they do gently inquire of someone)? Hmmm. Nope, that's not even a toughie!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Just kindly don't call me a dumbass

Grabbing my thesaurus....

 

[admikar]

So anyone who give unsolicited advice is a ScubaKaren?
Isn't the issue that someone is about to do something dangerous and they don't know it, so how is it that they are going to solicit advice?

If you don't want to give any advice, fine. But saying that anyone who does is a ScubaKaren is....bashing.

We have moved away from OP topic (as usual on SB). Keeping quiet when you know someone is going to do something dangerous is world apart from some newbie trying to look smart.

 

[Wibble]

because your a decent human being ?

Has taken a while to answer this as it is a good point. Pretty much all people in the diving community care about other divers. None of us want the reputation of diving killing people.

I do care about people. In the case of the incident I wrote about, the guy's kit was horrible; a cobbled-together Frankenstein rig that was the antithesis of the DIR rig I was diving. However, I do see other types of rigs on my travels, for example these two which have thousands of dives on them. It's really not about the rig, but about the way it's used. Similarly people's gas choices where, unlike the snobbery frequenting these boards, many people still use deep air.

So, what can you do? And where would you draw the line?

Diving is not about enforcing particular configs. Although maybe that's the case for some people
Diving is about diving and learning how to dive in your environment.

In essence, if "I" consider your rig to be unconventional, what gives "me" the right to interrogate you about it? I’m not special constable Wibble of the dive police, nor blessed with 20/20 foresight. I'm just a diver who's paid for my space and am looking forwards to a dive.

Generally, it's not about the kit config, it's about the way that person dives.

I guess if I was to rock up at some random location for a dive boat, I'd be expecting to follow their rules. I'm unlikely to choose a "recreational" boat as I want a long, peaceful and enjoyable dive away from other people. Technical boats are different. You don't book on them unless you've the experience to do their planned dives. Am pretty certain that should someone rock up for a 60m/200ft dive with a single ali80 and no deco stages that the person would be quickly dealt with.

As with everything, there's degrees of crappyness. At one extreme there's the OW kit for a deep technical dive which is obviously wrong -- that dive is just not possible on a single. But what about the cobbled-together doubles rig with a back-mounted decompression cylinder and multiple second stages? That's not a great look but it's perfectly diveable given the right skills and experience. Similarly gas choices.


In the end, it's the skills that kills. Skills include planning, practice and experience. Those are really difficult to determine unless you want to do an assessment dive with someone.

In retrospect, I think George's gear configuration was a sign.
Did his configuration cause his death? Probably -- almost definitely -- not. But did that weird setup demonstrate that George didn't have the knowledge or skills to make the dives he was trying? I think the answer is yes.

This, in spades.