Divers can be strange

[aujax]

I don't want to sound negative, but on my last trip to the Tampa area, though I had some great diving, I couldn't help but notice that there are a lot of weird people in the dive industry and in the dive community. Has anyone found this to be true? With a great deal of consistency, I met strange birds at dive shops and at Ginnie Springs and King Spring (though the people at Plantation Dive Shop in Crystal River were very cool!). The cave divers especially seemed very cold and standoffish, while I tried to share my enthusiasm with the non-divers there who were curious about the sport. Maybe they were just trying to impress people with the gravitas that is a necessary attitude for cave-diving, but...and now that i think about it, the folks who certified me in Maryland 10 years ago were really weird too! My aunt kept suggesting "bubbles on the brain" as a possible cause...

 

[SOUTH DEVON]

Yes some of them can be, on my second or third dive after passing my open water I came out of the sea bubbling with enthusiasm and proceeded to point two divers kitting up in the direction of some great visibility and sites, but they really didn't want to talk to me and was completely disinterested in my recommendations!
Yet I have met some really friendly divers as well !

 

[mcse_jacksonvil]

Seems to me that strange people are not limited to dive circles, but I will admit, the cave divers around Ginnie definitely seems to walk around with some chips on their shoulders. Although I have met a few rather pleasant ones.

Seems to me that most of the cave divers have 2 qualifications you must meet for them to be social to you.
1. Your a cave diver
2. You are an OW diver and interested in pursuing Cave Diving.

Dunno, I am sure there are exceptions to the rule and I am not one to stereotype but it is becoming way to commonplace for me to ignore. Especially seeings as I dive Ginnie about once a month just to keep in practice. My apologies to those cave divers who do not fit this standard.

As for the tampa dive scene. In Florida it is a generally accepted rule that the further south you go the more eccentric the people get. Here in the North FL area, we have the bible belt and all of the WAY TO SERIOUS baptists that compose it. As you go south you travel into a gradually relaxing atomosphere where people tend to be more laid back, sociable and generally more open-minded and tolerant of other peoples lifestyles. So that might explain why you meet some people who are really "out there".
Just my .02 as a long time Fl resident.
-James

 

[aujax]

Yeah,

Those cave divers can be really snobby - i mean, sure it takes some skill to be a cave diver, but it's not like they're concert pianists or something! And yes, there were two cave divers at Ginnie who talked to me after I expressed some interest in their specialty, but I sensed a little patronizing.

And the Bible belters have to go! I don't know how much that has to do with it though. I've noticed some really weird people in hang gliding as well - not quite nerds, but with a nerdy edge to them.

In the end though, I think that divers should always be friendly to other divers and especially to non-divers, unless they really don't want more people in the water (which is probably the case).

 

[mcse_jacksonvil]

I disagree that cave diving takes skill. Just like OW diving, it takes knowledge more than skill. You learn some rules, follow the rules and you can dive till your heart is content. The only edge a cave diver has over an OW diver is the fact that he took a class that allowed him to learn the information about the equipment he'd use and the environment he'd be using it in.

Last I checked, no newly certified diver right out of class was considered "skilled" and I've never seen that prevent a newly certified cave diver from going in a cave.

Personally, I do not see why they walk around with that attitude (and again, I apologize to those cave divers who don't), no offense but to me it speaks worlds about a persons frame of mind when they are willing to invest thousands of dollars and risk their life to look at wet rocks. :lol:
-James

 

[100days-a-year]

Sorry James, you have it 100% backwards cave and other technical diving is much more about skills than knowledge.Hang out here long enough to dive with some of nicest people I've met who'm happen to be tech divers and you will see a drastic difference in thier skills and those of 99% of other divers.They do tend to be sometimes a little weird but then again who's open-minded?

 

[MikeJacobs]

Anybody who has been diving for a decade or two has probably been through their arrogant and cynical stages. I have, and I'm not proud of it.

Though he wasn't aware of it, a good friend and dive buddy of mine from years ago actually became hostile to new divers or divers who "didn't take it as seriously as they should." It seemed to him that they "cheapened" the activity. He eventually became no fun, and I avoided diving with him though we remained good friends.

We discussed it often, and what was actually happening was that the edge he needed so much to feel like a man had dulled with experience. It wasn't about the beauty, feeling or comradre with him - it was about proving he was man enough to himself, and if grandma and grandpa were able to dive alongside him, he was sickened. Even the most cynical interpretation of the statistics will bear out that it's a very safe activity.

Jaded divers may be dealing with issues like these. I can see it on rec.scuba, and I think that all the PADI bashing is partly about resentment to the access they provide and encourage. "Everybody in the pool!" is heard as an insult to the over-ego'd diver.

I admit that I'm a bit jaded when it comes to diving with new divers - I just don't want to take the risk... I've payed for a dive and had it it ruined once too often. I admit that I've actually "shunned" obviously new divers to avoid having to decline buddying with them - I am not proud of this, as I say. Perhaps this is an issue.

And, I'll bet that in my exuberant days I was pretty hard to take. If you are one of those talkative types - like me - you may be overdoing the enthusiasm a bit and making others uncomfortable. I, for one, don't like anybody now to interrupt my pre-dive mental check list. Interrupted and asked to help a very talkative dive-neighbor once, I actually forgot my gloves, to turn my tank on, and where the DM had said the reef was!

When meeting divers for the first time I try to talk about anything BUT diving, and have found that people are people and will pretty much relax and open up given the chance.

It's a tense activity for many, whether because they don't dive much, they're doing their pre-dive mental checklist, or because they're there FOR the tense feeling. Bringing the engergy down a little makes any but the die-hard "extreme sport" diver more comfortable and easier to get along with.

 

[pipedope]

And I used to fly Hang Gliders.

I find strange people in every activity but it seems that there are some real concentrations in diving.

BTW Do you know how to tell the difference between a fairy tale, a sea story and a hang glider (or dive) story?

Fairy tale starts, "Once upon a time."
Sea story starts, "No sh*t, this really happened."
Hang glider story, "No sh*t, there I was, THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE!"

 

[mcse_jacksonvil]

well 100,
I disagree, though you may be right when it comes down to experienced cave divers.
I guarantee you I can go take a cave diving course this weekend and at the end of that course go down to ginnie and dive the caves. I doubt my physical skills will have improved much but my knowledge would be enhanced and I doubt anyone would tell me I could'nt enter the cave as long as I had the proper cert.
Classes teach knowledge, and they will teach you some very basic skills, but I doubt anyone here would disagree when i say that no one walks out of their classes with finely honed Skills. yet despite the fact that my knowledge has advanced and my skills have not, I'm still a cave diver. So how can you contest that it is skill that makes a cave diver?

On the other hand, I will give you this, skills will keep the cave diver alive in the event something goes awry. Sadly, the many deaths represent my point to be more accurate than your because of that reason. For the record, I did'nt say that this is the way it should be, just that this is the way it is.

 

[Karl_in_Calif]

Cave divers and boat owners seem to have the same general ego afflictions.

But then, someday when I get my own boat, twin engines, GPS, depth finder, side scan sonar, maybe I will stop talking to people as well? Now, where did I put that treasure map ... .