Divers in Hurry

[andydiver06]

Whole last month I have been DMing with my LDS . I found that ( as tour guide) 60% of the divers like to swim fast during the dive and run all over the place instead of taking it slowly and enjoy the beautiful marine life. I can never find things when I'm literally runnning underwater like "the goby and the shrimp in action or the tiny blenny hopping over porites or a honey combed moray sticking its head out of a hole". When you show stuff like these to most people they watch for half a minute and loose interest and tends to move on. Is it because they paid for two 50 minutes dives depending on their consumption and NDL they want to cover more distance? Or they expect to see only big species like sting rays, groupers? We have a system of providing briefing on the boat on the various marine species we encounter on the dive sites, but they do not have much significant effect. Children are much better and generally have more patience under water. Can you people suggest how to make more interested and enjoy the dive in a leisurely manner.
I know buoyancy is definitely an issue with these divers as they do not want to come closer and hover at one place to watch?
Any suggestion to improve my capability as a tour guide will be most welcome.

 

[dive_lover88]

no intention of starting a war ...but i feel that DMs(or guides,whoever is leading the dive) shld be the one controlling the pace of the dive. I think if you are leading a group,then you might want to match the pace with the last few divers in the group and not take off after pointing out something which maybe of interest to the rest.

Thats my opinion.

 

[victor]

I would let them shoot off in whatever direction they so choose.

The ones that are interested in the small fascinating creatures on the reef will go slowly enjoying what your experienced eye finds for them.

I know that DM's can find many more interesting creatures than my inexperienced eye can spot.
My trouble is that I go last as I have the camera and everyone has left by the time I have finished taking my pictures.
Try and remember that the photographer can easily fall behind and keep an eye out for them.

 

[andydiver06]

Okay dive lover. Why don't you suggest what you would expect from your tour guide.
1. Watch you back and protect you from injuring yourself
2. Ensure that you remain with the group
3. Show you interesting stuff and explain what you saw while on boat
4. Provide data to fill your log
Please feel free to response. I will definitely not start a war.

 

[rhyz]

I found that to be true on all my "follow the leader" type dives. The DM would rush through the dive, pointing out different things, and then moving on after a couple of seconds. This annoyed the hell out of me, for one I love to watch even the smallest creatures, or wait it out for a sand ell to pop back out of it's hole. And these were the first times having my camera, and I was always trying to catch up. Needless to say I was always the first to signal a turn around. And also being last I missed some of the thing the DM was ponting out, more so because of the divers ahead of me poking and prodding the poor creatures.

Hopefully when I finally become a DM and start doing "tours" I will look back on these experiences and take my clients wishes into more consideration than I've seen so far.

But again it wasn't just on those dives I've witnessed this either. Some of my buddies I've had will do the same thing swim rushed around, to what I dont know, and for what reason is beyond me. I'm content just being down there witnessing things I would never thought possible unless it was on TV. I quess they take it for granted and not really bothered to look and see how everything interacts with everything that surrounds it.

Pity...they miss so much that makes diving such a beautiful sport.


EDITED: As for the DM guided dives, I have only been on 9. So out of that 7 where as I mention previous. The 2 I throughly enjoy were on St Thomas with James Gill. One great DM, wonderful buddy and hellva nice guy.

 

[andydiver06]

I love to dive with photographers and we preferably don't inlcude other customers with them. I just hang around and let them do their thing. Point out interesting stuff, remind them about depth time and air as necessary and ensure that they follow a path which leads them back near the boat without straying far off.

 

[andydiver06]

rhyz exactly my sentiments but we are in customer service business and like to see all our customers happy at the end of the dive bad viz, good viz, sunny day, rainy day choopy sea, calm sea . I know its difficult task but we try. But we really stop customers from disturbing these creatures. Few days back we had this guy from Uk who took out the snorkel and poked a moray eel . Thats really bad. The intention of this thread was to get a feedback from dive customers on what they expect from their tour guides and feed back from DM's what they do .

 

[Web Monkey]

Okay dive lover. Why don't you suggest what you would expect from your tour guide.
1. Watch you back and protect you from injuring yourself
2. Ensure that you remain with the group
3. Show you interesting stuff and explain what you saw while on boat
4. Provide data to fill your log
Please feel free to response. I will definitely not start a war.

Out of 1, 2, 3 and 4, I'd choose "None."

Terry

 

[tridacna]

Terry,

Just curious. What DO you expect from a DM?

Only thing that I do want is the first half of three.

 

[andydiver06]

Hey Terry,
Those points were not actually meant for you. Anyway you never said what you would expect or what you would do then you become a dive con.
Let me tell you something - one day I was diving with this DM from SoCal and a German MSDT . within 15 minutes into the dive the MSDT vanished. Me and the other DM searched for him the rest of the time till he came up after one hour. We stopped our dive and tried to follow the bubbles but it was no luck. Banged our tanks for recall etc.etc. The Dm from So cal was doing a fun dive and the MSDT unnecessarily spoiled his day. Thats gives bad name to a pro but we get both sides of the coin what to do.