Experienced Divers: Will You Dive With Newbies?

[ZoCrowes255]

Depends on the situation. I remember when I was first started really getting into diving I had a lot of great people dive with me and give me pointers so I try to do the same for others. I will pretty much dive with anyone once. If they do something that I feel is completely unsafe and refuses to change (EXTREME overweighting, did not stay in contact with buddy etc.) then that will be the last time they dive with me unless I am getting paid for it. That situation is very rare.

There are a lot of people who dive with me who are new divers. I try my best to include everyone because we were all newbies once.

Only other exception I make is if it is on a MAJOR dive that I have been wanting to go on. If I paid to be on a dive boat doing a dive that I have never done before and is deeper than 50 feet then I prefer not to be with a newer diver that I have never dove with before. It puts too much responsibility on me that I don't need.

Overall I love diving with new people though. They have an enthusiam and sense of wonder that is great to see.

And once again I am still learning. There are a whole lot more divers out there who are more experienced than I am and I hope they can help me along too.

One good deed deserves another and karma and all that.

 

[STOGEY]

I don't mind diving with hoovers at all... unless I've paid for a boat dive. Then I get selfish. Most hoovers (thought not all if you've read through the other thread) feel no obligation to recompense the poor diver whose dive was cut short by their hoovering.

Let's say we go out to dinner at an expensive (French) restaurant and you start forking down my food as well. I probably wouldn't be thrilled about paying my half of the bill. However if you started choking on your venison and then threw up all over my plate... hmm... I still wouldn't want to pay.

Let me think of a good illustration...

What if you don't like french food?

 

[Uncle Pug]

The French Resturant bit was for OE2X who used to be a sous-chef in a very expensive French Resturant.

Me... my fav is Tai.

 

[PlanoDvr1]

I am a newbie with only eight dives, 4 in the quarry and 4 in Cozumel. I took it upon myself to acquire a private DM to get me and my wife over those first dives in the ocean. Really, the newbie should recognize this and go that extra mile so more experienced divers can do their thing. It was an experienced diver on the boat that gave my wife and I pointers that we value a great deal and were very useful in the those first dives. My wife and I have always been considerate of others and we made the right decision.

We are diving Destin, Florida in May and I still don't consider us experienced...at all. I will be hiring our own DM again. Maybe after these dives we can go it alone. We will wait and see. But w/o the knowledge transfer it takes newbies longer to learn.

I for one appreciate the experienced divers taking their time and filling me in.

________
Doug

 

[NauticalbutNice]

Scuba Diving is an expensive sport and I can't always afford to pay for someone to guide me/help me on dives.

Luckilly the group of guys that I dive with are really kind about helping newbies. I recently dived with one for the first time and after the dive he told me that he was impressed by my performance, but gave me some pointers that I could work on.

If it wasn't for experienced divers giving me help, there would be very little improvement for me.

I thank those who have helped me out so far, whether through diving or advice (including folk on the board like Scubafreak, Walter and Dandydon amongst many many others). :07:

When I'm an experienced diver, I will dive with newbies.

Nauticalbutnice :fruit:

 

[CBulla]

Scuba Diving is an expensive sport and I can't always afford to pay for someone to guide me/help me on dives.

If you ever make it to the tropics here I'll dive with ya... or anyone else who is a noob!

"Why not?" is my question. Unless your doing a technical dive or dive with a specific purpose, say putting to film some interesting tiny fish with a macro lense or shooting a larger fish with say a pointed spear, then its about FUN, right?

Yawl just wait till I get the clear to put on dive gear again!! (few more months till late April)... we'll be diving so much we'll get narc'd just getting in a pool!

 

[BIGSAGE136]

If you ever make it to the tropics here I'll dive with ya... or anyone else who is a noob!

"Why not?" is my question. Unless your doing a technical dive or dive with a specific purpose, say putting to film some interesting tiny fish with a macro lense or shooting a larger fish with say a pointed spear, then its about FUN, right?

Yawl just wait till I get the clear to put on dive gear again!! (few more months till late April)... we'll be diving so much we'll get narc'd just getting in a pool!

How about Splashdown to welcome you back?!

 

[Richard Alvarad]

An open water class teaches you to blow bubbles, it's getting out and experiencing diving that makes a diver better. We were all a new diver once, and I for one would still be thrashing around if it wasn't for more experienced divers taking me in under their wing to show me the right way to do things. Now, I'm an instructor myself.

 

[Azza]

I am a newbie with only eight dives, 4 in the quarry and 4 in Cozumel. I took it upon myself to acquire a private DM to get me and my wife over those first dives in the ocean. Really, the newbie should recognize this and go that extra mile so more experienced divers can do their thing.

No reflection on you PlanoDvr1 however this is a sad fact with the dive industry of late. You really shouldnt have to acquire a private DM to get over those first few ocean dives. You should come out of your OW course with good skills and confidence with your in water abilities.

My wife and I have always been considerate of others and we made the right decision.

You really should be commended on this. Well done.

 

[Azza]

If I am doing a shore dive around the south coast i will encourage noobies to come diving with me. I enjoy helping noobie divers attain a better standard of diving and we have the benefit of being able to swim off the shore and descend into 5-15 metres (20-50 ft) of water where i live and its great for noobie divers to get familiar with being "in-water"

However if i have paid $100 for a boat dive then i am a little reluctant to dive with noobies. IMO the DM (if available) should dive with all the noobies and let everyone else go for it. However if i see a noobie being buddied with a cowboy (read unsafe) diver then i would rather see that noobie dive with me and retain some interest in diving rather than being put off for life by a reckless crayfish mad bottom grubber (lots of them here in NZ).
I hate being dictated how to dive (ie when the DM gives max depth and time) when I cough up hard earned cash as I hav'nt spent over $20k in tuition and gear to be told how to dive.
In saying that if I am overseas without a buddy for any length of time (Not that that is likely to happen as I dive with my GF all the time) and it looks like we are to be buddied together for the duration, I will ask the dive shop to give us some tanks and let us go for shallow beach or pool dives and give the noobie some good tips on good buoyancy control and breathing exercises. It’s amazing what floating around on the bottom of a pool for an hour or so will do to someone’s SAC and buoyancy.
I will then dive with that buddy for the duration of the trip apart from two dives. I have to get a couple of good deep long dives in if I am shelling out hard earned cash as I don’t have enough of it for regular trips.