First Dive w/o a DM

[wvdives]

I met Jim several years ago and intend no disrespect. In fact I mentioned in my first post that I was sorry to offend. My only point is there's a big differnece between giving lots of free advice over the internet and talking about "slinging stages" and scooters and actually doing the dives. Jim doesn't need you to defend him. He needs to get from behind his keyboard and go diving. Probably wouldn't hurt you either.

 

[idocsteve]

^ I told you wvdives has no experience with Scuba Diving.

I should really charge for this.

 

[wvdives]

^ I told you wvdives has no experience with Scuba Diving.

I should really charge for this.

WTF ? I have no interest in being the best diver on the internet. I think I have made my point.

 

[Herk_Man]

So I ended up in a weird situation last month. My brother and I had a chance to do shore dives for one day in Roatan and we couldn't pass it up. The thing is- we're both new divers. For the first dive we had a guide, that was only our 9th dive. We both really wanted to dive a second tank while there, but none of the DMs had time to go with us- so we did a short shallow dive together after. It went fine, but I couldn't help but feel like it was a bad idea. I guess my question is- how many dives did everyone here have before they were comfortable diving without a DM or otherwise very experienced buddy???

Thanks

I've never dove with a DM. Got certified. Dive with a buddy. Unless I am someplace that the dive requires special expertise, I'm not sure why I would use one. But that's just me. I'm very comfortable in the water and I have good buddies. (I'm not anti-DM so keep your flames to yourself. I just haven't ever dove anywhere that I felt the need. But I do plan on doing a UV night dive some time in Bonaire with Bas Noij and I plan on taking Jerry Ligon's fish ID course in Bonaire some time, so that day will come.)

But if you are comfortable with your skills, you stay within your abilities as far as the difficulty of the dive goes, and you have a good buddy that does the same, a DM is probably not necessary. If you enjoy the security that having an expert close at hand offers, then the opposite applies.

 

[idocsteve]

WTF ? I have no interest in being the best diver on the internet. I think I have made my point.

Yes you made the point that you have no diving experience, and it's clear that you joined this board simply to take shots at Jim.

You must feel threatened by him in some way.

I'll guess that since you aren't a diver, you have a significant other who is in the business and is losing customers to Jim.

How'd I do?

 

[dano2036]

After i was certified i have never dove with a dm, all our dives are with friends.I have over 100 dives under my belt in the last 1 1/2 years ( I live to dive) We make a plan gear up and fall in. We always leave one guy on the boat for safety.

 

[Herk_Man]

You're all a bunch of anti- (alphabet soup) rebels. You're supposed to be enslaved to the master of the "Patches". You can only be safe if you're surrounded by more and more patches. The patch printers have told me so.

My early dives were about 2 years before certification. . . you learned to dive by going out with the divers in your club. My first instructor just waded into the end of a small cove. And, I could do anything I wanted in the whole cove. . . Shallow water, sand bottom, it didn't take long to learn to work with the equipment in such a boring spot. More dives, better dive locations, there was simplicity to build skills, but excitement as I explored more and more.

We rebels from the (alphabet police) each broken away from long lines of the enslaved, and we want all the rest of the bubble blowers to join in the revolution. All the usual suspects have jumped into the fray, and if we all stick together we can break the back of the card after card police enslaving divers.

Psst, don't tell anyone here, cuz I'll get flamed deluxe, but my first breath ever off of a regulator was in 60' of water in the Gulf of Oman. But we were at war, we were young, and people were shooting at us every day. So it just didn't seem so scary. (But when I finally went and got certified, one of the instructors from a different group of students that were training close to us came up to me after our second dive and said, "You've dove before, a lot, and you're not telling us, haven't you?" I just shrugged, smiled and said, "I'm not sure what you mean." He laughed and said he was glad I was finally going legal.)

I was pretty proud of that and I was also pretty proud of my dive master flight engineer that gave us our training. It was good enough that I helped rescue an experienced diver on my 2nd dive ever. He was in partial shock after putting his hand down accidentally on a 6 inch sea urchin. Several spines going through his hand.

I'm also very proud now to have a real dive card instead of the one we cobbled together with stuff we cut and paste together with a passport photo. It saves me some interesting conversations with dive op desk clerks. And I'm a better diver for it too!

 

[idocsteve]

Psst, don't tell anyone here, cuz I'll get flamed deluxe, but my first breath ever off of a regulator was in 60' of water in the Gulf of Oman.:

You took a breath of compressed air at 60 feet and you weren't even certified?

I gotta report this

 

[The Kraken]

We are not here on Scubaboard to impugn someone's integrity or diving skills.

If one is not personally involved with a diver and has no firsthand knowledge of the diver's diving history then that person should avoid any denigration, intended or unintended, of the diver's ability.

WVdives, you state that it has been several years since you had the acquaintance of Jim Lapenta, therefore you have no personal knowledge of his current diving history.

That being said, I think it would be in the best interest of this thread to eliminate the bickering and personal denigration.

The Kraken

 

[Jim Lapenta]

How many dives have I actually used the slung bottle on? Let's see. Every deep, advanced skills, and buddy skills and assist dive with my AOW students. Every deep dive I do I switch to it to stay sharp. The last 8 dives I did in Lake Erie. Looking at my log book I see 22 other dives where I used it just for the hell of it. And I see that it was used with mixes from 32-50 % depending on the planned depth. If I'm diving doubles and not training OW students I'm carrying and deploying it. Will I be using the scooter there as well? Since I am buying it I will need to use it as often as possible to stay good with it wouldn't I? I may also add a dive with it to my AOW course.

You say you met me several years ago? Big freaking deal. I've met a lot of people in the last several years. Have you seen my logbook to have the nerve to say I need to back away from the keyboard and dive? In the last 3 years I've been diving in Monterey Calif, Florida, Bonaire, the St Lawrence, Ohio, Indiana, PA, Lake Erie, and yes WVa. Why you chose this time and this thread to attack me instead of actually giving the OP some real advice (which is the purpose of this board), since so many get piss poor training is a mystery. Your profile states that you are a dive pro of some sort. Why not have the balls to ID yourself publicly and give new and maybe experienced divers the benefit of your great wisdom and vast experience? And if you ever run into me at Storm again? On second thought just stay the hell away from me. I can assure you it will not bother me in the least.