How is YOUR diving etiquette?.......

[Puffer Fish]

No, not rude; just ballsy as all get out. Into getting Tazed are we?

Recently, all the ones I have seen were carrying M16's and 9mm's... and we let them look anywhere their heart desired. But I think this falls under common sense.

 

[Hragin]

I must say it was fun listening to the many comments about flippers/goggles, etc. The Rant was fun as well, and yes it should be common sense. I will add one item from a recent experience. I was in Key Largo, in Feb., for some diving on the reefs. On the boat, because I had my AOW, I was buddied with a new OW diver. he was pleasant enough, and when all was done we had fun, but I was "made responsible" for the both of us. It was good buddy practice for me, but I was doing all the buddying (air, cold, etc.) I didn't like being put in that position without being asked, especially since the DM had no idea what my skills were. As the dive was shallow, and the vis good, it wasn't major, but I thought it inappropriate. Is this commonly done??

 

[Quero]

I was in Key Largo, in Feb., for some diving on the reefs. On the boat, because I had my AOW, I was buddied with a new OW diver. he was pleasant enough, and when all was done we had fun, but I was "made responsible" for the both of us. It was good buddy practice for me, but I was doing all the buddying (air, cold, etc.) I didn't like being put in that position without being asked, especially since the DM had no idea what my skills were. As the dive was shallow, and the vis good, it wasn't major, but I thought it inappropriate. Is this commonly done??

This question actually merits a thread of its own since it's a serious issue which is sure to engender quite a lot of comment and discussion. So first of all, I guess I'd suggest to a mod that the thread be split off immediately.

Although I have not personally experienced this phenomenon in the small proportion of my dives I've done in US waters (and I never conceal my true diver rating as some other pros do) I have heard that what you describe has sometimes been reported as being the case in the US. As you can see from my location and profile, the overwhelming majority of my diving has been in non-US waters.

I can say that we don't do this here in the part of the world where I work.

In the first place, we don't consider AOW to be an especially advanced cert all on its own (no reference to yourself intended, Hragin). More important to us is a diver's dive count. Whenever I make bookings I gather three key bits of information regarding a diver's history: cert level, dive count, and date of last dive. Based on this information, we group the divers primarily according to experience (dive count and recency), and secondarily according to cert level.

That is, when we have an OW diver with 75 dives, an OW diver with 25, an AOW with 120 and an AOW with 15, the pairings would be: OW/25 + AOW/15; OW/75 + AOW 120. We don't split up dive buddy pairs who are travel companions, though.

After the first dive of the day, we reassess based on actual observed dive skills, air consumption, etc. to make sure that the divers are as evenly matched as we can manage. We don't like to put our more experienced divers in the position you describe having suffered in Florida. We believe our divers are on vacation and should be allowed to enjoy their dives rather than having to worry about being paired up with far less competent buddies.

 

[Doc Harry]

I must say it was fun listening to the many comments about flippers/goggles, etc. The Rant was fun as well, and yes it should be common sense. I will add one item from a recent experience. I was in Key Largo, in Feb., for some diving on the reefs. On the boat, because I had my AOW, I was buddied with a new OW diver. he was pleasant enough, and when all was done we had fun, but I was "made responsible" for the both of us. It was good buddy practice for me, but I was doing all the buddying (air, cold, etc.) I didn't like being put in that position without being asked, especially since the DM had no idea what my skills were. As the dive was shallow, and the vis good, it wasn't major, but I thought it inappropriate. Is this commonly done??

Yes, excellent question, can the mods split this thread?