Newbie, Poor Diver or Jerk?

[SteFord]

30 dives = newbee.

Dave (aka "Squirt")

Dang it! Really? That's all I had time to get in last month... I'll try to do better in May!

Working my way, ever slowly, to intermediate status!

Steve

 

[exr]

I have patience for new divers on the boat for conversation and questions (I only answer if I have knowledge) BUT, I have very little patience underwater for people other than my dive buddy who is with in 8 feet of me. I will very nicely between dives let them no how I feel. I used to be a newbi and my mistakes were pointed out to me and I learned from them.

 

[eric_in_az]

Newbies aren't always the worst divers, and even the bad ones can often be taught. Some might even be more receptive to constructive criticism if they're new. One of my best buddies was a newbie, and some of the worst were more experienced than I was and thought they should therefore be entitled to ignore me. For example, one decided to take off for deeper water when we were just a minute or two from the no-decompression limit at our current depth. I had to firmly tap him on the shoulder at least three times before he turned so I could show him the rapidly dwindling NDL time on the computer. I guess he couldn't believe a newbie could possibly have anything important to tell him. A few more seconds and I think I would have seriously considered grabbing him by his BC handle and hauling him back! My point is that people can be bad buddies (or good ones) at any skill level, and sometimes you have to tactfully point out those mistakes and say, "please don't do that again."

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

In Cozumel, during safety stops, I was often "that diver." Fortunately, my buddy is a dive master and I've done 80% of my dives with him as my buddy. As a n00b, (with only 30 dives), I find that I have a tendency to subconsciously go wherever I happen to be looking, if what I'm looking at is only a few feet away. I'm working on it. But in the water column during our safety stops, I would find myself drifting closer to him, so I'd just put my hand out and touch his shoulder to maintain distance, or else he'd do the same to me. I wasn't blasting into him or shoving him or anything else. On the last few dives, when I finally quit hoovering my air, (and that's a skill that I am slowly but surely working on, as well), the safety stops also went very well, with a comfortable distance of 10-15' between us.

I had one "oh s**t" dive, where I ended up at 118' on a wall dive and sucked my tank down to 700psi in 22 minutes flat. LOL... Very humbling.

 

[ccohn2000]

RESPONDING TO: hey bob, you have some great points here, anyway here is a laugh for you, as an AI and almost 300 dives, i am or was or so i was hopeing not bad at most of my skills, i know i am and always will be still learning, as the day i think i know it all is the day i may die thinking so, anyway as an AI i took on the task of assisting in a class this last weekend, and was real STUPID!! i went on to help teach this class with a brand new DR BP/W AND BRAND NEW DUI drysuit, i think i sucked worse then every student i was trying to teach,up down air in air out air in drysuit air out of drysuit well and the same with the BC, i think you all get the picture, stupid AI!!! you dont use new equipment to teach , and definatly not two new pieces at the same time, i knew this!! but i did it, duoaaaaaa so laugh!! i did after the class, and yes they all survived and passed though i may have failed!!!lol back to ow class for me!!
__________________
SOLO-DIVER, PHOTOGRAPHER :



I just had to laugh when I read this one. I did the exact same thing at the breakwater this last weekend. Brand new DUI drysuit, and new fins. I chucked the fins after the first dive, but had trouble donning and doffing my old ones as the springs are too short for the rock boots. I had open water students assisting me with my fins, and I actually needed the help. I felt like such a dork. I was working on my weighting and bouyancy too, so I was somewhat less than graceful. Fortunately they either didn't notice or chose not to comment. For once I was warm though, a VAST improvement!

 

[ScubaNorth]

Newbies aren't always the worst divers, and even the bad ones can often be taught. Some might even be more receptive to constructive criticism if they're new. One of my best buddies was a newbie, and some of the worst were more experienced than I was and thought they should therefore be entitled to ignore me. For example, one decided to take off for deeper water when we were just a minute or two from the no-decompression limit at our current depth. I had to firmly tap him on the shoulder at least three times before he turned so I could show him the rapidly dwindling NDL time on the computer. I guess he couldn't believe a newbie could possibly have anything important to tell him. A few more seconds and I think I would have seriously considered grabbing him by his BC handle and hauling him back! My point is that people can be bad buddies (or good ones) at any skill level, and sometimes you have to tactfully point out those mistakes and say, "please don't do that again."

well said, and so true.

 

[Thalassamania]

One of the most uncomfortable dives I ever had was with one of the best divers and best buddies I ever dove with.

I was at a conference at Scripps and Jim Stewart had arranged for some of us to make a dive in the canyon. Burt Kobayashi brought a passel of his instructors along to be our buddies.

I was pared up with a delightful young lady who tried (without success) to swim my legs off going out to the buoy. We got there and dropped down along the canyon wall. We headed out along the North Wall with the wall on our right and the great abyss of nothingness to our left.

But something was clearly wrong, I just could not get comfortable on the dive, I was always feeing out of place, like I had to fight my way back to where I belonged. And then it hit me. We were both instinctively maneuvering for the outside track, wanting the other diver to be between the wall and our self. As soon as I gave up and consciously took the inside track, and spent my time checking out the sediments the problem went away and we had a great dive.