Poor diving techniques I noticed during this week's trip.

[Joneill]

I'm compiling video of last weeks trip.

Here's a quick video of my coral kicking, fin dragging instabuddy using a handhold.

Wow - I can honestly say I've never seen someone grab a coral like that - what an idiot! He needs to be talked to so he changes his ways!

 

[caruso]

Wow - I can honestly say I've never seen someone grab a coral like that - what an idiot! He needs to be talked to so he changes his ways!

That was one of MANY times he grabbed on to coral heads.

 

[MargaritaMike]

I’ve discovered it’s much more enjoyable to just post on FB within one’s own circle about the really bad and/or arrogant divers. No confrontations on the boat/at the quarry and one can be as sarcastic as one desires without anyone getting their knickers in a really bad twist.

Maybe that's why no one has said anything about my bad technique to me. They're putting it on FB. Since I don't do FB I've never seen it. And probably never will. Yea!!!!

 

[Zef]

I do it and I teach it. As a guide in the Keys for a few years, this was pretty common. This is my 50th year of diving (June 1969) and I've never been bent.

Just because you do it, teach it, and haven't gotten bent (yet), does not make it a good dive practice.

Any instructor (or diver for that matter) can say the same thing about any poor practice they want to rationalize.

There are countless divers around the world splashing every day that do things that many of us consider to be or know to be dangerous and most do not get injured/bent. That does not make those practices safe or less poor.

-Z

 

[ams511]

Wow - I can honestly say I've never seen someone grab a coral like that - what an idiot! He needs to be talked to so he changes his ways!

I had an instabuddy once that knelt on a brain coral to take a photo of a sponge. He was a total DB.

 

[ams511]

I was a frequent volunteer for www.CoralRestoration.org when I lived in the Keys.

​

​

They need to advertise more, I would have volunteered had I known about them when I lived in Miami. They could have had my aquarium gear when I moved.

 

[The Chairman]

That does not make those practices safe or less poor.

Citation needed.

You don't like it? Don't do it. You want us to join you in not liking it? Show us some data that proves it's unsafe. Obviously, you shouldn't do this while under a deco obligation, but if you're within your NDL, then why not? Don't race to the surface. Don't spend any more time than you need while there. Descend back to the bottom and continue your dive on the correct route. You'll probably create far more bubbles exerting yourself trying to swim back to the boat against a current because you failed to do a commando peek.

Just because you don't like, teach or do a practice doesn't make it unsafe or even poor.

 

[Saniflush]

Dive in such a manner that others want to emulate you. It goes along with that concept: "I would rather see a sermon, than hear one any day!" Set the example. When you're good enough, peeps will notice. I have no qualms pointing out a GREAT diver to the rest of the boat with a caveat to "dive like this guy!"

Great advice! I did the same thing on the boat Sunday although it wasn't really conscious. Had a AI helping with some students. One student was having problems clearing so I came down the line with her while the AI and other students waited for us at the tie in. When we got down the AI was in perfect trim and buoyancy while the two students with him were working on doing the same with a fair amount of success. Back on the boat in the debriefing I mentioned that we should all want to "dive like him". Set the example and try not to be the example.

 

[The Chairman]

My teaching protocol is best described as "Monkey see... Monkey do!" Students want to dive like their instructor, so set a great example and watch them copy you! That's why my students never see me on the bottom.

 

[caruso]

Looking at the guy in the video, it's obvious that he lacks buoyancy control. He's holding on to that barrel sponge to keep himself down. Once he lets go, he starts to drift up. It's an easy fix and one he should have learned in his open water class.

He was alternating most of the dive between handholding barrels from being too positive to being so negative that he was nailing the the tops with his fins. In retrospect I should have taken the flag from him because that was probably exceeding his ability to task manage.