EricTheDood
Contributor
Maybe PADI should offer "Self-Aware Diver" as a specialty for AOW.
Rude divers
- Thread starter KatieMac
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MV Dive
Contributor
There is nothing worse than when bubbles mess with your buoyancy. Give them the international sign of the middle finger 
People who are stupid jerks above water will be the same under the surface.
This is my thought as well. When being a buddy for my wife, during her cert dives while down at a training platform, we had another shop's instructor come barreling between the wife and I. Above the surface he was berating students, etc. I didn't feel special that he was rude to us. I felt thankful I didn't get stuck with him.
ratchet04
Registered
People are like gremlins, their top side personality is amplified when wet. Best to avoid the people you describe on the beach as well.
pepperbelly
Contributor
DevonDiver
N/A
I wouldn't leap to assume that such behaviour was necessarily rudeness.
It's also indicative of very fractured situational awareness.
Task overloaded divers lose a lot of capacity to process what's around them, and how it effects other divers.
Sadly, cheap and quick training tends to produce divers who get task overloaded with the simple mechanics of being on scuba underwater.
It's also indicative of very fractured situational awareness.
Task overloaded divers lose a lot of capacity to process what's around them, and how it effects other divers.
Sadly, cheap and quick training tends to produce divers who get task overloaded with the simple mechanics of being on scuba underwater.
Yes there are rude divers out there but they are fortunately the minority.
I have seen it said "Never attribute to malice what can as easily be explained by stupidity." Perhaps these divers didn't realize they were being rude but lacked Situational Awareness, bouyancy control or were just too focused on their camera.
As to what other situations you might run into. I have had a diver descend on top of me and push me into the coral. I cringe every time I think of the way the coral crunched under me. I accept some responsibility for being caught by surprise. I've learned to leave more distance between me and the coral until I work out the skill of all the divers around me and we manage to position a bit away from any potential problem divers.
I had a new diver descend on top of me at our local dive site but I saw the shadow on time to protect the colony of pygmy pipehorse I was taking pics of. So in answer to your question it isn't just divers going under you but also the ones above you have to watch for. In both the cases I describe the divers in question had poor bouyancy control. At the beginning of the dive it is always a good idea to look at the other divers and try to guage their skill set so you don't get any unpleasant surprises. Obviously this may not be an option when you are at a site with other divers entering outside your group.
I have seen it said "Never attribute to malice what can as easily be explained by stupidity." Perhaps these divers didn't realize they were being rude but lacked Situational Awareness, bouyancy control or were just too focused on their camera.
As to what other situations you might run into. I have had a diver descend on top of me and push me into the coral. I cringe every time I think of the way the coral crunched under me. I accept some responsibility for being caught by surprise. I've learned to leave more distance between me and the coral until I work out the skill of all the divers around me and we manage to position a bit away from any potential problem divers.
I had a new diver descend on top of me at our local dive site but I saw the shadow on time to protect the colony of pygmy pipehorse I was taking pics of. So in answer to your question it isn't just divers going under you but also the ones above you have to watch for. In both the cases I describe the divers in question had poor bouyancy control. At the beginning of the dive it is always a good idea to look at the other divers and try to guage their skill set so you don't get any unpleasant surprises. Obviously this may not be an option when you are at a site with other divers entering outside your group.
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Had someone do that to me in a sea cave in Egypt last year ... tried swimming underneath me in a restriction because he wanted to swim faster than me. I reached down, put my hand on his head, and shoved him back behind me. He wasn't happy about it, and we had words after the dive. I tried explaining to him that you don't pass people in a restriction, as it's just asking for problems. It's not a race, and if you want to get in front of someone you should wait until you can do so without interfering with the other diver. He blew me off as uneducated, since he'd been trained by one of the "doing it right" agencies and I had not ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
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KeithG
Guest
It's impossible to eliminate rude divers, but it is often possible to avoid them.
This is one of the reasons we avoid group cluster dives. We use dive ops that allow us to dive as a buddy team and do not mandate staying with the group. We always proactively tell the DM that we will not be staying with the group. Most places it is very easy to stay behind and above the group.
This is one of the reasons we avoid group cluster dives. We use dive ops that allow us to dive as a buddy team and do not mandate staying with the group. We always proactively tell the DM that we will not be staying with the group. Most places it is very easy to stay behind and above the group.
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