Stop Banging - Diving is supposed to be fun

[Gombessa]

It's never really bothered me. Then again, when I'm diving with a DM, I'm usually sightseeing, and don't mind being shown stuff that I probably wouldn't notice on my own. If I want to diverge from the main group and do my own dive with just my buddy, we always OK that with the boat first, in which case nobody ever tries to bang you.

 

[NudeDiver]

I've never had anyone ever bang anything while underwater, outside of a class setting. Maybe I've just been lucky. Maybe no one wants to talk to me. In any case, if someone has to make noise to get me to look at wild life, then I don't need to see it. I'd rather miss it entirely than have my underwater experience interrupted by someone bangin' on a tank.

 

[mksmith713]

Would a shaker vs a banger make you happier?

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

For my buddy, if I've gotten far enough away, and am paying so little attention, that they have to make a noise to get me to look at them, they should take a tank banger to ME during SI.

I'm wearing out the Thanks button!

As for others banging to tell me about something, I honestly don't care, even on the reef. I like geography, not flora and fauna, that's just my thing. So I like caves, swim-throughs, wrecks, neat looking coral, wrecks, and wrecks. I don't need people pointing things out to me as it happens. Colored fish... Sheesh... I have a pond full of koi at home, that's enough for me.

But everyone else on the dive is there to see the fish, so if I don't want banging, I really shouldn't climb aboard a guided boat. That's just the nature of things.

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Would a shaker vs a banger make you happier?

Good point, the Shakers were strict believers in chastity.

 

[wreckchick]

http://reginald.braythwayt.com. The use of this comment is covered by the MIT License. Read the terms carefully.

The sig line man, what the heck is that and why?

R

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

The sig line man, what the heck is that and why?

<hijack>Well, some people take the view that discussing certain topics in Scuba with strangers is dangerous because they might be encouraged to kill themselves.

Decompression theory and practices is one such topic. Some folks take the view that formal instruction is the only way someone should learn about this and that it is wrong to exchange ideas on the Internet where a complete n00b like myself might think they know enough to do a 170' dive on an AL80. Others--also like myself--take the view that wide dissemination of information for review and discussion is beneficial.

We believe that if you can walk into a bookstore and buy a medical textbook without a license to practice medicine, you ought to be able to chat on line about whether Helium increases decompression time without worrying whether someone will kill themselves. The license text is my way of saying "Take what you will, but be responsible for yourself." It's also my way of suggesting that discussion of theory or practices with dangerous implications ought to be safe for the people discussing it.

And oh yeah, if you're ever compiling your memoirs and you want to quote one of the insanely stupid things I've said, you don't need to track me down to get a release or argue with your lawyer whether it falls under Fair Use.</hijack>

Now back to banging...

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

And here I thought that everyone wanted to bang underwater....

Ahh, visions of Sean Connery and Ursula Andress

 

[Reg Braithwaite]

Ahh, visions of Sean Connery and Ursula Andress

I'm thinking of Claudine Auger from Thunderball if you want underwater banging, but the scenes with Michelle Yeoh in Tomorrow Never Dies come a close second.

 

[Cerveza]

I've never had a DM try to herd me. And I'd much rather they used tank bangers than do what the DMs at KBR did, and wave their lights frantically to get my attention. At least if they bang on a tank, I don't feel the urge to stuff a regulator in their mouths



Now, see, those are the DMs I like the best . . .

Tank bangers are a much more relaxed tool than the dreaded "shaker" when i was DM at a large Spanish centre myself and another DM where both leading dives in the same area and i could hear his from miles away (slight exaggeration) not once or twice but maybe 20 -30 times during the dive, i was fuming it spoilt the dive for me let alone my clients, using a sound tool constantly proves only one thing to me and that is the DM has lost control.. and as for those "blaster" things that sound like a Duck... well they are another story!