I'm working on a name for the psychological factor I think is in play here. Perhaps it already exists and someone can provide it. For now I will call it "Best I've Seen" Syndrome.
It happens when people with limited experience determine, possibly accurately, that either they or someone they know is the best they have ever seen at some activity. They then conclude that the person in question must therefore be among the best there is. I saw that when I sponsored a high school chess club, and a new player joined, complete with his entourage declaring him to be one of the chess world's greatest players. He was actually a rank beginner who could be destroyed by the weakest player in the club. A recent scuba example is Dr. Guy Garman, who perished after an attempt at a record deep dive, after which the web site of the local divers promoting the attempt said that "he knew more about technical diving than anyone on the planet." That statement was patently absurd--he was a relative beginner. He probably did, however, know more about technical diving than any of his friends on that Caribbean Island, which led both him and those friends to assume he had to know more than the rest of the world as well.
Scuba DMs and instructors who do all their diving on tropical resorts may accurately determine they are among the best divers in those waters, and they then go on to assume that they are also among the best in the world. They know that other divers, divers who must be at about their skill level, go to 200-300 feet with some frequency. Since they have never been anywhere close to the training those divers endure before being certified to do that, they cannot even imagine it. They consequently completely underestimate the dangers and overestimate their ability to deal with them.
Hi Boulderjohn,
I don't know what to call the psychological factor that your are writing about, but your diagnosis is right-on.
I am not an experienced tech diver nor a dive professional. However, I was a Master Mariner who worked in the Merchant Marine. I skippered fishing boats, tug boats, and many other boats. I attended a Merchant Marine Academy. From Alaska to the Gulf Coast, the Atlantic too, and many points between.
I may not able to comment on the dive professional's attitude from a dive professional perspective, but I can comment on the capabilities of the vessel operators whose boats I have dived from. Many of them consider themselves to be exceptional skippers, but they gained their sea time by crewing a vessel that leaves the dock in good weather, and goes a few miles to sea and moors on a well known dive spot, usually with a permanent mooring.
Questions, can they:
Navigate to an Island 240 nm to sea with no GPS--no way.
Find a fuel dock in a harbor that they have never visited before at night in 0/0 visibility--no way (no GPS).
Navigate dangerous reefs with up to 6 knots of current--no way.
Find a safe anchorage in 30 to 50 knots of howling wind and 20' seas--no way.
Perform filter changes in 20 foot seas and know what to do with snot clogged filters (diesel fuel supports the growth of a snot like fungus which clogs filters--if you have a fuel tank full of snot, you had better clean those filters as you are going to be changing lots of them). The fact that you have untreated old fuel is usually not known until you are in rough seas.
How many of these skippers have entered a harbor in fog with no radar, no GPS, nor Loran C?
Other than that, they are excellent mariners.
I have noticed some cocky attitudes regarding their diving capabilities, but I don't have the training or experience to ascertain if they don't know what they don't know.
Bounce dive to 200 fsw with recreational training and gear? Not me!
markm
PS: I have met some blue-water sailors in the dive industry--but they are few and far between.
