What sets off your alarm bells?

[tkdgodess]

Attitude. That sets my warning bells. Big stories. " Im aow, its fine" (Whoop de do big boy). I just ask when was your last dive and adjust accordingly.

 

[macado]

On most occasions I am usually happy to dive with newer divers so that doesn't set off any alarms for me. I'm happy if someone knows their boundaries and I enjoy helping people. Flashy gear doesn't usually set of my alarm bells since some people like gadgets and like to upgrade their gear. The reverse of that is old gear, sometimes people buy off craigslist/internet.

What does set off my alarm is what I call "Mr. 5000 Dives" You know the guy. he doesn't shut up about all the trips he does and how long he's been diving, classic one upper personality Everything you've done, he has done before and better! That in itself doesn't cause alarm but when you're already on a boat with a group of very experienced divers, you can stop bragging. I dont normally like to buddy up with "Mr. 5000 Dives" if I can avoid it.

I've almost gotten to the point where I don't completely trust people who claim to have 3000 or 5000 dives but have been diving X amount of years. The math doesn't always add up. If someone says they've been diving 25 years, what does that mean if they only do one trip a year and on that trip only do 2 or 3 dives versus someone that's been diving for 2 or 3 years that does a 100 dives a year? Big differences there.

He (or she) will invariably develop some sort of gear problem, be the first to run low on air or even run out of air, have terrible buoyancy, or on a warm water trip will often make a joke about Caribbean not being "real diving" or something. I know i'm overgeneralizing..

 

[Redshift]

What do you guys mean by “I am leery of the quiet types”?

I suck at small talk. When I am an insta-buddy, I will engage in conversation to go over hand signals/communication or the dive plan, otherwise I keep to myself. I am not one to start talking about “the local sports team” with you until we reach the dive site.

I'm also quiet and like quiet when I'm setting up my gear. Quietness alone doesn't set off any alarms.

 

[Steve_C]

Quiet in the sense of not chatty is not important.

However, two types of quiet do set off alarm bells. One is the not want to discuss the dive plan at all type I mentioned earlier. The other is where everybody else is setting up gear and somebody is looking quite, nervous, and a bit apprehensive. Was diving in the Keys. There was a buddy pair, a young couple. Male was walking around the boat, bragging about his 50 dives. Talking about how his newly certified girl friend was doing her first ocean dives. He was going to take her on one or two easy dives then they were going to do the deep stuff. Female was sitting next to her gear, not moving, and staring straight ahead. I started a casual chat. She was clearly very nervous and BF was clearly not helping her get into it. I tried to be casually reassuring but too big a hill to climb in too short a time and BF returned to get her to hurry up. She bailed at the start of dive one.

------

I have found that if I forget something it is because I get into a conversation during setup (like suddenly get a new instabuddy). I have learned to just tell buddy, if they do not know me already, I am going to focus on setup for a few minutes. Then chat/dive plan afterwards.

 

[CamG]

It is very simple depending on the dive better be a basic one for starters.
I look for comfort and any twitch then I pointedly ask about it.
Depending on the response honest or not whether we will be diving.

I have had some great dives with people who are uncomfortable with some aspect but honest enough to tell why.
I then ask if I can either plan a dive to help them or avoid said aspect.
If it is a critical skill problem I differ to suggest they visit a pool to work on that.
This is OW only for more advanced dives it gets a whole lot more complicated!

CamG

 

[jongles]

_{For me its rarely one thing that puts me into full alarm but rather its a combination of little things}. Of course we should all be a little bit extra cautious of a new buddy. Heres some of my cues.

new divers with muck sticks, ding. weight belt on the wrong way ding ding. Oh your weight belt should be right hand release - I'm left handed, ding ding ding ding ding. No buddy checks DING DING. A look of disapointment that we're only going to X depth, ding. Leaving your tank standing on a rocking boat,ding. allowing your alternate(potentially my alternate) dangle about, ding ding. not realising you've forgotten something till your actually in the water, ding. Tying off that pesky loose weight belt bit,DING. knife strapped to the calf, ding. Not talking to me ,ding. Big camera/video rigs ding ding*.



*usually good divers but not always good buddies.

I didn't care for this comment too much. It comes across as somewhat narrowed minded IMO. I strap a knife (BFK) to my inner right calf and one to my left forearm (smaller). There are many divers here in the PNW that do this. Am I a poor diver because I add a pair of EMT shears to the mix as well? I think not. I am a newer diver, my total dive count so far is only 25 and my last dive was in December 2013. Sometimes there are reasons for not being able to get in the water for a few months. If a diver does his/her due diligence on keeping up with their skills then as long as they do what they are supposed to do underwater I don't see a problem.

oops , sorry Lowdrag. I really meant my list to be a bit tongue in cheek and to be honest many if not most of the things on the list are actually things that I've done myself. I've quoted myself above(how wonderfully narcissistic of me) and highlighted the its not one thing but a combination of many little things part. When I see a knife strapped to the calf it only gets a little ding but it does not trigger a full alarm however the knife coupled with other bits on the list can make me cautious simply because there are divers out their who wear knives as a fashion statement. Of course the best way to turn on or off my alarm is by talking to me. everything on my list can be cancelled out before we even get in the water

 

[LowDrag]

oops , sorry Lowdrag. I really meant my list to be a bit tongue in cheek and to be honest many if not most of the things on the list are actually things that I've done myself. I've quoted myself above(how wonderfully narcissistic of me) and highlighted the its not one thing but a combination of many little things part. When I see a knife strapped to the calf it only gets a little ding but it does not trigger a full alarm however the knife coupled with other bits on the list can make me cautious simply because there are divers out their who wear knives as a fashion statement. Of course the best way to turn on or off my alarm is by talking to me. everything on my list can be cancelled out before we even get in the water

No worries jongles, I apologize for not catching on that you were trying to be funny. I like how you said, " can make you cautious", that is a great way of putting that. Maybe we should equate cautious to alarm bells?

 

[boulderjohn]

About problems setting up gear.....

One day last February i was scheduled to do a technical dive and was all set up for it. The dive was canceled at the last minute. I switched to another dive, a basic recreational dive, and went about switching my gear. I hurriedly attached my back plate and single tank adapter to my singles wing, stuffed it in my dive bag, and rushed off. I was actually at the boat early. I got on the boat and started setting up my gear, going through the motions while thinking about other things. I slid the tank bands over the tank and tried to put the low pressure inlfator in place. Something didn't look right. I stared at it for a minute, perplexed. Then I realized that in my rush that morning, I had attached the back plate to the wing upside down. I took it all apart and tried again, grateful that there was still no one on board to see my absolute incompetence at setting up dive gear.

 

[victorzamora]

More proof that these alarm bells aren't always accurate, but should at least make you wonder. All divers do some stupid things. Heck, during my Cavern/Intro class I was so focused on how my tanks were trimming out during a "gear check swim-around" I forgot my fins at the picnic table. It took about a minute before I realized WHY my new fins had so little thrust. My instructor caught me exiting the water in what he calls a cave-breast stroke.

 

[boulderjohn]

More proof that these alarm bells aren't always accurate, but should at least make you wonder. All divers do some stupid things. Heck, during my Cavern/Intro class I was so focused on how my tanks were trimming out during a "gear check swim-around" I forgot my fins at the picnic table. It took about a minute before I realized WHY my new fins had so little thrust. My instructor caught me exiting the water in what he calls a cave-breast stroke.

I was always flustered at the beginning of every dive in my cave training. What was the dive plan again? What skills would I be displaying? One day we set up on the steps of Ginnie Springs and then went through the dive. When we were done and back on the steps, I looked down at my feet and saw that one of my fins was on upside down.