Who owns your hobby?

[Diver0001]

In every endeavor there are going to be elitists. People or groups who, for one reason or another, believe they can make a claim to the "properties" of the act being performed. People who put themselves forth as "authorities" by the sheer thrust of hot-air...

Scuba diving is no different.

Before going further, let's just get a definition out there. When we are scuba diving, what are we doing?
Using an online dictionary, I get this definition: Scuba diving: the activity or recreation of diving or exploring underwater through use of a scuba device.

Who owns that?

- PADI (or one of the look alikes)
- your instructor?
- people on an internet forum?
- DIR divers?
- Cave divers?
- some other special group of divers? Maybe someone who uses (or doesn't use) a certain piece of gear or what not?

Unfortunately for the average diver many such groups have done a pretty good job of propaganda. In main lines we often hear things, either directly or implied the follow the gist of :

1) Group A rejects the level of skill and/or training that group B has and therefore refuses to accept them as (proper) divers
2) Group A rejects procedures and/or the norms and/or values of group B therefore refuses to accept them as (proper) divers
3) Group A rejects group B's gear choices and therefore refuses to accept them as (proper) divers

I call their bluff.

Anyone who dives or explores underwater using a scuba device is a proper diver. Regardless of skill level; regardless of procedures, techniques, gear and... (yes even this) regardless of how much risk they're consciously choose to accept.

If you don't believe so then you are an elitist and probably should stop reading now (to save valuable time) and go think about how you can become a better human being.

What matters is this. Diving is a hobby. What we get is the return (in terms of fun) on the investment in making the dive. Nothing else. I challenge the preconception that we have (or should have) some sense of "universal" norms other than the real biggies that are bigger than our own personal choices, like not damaging coral reefs.

Elitists in this sport have far to much latitude (and leverage) due to their successful PR to take the fun out of diving; to make beginners feel as if they aren't "real" divers; to frustrate divers of all skill and experience levels from all walks of life by holding up some kind of "hero" stereotype of perfection. This negativity should really end and I hope that this post makes people aware that listening to the elitists, while one possible choice, should not be made without the full realisation that ignoring them is an equally satisfactory choice.

Natrually, ignoring elitists isn't going to make them go away. It isn't going to change them. It isn't going to make them happy. It probably won't even stop them from being right from time to time. But it isn't going to give them any chances to ruin our fun either©Ând I would encourage everyone to carefully consider how much of their valuable time they're willing to "waste" on discussions that are ultimately contrived by the few to take the fun out of diving for the many.

R..

 

[Cave Diver]

Anyone who dives or explores underwater using a scuba device is a proper diver.

You should add this:

Main Entry: proper
Pronunciation: \ ˈprä-pər \
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English propre proper, own, from Anglo-French, from Latin proprius own
Date: 14th century
Results
1 a. 1 a referring to one individual only b.

 

[Diver0001]

You should add this:

I'm not sure why you need me to spell this out for you but by "proper" I -- obviously -- was not referring to the definition commonly in use in grammar nor was I reaching for 14 century etymologies.

I think you probably understood perfectly well what I meant and I'm reading your response (for better or worse) as a clever attempt to derail the thread in semantics from the get-go.

Have fun. I'm not particularly interested in that mode of discussion.

R..

 

[AbyssalPlains]

Who cares? I dive the way that makes sense to ME. When someone comes along and tells me to do something differently, I assess the suggestion whether it makes sense to me. If it does, I adopt it. If it doesn't, I ignore it. Over time, my equipment configuration and my skillset has become a patchwork of my experience, there is a little bit of "DIR" in there, there is a little bit of "tech" in there, and there is a good deal of "me" in there.

I don't try to validate what I do through comparison to standards of agencies or other people.

To answer your question, nobody owns my diving, except me.

Don't worry too much about what others think, just go diving and have fun!

 

[OldNSalty]

Who owns your hobby? The LDS and the boat CPT I would say. They can accept or reject my credentials at any time making it hard for me to get fills or catch a ride (although this has never happened). I could mitigate their influence, I don't have to catch a boat to dive around here or I could buy my own (hopefully soon). I could also buy my own compressor (if I had the money).

As to what other groups/agencies, etc think of how I dive I don't really care and I am not sure why any one would.

 

[OldNSalty]

sorry , stupid double post. either my connection or my headache....

 

[drilldaddy_99]

I would encourage everyone to carefully consider how much of their valuable time they're willing to "waste" on discussions that are ultimately contrived by the few to take the fun out of diving for the many.

Kinda like this one??

 

[TSandM]

Rob, who has gotten under YOUR skin?

I think anybody who tries to take the fun out of diving should be ignored at best, or stifled if necessary. However, I also think that better diving skills result in increased diving FUN, and a diving environment that is preserved for the next people who come along.

Nobody owns my sport. But I took a look around a while back and decided what, in this sport, I wanted to own.

 

[muddiver]

Well, some of use have been in the sport long enough to be able to chuckle at all of the alphebet soup that claims "thier way is the only way!"

We just happend to have rudimentry jacket style BC's when I took my first SCUBA class. After that it was pretty much a cylinder (or tank), a first stage with pressure gauge and 1 second stage (commonly referred to as the regulator), a mask that left a black ring on your face, a wet suit, a depth gague, a watch and some sort of flippers. Tables? What are those?

As time progressed and the world of being under water became more intriging I found more comfotable gear to aquire by beg, barter of buy techniques. Also further education made the whole affair safer and more enjoyable.

Was any one set of training standards the best, I don't think so, I'm still alive and I still seldom fully plan a dive from leave-surface to reached-surface. Unless I am working, how do you get bent in less than 130 feet of water using one aluminum 80 cubic foot cylinder of compressed air? It's kind of hard to do. Embolize yes, bent no.

Otherwise I am with pteranodon.

 

[wve]

I agree that it is easy to get caught up in the competition that naturally occurs in many sports (or hobbies, if you prefer) -- even when competition is not supposed to be on the table.

There is always a spectrum of personalities and resulting behaviors. Some could not care less about what others think about how well they dive, what they look like, etc. On the other hand, the obsessive-compulsives among us will continually strive for some kind of perfection that probably doesn't even exist.

Some of us simply compete with ourselves. That is, we want to dive each dive better than the one before. But it is only a short step of human nature to compare one's self-image to the next guy -- as if s/he is the measuring stick.

I have lived long enough to know that there will always be those who are better divers than I, and those who are not (yet). I realize that people have opinions, and they usually inherently line up with the choices they have made along the way. (I mean, assuming you have a choice, why would you advance through agency A if you think it is worthless?)

There are nice people in the world, and there are jerks. Fortunately, in scuba diving I have come across far more of the nice ones than the other. I tend to gravitate towards the nice ones, and I figure the other ones will eventually become Darwin-bait.