Why the hating on Tech?

[Sas]

I think the people who hate on it, who are experienced recreational divers, are jealous. Of other people's skills/quals, and/or the fact that they have the time and money to do technical diving. Not everyone who wants to do, and is capable of, technical diving can because of time and money and yea, can be resentful about that.

The ones who hate on it that aren't experienced as divers are generally just ignorant and think it is dangerous and showing off and so on.

My 2c.

 

[Van Isle]

One day of chilling at my LDS and you can meet world-class UTD, GUE, or TDI tech instructors and you can meet world-class recently DIR-F'd douchebags. Both types represent some personalities in tech diving, but the douchebag "tech divers" are the most visible and most vocal. They never seem to dive for fun, they have a HATE on for snorkels, and they slag every course that isn't one that they have taken. This is not good business for instructors or shops trying to make money by teaching divers, and it pains a new diver to be slagged, or have his "stoopit" brand new BC mocked by a "senior" diver. The recreational instructors resent this intrusion by the vocal (and usually relatively ignorant and new) "tech" contingent. IMO the "real" tech divers have reasons to go to depth, or extend bottom time. They don't talk about how "hard" or "cool" it was to do a tech dive, they talk about how cool it was to visit this wreck, or see that cave, or see certain kinds of deep life.

I'm not sure if I am making sense.

In short, there isn't a generic "hate on" for tech divers, it's that some folks appear to hate some tech divers or their attitudes, or distrust what they might be trying to do to their shops, customers, or clientele.

 

[Hatul]

I think the people who hate on it, who are experienced recreational divers, are jealous. Of other people's skills/quals, and/or the fact that they have the time and money to do technical diving. Not everyone who wants to do, and is capable of, technical diving can because of time and money and yea, can be resentful about that.

The ones who hate on it that aren't experienced as divers are generally just ignorant and think it is dangerous and showing off and so on.

My 2c.

That's my thinking as well. Tech diving is beyond the skill level of most scuba instructors, who teach recreational diving. A good teacher is glad to see a student overtake them in skills, but many turn resentful.

Adam

 

[lowviz]

That's my thinking as well. Tech diving is beyond the skill level of most scuba instructors, who teach recreational diving. A good teacher is glad to see a student overtake them in skills, but many turn resentful.

Adam

I respectfully disagree a bit. Tech diving is an extension of the average instructor's skills, not too much of a big step for a good instructor. However, the students and money just aren't there for most instructors. -Damn shame.

 

[shoredivr]

I'm sure the percentage is just a made up number. It's actually much less random than that.

"Not dying" requires carefully planning the dive including depth, time, gas required, emergency procedures as well as frequently practicing emergency skills with your buddies.

If you screw up on a no-deco dive, you'll probably live. If you screw up with a 60 minute deco obligation or "get lost" inside a cave or wreck, or don't treat your re-breather just right, you probably won't.

Those of us who know people who fell into the second group aren't so quick to think of technical diving as "regular diving, with more stuff".

If you have anybody at home who would be devastated when the State Police pull up in front of your house instead of you, I'd suggest a little more careful consideration.

flots.

While I agree that not dying requires planning, do you have any statistics to show the number of "recreational diving" injuries/deaths vs the number of "technical diving" injuries/deaths? Granted the exact number of divers, and definitions of what's recreational vs technical are not really nailed down, but there are certainly enough "recreational" injuries/deaths for me not to assume injury/death does not occur to "recreational" divers.

 

[meagicano]

My PADI OW course was taught by a tech diver - I've learned a lot from him, including not blindly following the herd in terms of outfitting myself. I don't like having a lot of bells and whistles and I never liked the feeling of the jacket - so because of my instructor, I was introduced to the world of bp/w, harnesses, etc. As a reasonably new diver this is still a choice that gets a LOT of commentary when I meet up with people from our local dive shop to go diving.

Other "tech" things that I do include bungee mounts for my compass and computer, using just a SPG instead of the full console (which everyone else seems to do), DIN regs, etc. Another BIG thing is just carrying what I need for the dive - I don't bring along extra gadgets or gear that I don't need. I also don't attach my knife to my leg.

And, as discussed above... I don't use a snorkel.

With respect to lessons, I've learned a lot about gas management, planning and how to be self-reliant. I've been fortunate in that he's never blindly pushed the buddy system - yes, it's important and you should stay with your buddy, but he has also helped me to see where I should have redundancy in equipment and how I can help to make myself a safer diver and know how to get myself out of trouble if necessary.

My instructor is not arrogant at all about tech diving - he's very upfront with me about it when I have questions about the dives and training he's experienced. He's also very upfront with me about costs and how much the hobby actually counts. Another benefit is that he's been involved in some close calls and actually saved one of his tech instructors' lives during a training dive - again, he's really open about it and the lessons he learned.

 

[RJP]

Just curiosity...

Why the hating on Tech?

Many people hate/fear what they do not understand.

"Hey, that person's different than us... let's kill 'em!"

So far, I have literally NOT MET ONE PERSON that had anything good to say about it.

You need to meet more people.

Seriously.

 

[Aerosynth]

You need to meet more people.

Seriously.

Different people.

 

[RJP]

One day of chilling at my LDS and you can meet world-class UTD, GUE, or TDI tech instructors and you can meet world-class recently DIR-F'd douchebags. Both types represent some personalities in tech diving, but the douchebag "tech divers" are the most visible and most vocal. They never seem to dive for fun, they have a HATE on for snorkels, and they slag every course that isn't one that they have taken. This is not good business for instructors or shops trying to make money by teaching divers, and it pains a new diver to be slagged, or have his "stoopit" brand new BC mocked by a "senior" diver. The recreational instructors resent this intrusion by the vocal (and usually relatively ignorant and new) "tech" contingent. IMO the "real" tech divers have reasons to go to depth, or extend bottom time. They don't talk about how "hard" or "cool" it was to do a tech dive, they talk about how cool it was to visit this wreck, or see that cave, or see certain kinds of deep life.

I'm not sure if I am making sense.

In short, there isn't a generic "hate on" for tech divers, it's that some folks appear to hate some tech divers or their attitudes, or distrust what they might be trying to do to their shops, customers, or clientele.

Long story short, there is a large percentage of obnoxious, arrogant, vocal @-holes in the population at large. To expect that this portion of the overall population would not be reflected among any give sub-group - such as tech divers - is simply naive.

 

[gypsyjim]

Different people.

Good point. A lot more of the same people would not do much to expand one's horizons, would it?