November 2011    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 26, No. 11   What's this?

Scuba Snobs’ Guide to Dive Etiquette

the formerly unspoken rules for good divers to live by

from the November, 2011 issue of Undercurrent  

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Sport diving is laden with unspoken rules. We've published most of them over the years, but there is no single resource where the new diver, the first time liveaboard diver, or the spouse of a longtime diver can turn to find them. At least, not until now. Dennis Jacobson has been diving for nearly 15 years, his wife Debbie for 10. Hooked on diving, they've traveled extensively, they've learned the rules, and with two pair of keen eyes, they have observed too many of their fellow divers ignoring the social rules that maintain order and composure in our sport.

So they wrote and self-published a small handbook on the rules of diving, The Scuba Snobs Guide to Diving Etiquette, and are kind enough to let us publish a few excerpts. We're only quoting a few paragraphs from this fun and useful book. We suggest you order a couple of copies, and next time you encounter an idiot diver, just slip a copy into his dive bag. It may save your trip.

Use a Boat Bag

This is the primary rule of etiquette for day boat diving. It cannot be overemphasized. For those who don't know, a boat bag is a soft mesh duffle bag that can be collapsed to the size of a shoebox or smaller. It will hold all your gear, and it will not be in the way on the boat.

We were once on a day boat out of Lahaina, Maui, and a new diver had a huge hard case for his equipment that was the size of a steamer trunk. It was full of his gear, and he plopped it right in the middle of the dive deck, and left it there. Asshole! It was a real hazard for anyone trying to move around the boat, and he was in everyone's way as well. Get a boat bag, and you might one day be welcomed back on a dive boat. Not surprisingly, this person had other issues too, discussed in later chapters. Your oversized hard case does not belong on the day boat, and neither does that gear bag you packed all your gear in to put on the airplane, bus, train or car that got you to your destination. These bags are big, heavy, and they THEY DON'T BELONG ON A BOAT. Yet we see them constantly. Get a clue. Get a boat bag. There are thousands of scuba retailers who will be very happy to sell you one....