September 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 9   What's this?

More Etiquette from the Scuba Snobs

additional rules for you to dive by

from the September, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Last year, we published excerpts from Dennis and Debbie Jacobson's self-published book The Scuba Snobs' Guide to Diving Etiquette. After receiving so much fan mail asking for a sequel, they produced it, with plenty more flouted and unspoken rules of diving. Based on additional "reporting" from recent dive trips and direct input from their readers, the Jacobsons have all new Dos and Don'ts for sport divers to follow.

Here are a few to follow from their new book, The Scuba Guides' Guide to Diving Etiquette: Book 2, but for all the rules -- plus the fun, insightful stories the authors use to illustrate them -- order a copy of this book (and its predecessor) on our "Books" web page.

Don't Loiter in the Entry and Exit Areas

We were on a day boat in Hawaii with about 20 divers aboard. It was a fairly calm day for the Pacific, with one- to two-feet-high swells at most. Following our first dive, people needed to re-board to change out their tanks for the second dive. As we floated in the water waiting our turn to board, Missy Jane boarded, stopped right above the boat ladder and started chit-chatting with a crew member, who apparently enjoyed the encounter. As his vision was locked on Missy Jane about 12 inches below eye level, neither he nor Missy Jane realized another diver had started to climb aboard. That diver was not looking up. He was focused on maintaining footing on a wet ladder. As a result, the boarding diver unknowingly butted Missy Jane's butt with his head, sending her stumbling forward and into the crew member, who then fell into another diver who had boarded before Missy Jane and her cleavage. All three went down, but avoided serious injury. It could have been much worse....