Tag Archive
Nightmares of the Scuba Police
Diving used to be a fairly laid-back and non-confrontational leisure activity. In fact, in the early days most divers were generally considered to have a few screws loose but that was part of the appeal. The idea that diving was inherently a flirtation with a real or perceived danger was pretty much a "given" by both the participants and their amused observers. Everyone seemed to get along just fine, and with the advent of a fledgling "dive travel" industry that allowed the sport to be pursued in the hospitable and intriguing islands of the Caribbean or Bahamas, diving became a true family sport for the first time. But over the years, our sport has increasingly become burdened with the ugly spectre of a crusading right wing "scuba police" determined to save divers from themselves. Since the late 1980s, the trend of progressively more restrictive regulations in the sanctimonious guise of "safety" is rapidly turning the sport's experienced divers into alienated and angry consumers. Most importantly, there is no quantifiable data to support such rules as depth limitations, mandated no-decompression diving, absolute bans on alcohol consumption, denied use of diving computers, limitations to numbers of dives per day etc. Significantly, DAN and the UHMS have reversed their recommendation on not flying within a 24-hour period following diving for the simple reason that there was no evidence to prove this rule's validity. During the period that this recommendation was observed, some overzealous resort operators used it as an excuse to deny diving to vacationers on the day before they departed. Interestingly, those operators that were most rigid in enforcing the 24-hour flying rule were those that sold "inclusive dive/hotel package plans". They were, in essence, denying a portion of the pre-paid diving service to customers citing this arbitrary "safety" recommendation. Many customers that purchased a... More »
Great Minds Think Alike
The response to my recent Undercurrent blog posting (about stupid rules) from so many readers left me chuckling at their own experiences with nit-picking nonsensical rules enforced by the "village idiots" that somehow end up as divemasters or instructors. I've enjoyed reading your input and am cheered to know so many of you share my opinion of the self-appointed "scuba police." Dawn is one reader who really hit the jackpot: "Thank you for speaking out on what many of us have believed. One of my first instructors was so strict on the 'don't put your mask on your forehead' rule that he scared the crap out of a student. The entire class was resting on the surface of the training pool, listening to our teacher, in the middle of the pool, answer a question. One student, who was near the edge of the pool, had his mask in the forbidden position (on his forehead) as he listened attentively. Another instructor, who had told us the rule the day before but was not teaching us that day, snuck up behind the offending student and physically hauled him out of the pool by his BC. His excuse for disrupting our class and painfully yanking this poor guy out of the pool was 'your mask was on your head so I thought you were in distress.' No one bought this for a second. He was obviously more concerned with our adherence to an arbitrary rule and, more importantly, to his authority, than he was with helping us become good divers." Dawn, I hope that you all got out of the pool and proceeded to give that moron who yanked the student out the pool what I call the "50-50-50 Dive." That's when you give someone like that a 50-pound weight belt, 50 psi of air, and... More »
Dive Operators Who Need Some Training
I was recently privileged to be invited on a press trip to the British Virgin Islands. I was accompanied by numerous writers and photographers from the world’s diving press, and the team from the Tourism Office headed by Abigail O’Neil went out of their way to give everyone a good impression of the diving, dining and accommodation available. Part of the deal was that we stayed at a different hotel and dived with a different operator every day, which, although a little arduous in that we had to constantly pack and repack our gear, gave us an idea as to which operations we would choose for a longer stay. I am always amazed that some magazines send people on trips that warrant a Discover Scuba course, but there were some of us who had somewhat more experience. The BVI culture is very British, even among those who were born elsewhere but have taken up residence. Most of the diving operators assessed our various individual skills and adjusted the manner in which they controlled what we did. Those that needed it had their hands held. For me and most of my colleagues, I could say that they were so relaxed they were horizontal. They wanted us to get the best material we could for the articles we were to produce and did nothing to obstruct that. All the operators, that is, except one. Newly arrived from Colorado where they had recently completed their PADI instructor courses, a young couple ran the dive center at a rather nice resort in the manner that they believed was right. They ran it by the book. I was a little surprised when I boarded their vessel to have my equipment ridiculed but as I pointed out to them in no uncertain terms, it’s the way I dive and... More »
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