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Married Divers Matter, Too. "We had a divemaster
who totally ignored the two of us and just
focused on the female diver, who was the only other
diver on both dives."
There was a day when this complaint was common,
but not so much anymore at most popular
dive centers and liveaboards. Still, there are testosterone-
fueled divemasters out there, particularly
in the Third World. Gail Morris (Piedmont, CA),
whom we quoted above, was assigned that kind
of guy at the Atmosphere Resort and Spa in the
Philippines. "Since the visibility was about 10 feet,
it was annoying and then dangerous when my
husband was low on air. I wasn't low, but I had to
keep swimming to the divemaster, who ignored my
signals for 700 PSI, then 400 PSI, and then 200 PSI,
when I finally had to grab his arm and make him
take us up to the boat. There was boat traffic, so we
were afraid to ascend without him." Thankfully
these days, responsible dive operators don't tolerate
dive guides who covet single women underwater.
A Divemaster You Don't Want to Stay Together
With. If you're off the beaten path, it may be at
a place where the divemasters play by rules you
don't cotton to. C. Leroy Anderson (Salt Lake City),
who has more than 1000 dives in his log book, traveled
to the Indian Ocean in October to dive at Fifth Element Resort on the French island of Reunion,
east of Madagascar. He says, "I was almost out of
air at 60 feet, so I informed the guide, who said this
was 'OK' and not to ascend. When I was down to
250 psi, he still wanted me to remain with him at
60 feet. I did not want to drown, so I initiated an
ascent. When I got to 30 feet, I had 150 psi in my
tank and was continuing a slow safe ascent when
the guide suddenly and aggressively grabbed my
jacket and pulled me back down to 60 feet with him.
He signaled me to follow him. I could tell I only had
a few breaths left in my tank. We arrived at the boat
anchor, then did a very rapid ascent to the surface,
where I arrive totally out of air. I asked him why on
earth he behaved this way on the dive and he said,
'In France, divers must stay together.' Even if one
has no air left."...
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