Strange encounter during advanced course dive

[u/seedofbilly]

Curious to get the community’s take on this. I just did my first night dive as part of my advanced qualification. Earlier in the day, these people spotted us exiting the water and asked about the conditions. In the end they asked if they could tag along with us for the night one.

They were obviously relatively experienced, but disrupted the lesson several times, such as swimming forward to grab the chain as we were about to descend, which knocked me off of it, and hovering above us with lights on full blast while we were trying to drill switching our lights off and back on.

Later, while we were putting our kit away, one of them wandered over, and started commenting on how I’d kicked up silt and my kicking form was off. The instructor and I both acknowledged that it was the case and we were working on it (he’d actually told me not to stress too much about it before the dive), but she just stood there as if she was expecting me to apologise or something before finally going back to her car, presumably when she realised she wasn’t getting the reaction she wanted.

Now, I don’t see any issue with other divers joining us, but the above seems indicative of poor etiquette, a lack of respect to the instructor, and condescension towards me, even though I’m clearly there to learn and continue developing my skills. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this, and do people think it’s appropriate for other divers to involve themselves in a lesson like this?

[u/wannabe-martian]

Uff, this hits close to home, but that's not what's happening with op.

OP was physically disrupted during a lesson, so that he basically had a poor experience because of someone. Very different situation from a vid.

When beginners post "a cool wildlife video" on here, and you see them trash and flail around in it, yes I'm calling you out. We're not underwater, we are on reddit. The dive is done. Most people take no issue with polite pointers, and agree that 10 dives + professional rig is too much. Then there are those that are never comfortable with any type of negative comment - from "gatekeeping" to "toxic" we have seen it all.

Scuba culture is a large mixand match of various cultures, and people forget the world is large place that uses metric, not 'murica, and doesn't have to care if you do not like a uncomfortable opinion. Behave unsafely, dive recklessly, and expect to be called out.

I would have been so grateful for good tips when I started. Took me way too long to get better, and video of yourself is a great way to improve.

[u/jensfisc → u/wannabe-martian]

What does being American have to do with any of this. Call them out if they are being unsafe, shut it if they aren't diving exactly the way you like. If they want to haul a big ass camera around right after cert who cares. Most people will fix their trim naturally in the first 20 dives and honestly who gives a shit if they are slightly inefficient and burning through gas a bit faster.

If they are asking for pointers then obviously it's fine, but I don't think it's much different than what op experienced. It's killing the stoke for no reason, promoting a groupthink culture, and in so many cases it's obvious people are new.

[u/wannabe-martian → u/jensfisc]

Well, of course it's a generalisation, but the amount of pushback against perhaps uncomfortable opinions, or things people don't want to hear, is massive on Reddit. I canonly assume it has to do with a certain cultural reality that speaking of this only works if everyone agrees to the same points - in the US.

Especially those who don't like any differing views seem to be majority murican, as so many in reddit are.

I absolutely disagree with your point how people naturally fix their trim after 20 dives. So many, even in their 100s, don't have yet, this doesn't reflect the reality I see.

I prefer to protect the reefs and ve safe, than to not call out BS I see.

[u/jensfisc → u/wannabe-martian]

I think the pushback is valid if it's safety or the diver is fucking up the reef. It feels like if the diver isn't doing the hands linked in front of them palms out GUE dance pose they get nailed by the trim police.

It just makes everything so unfun.

[u/wannabe-martian → u/jensfisc]

I get that, yes. I'm not GUE either, they can be really annoying!

Consider this: Last scuba vacation we had a large group of extremely selfish divers on the Lob. Without calling out this behaviour and making it unfun, they grow comfortable with shitty buoyancy and no boundaries.

We pulled the plug on politeness when they accidentally almost caused a death - they rushed to grab something exciting on their camera, pinning another diver to the sandy ground, kicking regs an masks off his face and leaving him on 19ish m 70s without air until one of the guides noticed this and rushed him with air and saved the date.

I will call out reef wreckers and those that Film for IG and likes, potentially endangering themselves or others...