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A lot of this should be covered in OW but isn’t.
Stressing out the marine life is not cool and leaves them open to attack. Unfortunetly I’ve had dive guides do it thinking it would make a good picture and it has cost them their tip.
That sand bottom isn’t a dessert, there are things living in the sand, one spot in the Bahamas where there was a shark feeding had everyone sit on the sand. When the sharks were not being fed it was a favorite spot for photogs to shoot Yellow jawed Gobi’s with their mouth full of eggs.
Silting up the bottom disturbs what’s living there and ruins the vis for everyone else, there is one shop I won’t travel with anymore because the owner/instructor won’t tell his newbies to stay off the bottom.
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Your right, I teach it BUT most instructors do not.
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Greg - 8/02/2010 5:11 PM 
I try to always tell my students to "only take pictures and leave bubbles".
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man you are so right ,,we were just up Dutch and a group of us were at the comet ,and this girl was kicking and kicking and was not going no where ,she made a cloud about a 30 foot you almost could not see the boat ,,,if that was the reef she would have destoyed a big part of it ,,,I tell who I dive with stay off the bottom about 8 foot this way they know it wont stir a cloud but most important not to destoye the reef,,,,this is a great practice
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Jim your very right. We seem to get more and more bottom dwelers, and rude divers ar Dutch every week. Try to get into the water with people lounging on the entry platform is near impossible.
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A lot of chatter here but unless someone here was born with gills, (other then me of course) J
We all had/have some really bad skills.
What might serve us all well is to always try and take an interest in less experienced divers.
As with teaching anything it can be very rewarding watching other grow.
Yeah it’s amazing some of these people ever escaped the dive class but that’s another issue.
Be polite be helpful and most new divers will be glad you took the time.
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I have found diving to be very similar with my years of paintball. Not to compare the very different sports, but growth in them is very similar. I am just getting back into diving after moving from a land lock state and its been a small struggle to regain a lot of the skills i had learned. It seems all to often that people are willing to criticize and mock those with less experience instead of offering advice in a non threatening way. Once i started going pro with paintball, i took the advice of the people that trained me and took in some new players to teach skills and tactics too. This helped them out immensely but also helped keep my skills on my mind instead of just second nature.
With that said, i think you hit the nail on the head with your comments and also taught me something. Although i have not encountered a puffer fish, i never knew about the stress involved in their ballooning. I thought it was natural. I would be very interested in a thread or site dedicated to further education and etiquette. Good luck with this and thank you for the post.
Also, lets keep this awesome sport of ours growing in a positive manner and offer to help or guide other divers who need it. We never know the comfort level or nervousness of others around us until we ask. I know there have been several divers in my life that have helped make my dives more enjoyable just by offering tips and advice from their experience.
Cheers,
L
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There was a father/daughter team diving in the Key’s, she was a small girl wearing dads hand-me-downs dive gear. The BC was too big and she was overweighted so she moved thru the water almost vertical fining up the bottom and kicking the reef whenever her father stopped to take pictures. I suggested he work on her trim so she could get horizontal and get a better view of the reef. He lashed back that she likes swimming that way!
On a trip to Roatan a woman in our group was swimming the same way. Back on the boat I told her (quietly) she was overweighted and should try taking off a few pounds each dive. After she finished steaming over this guys rude remarks she figured out I was talking about her gear, not her. By the end of the week she had shed 8 pounds of lead and was grinning ear to ear when she saw me underwater.
Another no-no is waking sleeping Parrotfish with your lights, circle them, don’t highlight them or cook them with your HID! They can only make one cocoon per night that protects them from predators. Since most night dives are really twilight dives they are now open to attack the rest of the night!
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See...I just learned something! re: Parrotfish...thank you! : )
And I completely agree with being friendly, open and offering tips to those who might appreciate them...a big part of my love of diving was the friendly and encouraging learning environment I had, and how those more experienced that I, were so willing to take the time to teach and encourage me. Still, I have also made it my responsibility to ask and watch and "try" to emulate those more experienced...I STILL DO! : )
What I love about diving is that you never stop learning and refining.
I also think a non-judgemental forum is a great place for those who have experience to offer it and those who wish to ask for advice and tips to be able to do so without criticism and judgement.
s.
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I am a new diver and yes I believe that the shortened classes leave a lot out that we really should know and refine. I appreciate it when someone advises me if I’m not quite correct (or completely wrong) with my skills. I appreciate it more if it’s done politely. It all takes time to and desire to get better and I for one want to get as good as I can at diving because I plan to be doing it for the rest of my life! I thank the divers that have taken me under their wing to help me along!
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Yes its nice to be friendly but as latitude said,, which ive encountered before,, the "Diver that knows it all". Sadly in a small way i laugh at their ways, i had a diver next to me he was over weighted, struggling, over kicking, I said "Hey man why dont you try droppin some lead"? his response " I have over 60 dives i know what im doin" yep he knew he wanted to be an anchor instead of a diver. it seems that some not all of this isnt always instructors faults, its when the newbee starts cutting corners resulting in "My Way" and now they have thier c card and is a divers diver now! typically when im with or near a diver of this attitude ill keep them at or around a 11 or 2 O’clock postion from me, to keep them in my sights and theres less of a chance ill get swarmed in their silt cloud and incase of an emergency with them!
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i couldn’t agree more. padi requires you to choose five specialties for your aow certification. They also require that deep and navigation be two of those five. at our shop, we require that peak bouyancy be one of your three choices. something else that really chaps my hide is the people who get a digital camera and now they are Stan waterman or stephen frink !!! they kick up and over everthing down there. not to mention crashing into other divers.
another thing that should be discussed is what my wife & i call the "human bait ball". there have been several times that she hovers over "something" cool to look at. she’ll call me over to let me look at it. All of a sudden, a mass of other divers just have to see what we are looking at and come crashing into me/her/both. we’ve been knocked into the reef and even had equipment knock awry. i now dive with a spare mask because of having my mask kicked off during one of those "bait balls". when we take customers on a trip, we avoid big groups and make sure to plan plenty of "private" diving for ourselves.
that’s just the beginning.....there are sooo many other things that need to be discussed. this may need to be put into a series, lol.
sorry, i’ll get off my soapbox now
bouyancy is EVERTHING........almost.
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The more I read this the more I remember, if you’re new to diving get comfortable with the diving before you add to your task loading by adding a camera so you don’t go crashing into the reef, other divers or something sharp on a wreck while your fidgeting with your camera settings.
Don’t reposition something to make a better picture, there’s a reason that critter didn’t want to be on the stinging coral or insight of that moray!
If the DM/guide finds something interesting wait your turn, if it’s that small you didn’t find it yourself it probably isn’t going anywhere soon. When it’s your turn move in, take a look or a picture and get out cleanly.
If you find something you can linger a little longer but not much and point it out to others as you leave.
If you are diving on a wall try not to swim under a photographer, your bubbles will ruin his shot and loosen silt on the wall.
If you bump me off a critter or silt up my shot I will not point out my finds to you until your behavior improves :)
If you would like your picture taken watch for good shots and sign the photographer.
http://www.divebuddy.com/members/photos/pic_10844_32235.jpg
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When we talk about dive etiquette we are not only talking about keeping off the bottom. I get so frustrated when another instructor swims his class through the middle of my class, or a group of divers lounge around the entrance and exit points talking about their dive when other divers are trying to get into or out of the water. This is also a part of etiquette. More importyantly it is common respect for the other divers.
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From scubaclay: When we talk about dive etiquette we are not only talking about keeping off the bottom. I get so frustrated when another instructor swims his class through the middle of my class, or a group of divers lounge around the entrance and exit points talking about their dive when other divers are trying to get into or out of the water. This is also a part of etiquette. More importyantly it is common respect for the other divers.
clay,
that is why i said this was just the beginning, in my previous post. This really could be a series of things. i agree with your post 110%.
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co-existence or NO- existence we all got to get along on and off the water,
stay off the reef’s, back AWAY from the coral’s, and OFF gas above the crowd !
common curtsey goes along way ! you expect it, ? SHOW IT !
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We are lake divers in my neck of the woods, so we stress control and staying off the bottom. Obviously, this does take a little time for some divers to master. Overall, I think our divers are good about staying off the bottom because we dive in silt.
That being said, I agree that as an instructor I probably do not spend enough time explaining the importance of not bothering ocean life. While we tell our students "take only pictures and leave only bubbles". I think that we spend most of our time with the mechanics of diving and safety.
Hindsight being 20/20, I think we do most of our conservation preaching in conversation as opposed to making it a larger part of the course. We do stress this when we do dive trips to the ocean; but, you are correct, we need to spend more time on this early on in the Open Water stage.
Thank you for this forum topic as it has shown me something I can improve upon as an instructor.
To the other instructors reading this, make an honest assessment of your own instruction and ask yourself if you have been doing your share as a leader in the dive industry. I can honestly say that, in the past, I have not.
As far as giving tips to new divers... none of us would be old divers if the old ones before us did not tell us the proper way to do things.
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