CopyRight @ 1997
This is one of two essays that were broken from a single essay. As such, this is going to require some major editing. Oh well...
Welcome to the weird pages. The way I write, is often puddle of
consciousness. Let it all drip on a page and see what it means. Well,
I did that with this topic and was rather surprised with what the
message was that I had written. Why I dive. Well, in writing about
why I like diving, I found that I was actually venting my 25 plus
years of frustration with the diving establishment. When finished, I
found that the essay was somewhat long and rambling, before I even
figured out what I was trying to say. It had a certain eloquence to
it though. You know, the kind of eloquence that comes to your lips
when you finally lose your patience and tell someone off. Only in this
case, I get to polish it some before I deliver it. That is called
writing, a far better way to communicate than speech.
I know that I am expressing thoughts that many other people have
had as well, even if I am a bit more impassioned and verbose about
this than some others.
This still rambles, but I am not going to spend any more time on
it just now. I would rather write about dive adventures than about
"silly instructors I have met". So here it is...
The problem is that the present dive industry wants to take the
adventure out of diving, a sport that many do for the adventure. If you
are not an adventurous soul, if you only go for the beauty and serenity,
you might as well skip this. But if you sometimes dive for the adventure
of it, read this ramble and see if it doesn't sound like what you have
already thought.
There have always been a lot of divers out there solo diving.
Though the training agencies said that it was never to be done, it was
common and relatively accepted. To the people diving, it was obvious
that danger in diving was a personal thing. There might be hazards to
solo diving, but realistically, danger had to be a measure taken from
the individual diver. Some divers are just deadly to themselves and
others at any depth or conditions. Some divers are poised and in
control no matter what happens. But there was no recognition of this,
partly because the certifying agencies did not want to say that some
people probably just shouldn't dive. It would cost money.
There had always been some controversy about solo diving, but it
was muted and considered politically incorrect before there was even
political incorrectness. Then Robert Von Maier wrote the book "Solo
Diving" and pointed out that solo diving had better be acceptable to
talk about, because it inevitably occurred. He was not talking about
losing a buddy during a dive. His point was that any time you are with
someone who is not able to help you if you get in trouble, you are
solo diving. Funny thing. This is an extremely common situation for
instructors. An instructor must act as a solo diver, because they
cannot rely on their students to help them. It is also a common
situation when buddy diving. Divers start out quite inexperienced and
it takes a fair amount of diving to be comfortable reacting to surprises
or emergencies underwater. You had better not only be ready to solo
dive, you had also better be aware when you are, with or without a
buddy. This got the certification agencies scratching their heads.
I talked with an instructor at Catalina who claimed to have made
more than 2000 dives, never without a buddy. Well, he made his money
largely by gearing up uncertified divers and following them around on a
one tank dive around the park at Casino Point. Well, I hate to say, but
those were all solo dives. That diver with him cannot help him if he
gets in trouble. Also, from what I saw when I met them underwater once,
the way he stays behind his "buddy", he could get gobbled by a kraken and
the guy in front would never have noticed.
Then, there was the resort problem. Resorts get all kinds of
divers. Some are neophytes, but most of the people that go on dive
vacations are divers with respectable skills. I have been amazed at
the skill levels of some divers I have met on charter boats. Well, the
situation that often arose at resorts, was that a dive instructor or
divemaster with a couple of years of diving, is trying to ride herd on
divers with 10 times the divemaster's experience and sense of adventure.
If the divemaster cannot adjust to the skill level of the divers or just
follows the industry line that all divers are neophytes, they are not
going to get listened to by the divers. The problem, is that the dive
industry does not promote trying to figure out the divers skill level,
it just says lump them all together as neophytes.
Then there is me. It's not just that I solo dive, I also dive where
others are not comfortable diving at all, buddy or no buddy. That is
still just not alright with a lot of people. Also, some of my hunters
habits are considered unmentionable, by the dive industry. 500 psi on
the surface. I think not.
Why I dive? Most of all for the challenge and excitement. I am the
first to admit, I like a thrill. Where I like to dive, does not make
for a calm or social event. I am not recommending this for everyone.
This is not the reason everyone dives and diving of the kind that I
talk about here is not to be indulged in unless your skills and
stamina are up for it. This is the way that many people like to dive
though and it is safe enough for them. Then again, I think that a lot
of people are unsafe driving a car.
I have always been a strong swimmer and a pretty big, solidly built
guy. I have been diving a long time. In that time, I also managed to
do a fair amount of water skiing, bodysurfing and snow skiing. I
noticed that I always liked the challenges. That last run across the
lake, at dusk, when it has gotten glassy and my brother shows me just
how fast his flat bottom is. Bodysurfing at Steamers Lane when it is
so big that the little surf nazis on their short boards can't even go
out... and even bigger than that. I like tree skiing. It's a cross
between powder skiing and pinball. Heck, the job I had back then could
get you killed. I did not do it for the danger though and I never got
hurt playing at any of these. Well, I like, maybe need, a challenge. A
suitable challenge.
We come to diving. I have habitually dive remote, rough, nasty,
exposed places, because this is what tends to be the most pristine
and exciting. Life just grows thickest there. I do not often buddy
dive in these places, primarily because it is hard to get a qualified
buddy, but also because I am likely to be hunting, something that is
difficult with a buddy.
I have been repeatedly told that I am not supposed to solo dive.
Actually, I have been told by a park ranger that I was an "asshole"
for even diving at Patricks Point. It was really nice diving. People
may think they know about my diving, but in reality they have only
told me about their diving... limitations.
Because of the technical nature of diving, it is regulated to try
to insure that a diver has a basic knowledge of the equipment, diving
physiology and diving physics. This seems appropriate. There are
easily avoided mistakes to make if you don't know about them. This is
true of many sports. But while other sports make the assumption that
you will then take responsibility for your own safety as you develop
your skills, the diving establishment makes no such assumptions. You
are supposed to dive the same way as you did when you learned the
sport. This is so common that it is widely accepted in our sport. It
is good for the diving establishment to keep divers uncomfortable with
their skills. This is an interesting paternalism that would never be
tolerated anywhere else in our society. Where do these instructors,
with a few years of diving in easy conditions with students, get off
telling me how to dive?
Diving has a habit of bringing out the machismo in some people.
It is not that diving is such a macho sport. No one knows what you are
doing down there. You cannot really compete, except with yourself. It
is very personal. On the surface though, some people just love to
order other people around. I met a gent who owned 3 dive shops in
Hawaii. He said that his main problem was getting instructors that
weren't terminally macho. Power, even small bits of it, attracts the
type who like to tell people what to do.
An instructor for CSUN university was known for not certifying
women. Tell me that that is necessary and not just his attitude.
A regional director of NAUI, dive mastering on a trip on the
Emerald, found out that my buddy had already stopped diving for the
day and tried to tell me I couldn't dive anymore. I said that "only
the skipper could say that". The skipper said "no one dives that I do
not think is safe". That muted things a bit. At the time, more than
20 years ago, I was already more experienced than all but perhaps 2
divers on the boat. The skipper knew this. The dive master did also.
The dive master also knew before I signed up, that I was a solo diver.
But the dive master was not talking safe for me and the conditions, he
was trying to enforce his rules and habits, using the authority of the
industry, not common sense.
Diving has its hazards under any condition. Where there is water,
a person could drown. Really though, it is not much more dangerous
than skiing. Diving has gotten the reputation of an extremely
dangerous sport, mainly because it is exotic. Dangerous for who, when?
I hope that you don't believe that it's safe to expect your buddy to
save you. I have always railed against the busybody individuals that
want to tell me how to dive. When I just want to baffle them instead
of picking on them, I say that my job is more dangerous than diving.
They say "what job". I was an electrician. It probably was more
dangerous than anything less than extreme diving. Polite, sensible
people usually left it at that. If not, I tell them that a buddy is
like a dive knife, pretty useless except if you feel insecure and
anyway it's gone when you need it. (Perhaps not so true now, with gill
nets more common now.) If that doesn't do it, I tell them a buddy is
like a dive light. If it lasts more than 2 years, it's a pretty good
one. (In California, the chill water makes this commonly true.) Now, I
don't even bother to pick on someone about this unless they are an
instructor. They are the only ones that are opinionated enough to talk
to me at that point. So if they persist, I still have my favorite dig.
"I'll be diving when all your students have quit". That one hurts,
because in general, it is likely true.
Diving in rough conditions can be great. When its like that, you
can feel the sheer power of the ocean. It's contagious, the way
emotions are. That power matches my capacity for excitement. That
doesn't even mention the amazing sea life and the colors. Riding the
surge makes me swim like a fish. There you are. I admit it. I'm just
another adrenaline junky. If I was skiing or racing a car, that would
be considered fine. The dive industry, on the other hand, gets weird
and says "you aren't supposed to push it any". Who are you kidding?
There are a lot of sedate dives and sedate divers. I enjoy a calm
beautiful dive of sight seeing and feeding the fish myself, sometimes,
but when I want to get that wild, do you think you can stop me? Do
you expect me to do anything but look at you an smile? Oh, go back to
your office. I feel sorry that divers have to be so apologetic
when all they want to do is have some fun. I would have made a good
pioneer. I believe in self reliance. Like a lot of other divers I
know, I am strong, skilled and careful. How I dive is my choice and
you can stuff it if it doesn't suit your rules. I would strongly
suggest that you don't judge me by your standards cuz I am quite
positive that you don't want me to judge you by mine.
I am not inclined to tell a person how to live their life. Bad
habits that I have thought needed critique are:
1. Losing gear - The first year a diver loses gear. The second year,
they stop losing it. The third year, they start finding gear...
or so they say. Here I am not talking beginners. I have been down
with divers that I am constantly picking up after. It's weird and
they never seem to catch on. They usually do quit soon enough
though.
2. Divers that swim in a small circle under the boat... especially
at night.
3. Divers that are doing something they don't understand that is
likely to get them hurt. They make people worry about other divers
that are responsible.
4. Divers that sign up for advanced trips, that they are just not
skilled enough for. They may ruin a trip for the whole rest of
the boat.
Notice that all of these critiques apply to stupid people doing
stupid things. It is not the diving that makes for danger, it is the
diver.
If scuba certification agencies were ski instructors, they would
tell us to never leave the bunny slopes. This has always been my pet
peeve about the dive industry. Many instructors that I have talked to,
seemingly only do dives with students. "Oh, I have 2000 dives" Well,
they might as well have been in a pool. Please, call yourself an
instructor and don't dare criticize my diving. You would die where I
play.
Cool, huh?
A further note. On the web sites I read, it seems mandatory that
you have a major page on safety. I even made one, though mine isn't
near as sappy as most. It's that apology thing. Well, I just looked at
a site for a dive boat that I like. Under safety, the guy goes on
about how dangerous kelp is. Jump off and die. If the owner of that
boat reads what is written on his site, I hope that he is embarrassed.
One qualification that I have to admit to. When I call about a
charter, I always ask if solo diving is acceptable. Usually, I am told
that experienced divers are not herded. Most dive boat operators
actually trust divers and want them to have fun. It is the instructors
and certification agencies that want to tell you how to dive. If I am
told that buddy diving is required, up front, I either buddy dive or
do not sign up. Fair is fair. On boats, I have had dive masters try to
back out of saying it, once we were ready to dive, but that is just
comical.
Now, if I haven't annoyed enough people, let me fire one more
salvo. Dive gear suffers from feature creep. The computer industry is
famous for this. Luckily its absurdity becomes more immediately
noticeable with dive equipment. "Well SharkGobbler Dive Gear put this
Turbo Friction Anti-Bubble feature on their snorkel, so maybe we
better add it to ours". "It will help us compete". The first rule of
successful engineering is the KISS rule. Keep it simple, Stupid! This
is even more true for diving than almost any other products. Everyone
trys to improve the simple elegant systems designed for diving, but
their very simplicity is usually what makes a superior dive product.
A bane upon all SuperVision Masks, Fara-Fins, ported valved snorkels
and so many other of the neat looking, but silly ideas the engineers
came up with. This was much more of a problem in the early 80's than
it is now, but it is a problem that regularly returns. Watch out for
it.
The problem is that past a certain depth, it is hard to safely
make a free ascent. I used to be able to hold my breath really good
and free ascents were a feasible option. Now though, I still end up
without a buddy, but depend on redundancy in my dive system. There is
one place where liability concerns have helped the diver. Dive
equipment, as a consumer product, is built to something like military
specifications. Failure of well maintained gear is unusual... Better
watch your air and know when to turn over.
If you question my point of view as being uncommon or even
perhaps suspect, think of this. The dive industry is completely
skewed towards the beginner diver. That is where the most money is to
be made. On a dive boat, the dive must be planned to accommodate the
weakest diver. If the ski industry was like the dive industry, we
would never leave the bunny slopes. That is not my idea of diving. I
do it for the challenge and the excitement. I have a well developed
sense of caution. I had a dangerous job for 20 years without getting
hurt. The industry has been hurt by so many images. Jaws, etc. What
a joke. In my many years of diving, a continuous sense of caution
and adequate physical conditioning, has prevented me from having any
accidents. Accidents are incidents that became a problem. I have
rescued people on occasion. Also, and this may sound uncharacteristic,
on some dive boats, such as Truth Aquatics, if the divemaster knows me,
they may try to buddy me up with a particularly weak diver, because I
take good care of real beginners... for a dive or two... if it is not
the beginning of bug season... I stay with a person. My only bad
habit is that I usually try to get them to eat some scallop under
water. They always tell good stories about that.