Diving and Politeness: Be Patient and Take Your Place in Line

No one likes to wait in a long line, but people from different countries and cultures handle it in very different ways. My fellow Brits are veterans at being courteous in our queues. The Italians, not so much, as I can attest to in the Immigration line at the Maldives airport after an Air Italia flight landed.

So what does all that have to do with diving? Because scuba is an international activity, we travellin' divers will find ourselves in the company of others from very different cultures. That's why you might find an underwater photographer taking incessantly repetitive photographs of a hairy frogfish, uncaring about the line of people forming behind him to get their shot. It really doesn't occur to him to politely give way.

While some divers are happy to form lines and wait their turn, others can't help themselves to rush for the front. We've all met the annoyingly impatient person who, just as you've waited for your turn and are about to take a photo of that rare creature, sticks a GoPro on a pole under your arm or worse still, elbows you out of the way. That person is so focused on his own needs, he doesn't think of the effect he's having on others.

Different nationalities sometimes get different reputations for their underwater etiquette. Divers from China have had a bad rap for their behavior in places like Palau, but perhaps when you live in a country of 1.3 billion inhabitants, it's every one for himself or you don't survive. Still, that attitude is annoying when a dive group is patiently hiding by a cleaning station, and when a manta arrives, one of its number takes off and, in trying to get closer, chases the animal away.

The fin can be on the other foot, of course. Would you believe Americans were thought of in a similar way after World War II when they started vacationing abroad? The bearskin-clad guards had to be repositioned inside the railings of London's Buckingham Palace because American tourists were cutting off parts of their red tunic uniforms to take home as souvenirs.

Divers have two things in common: We all want to have a good time on a dive, and we all want to surface after having a safe dive. Because someone having a diving accident ruins it for everyone. But educating a diver about underwater etiquette requires kid gloves. It's no good getting angry with impolite divers. If the dive guides don't do it (and many are afraid to because they need the tips tourists might bring; or they come from an Eastern culture that is simply not confrontational), take the offender quietly aside and point out that he or she is not the only diver in the group. If you can do that with good humor, the message comes across in the right manner and embarrassment is saved all round. We all need to be told to be patient and take our place in line, even on a dive trip.

We Want to Hear from You: Have you experienced impolite divers on a dive trip? If so, did you or someone else do something about it? And what was the outcome? We'd like to hear about it so we can turn your comments into a story that's useful for all divers. Write to BenDDavison@undercurrent.org with your story, and include your city and state.

-- John Bantin