Rude Divers Can Ruin Trips

In last month's travel story on the Caribbean Explorer II liveaboard, our author described the frustrating behavior of two divers who spoiled an otherwise great trip. These divers steadfastly and repeatedly refused to follow the established procedures for returning on board after a dive.

"To avoid crushed skulls, divers were instructed to ascend to the dinghy line, take off their fins while holding the line, pull themselves to the platform, hand up their fins, and then stand on the ladder, hold tight, and climb up. In the ocean swell, if one were to hang onto the ladder while removing fins as the platform went up and down, it would be easy to lose footing and get sucked under it."

Unpleasant words passed between them and the boat captain. "Luckily, neither was hurt, but it dampened the trip as these two miscreants sulked and complained."

More important, because of the divers' behavior, the captain selected more protective, and therefore, less adventurous sites, dumbing down the dives.

On a liveaboard, everyone is literally in the same boat. Nobody wants anyone else to have a bad time, and indeed, nobody wants anyone else to have an accident that hurts a diver and possibly curtails the trip. But when it comes to dives, no diver should be self-serving.

To a lesser degree, the same can be said about diving from a dayboat. Scuba diving is not a competitive activity, although occasionally, someone will try to make it so.

In our monthly email, we asked readers if they had any experiences with divers behaving badly. We hoped not to get too many responses, but what we did get was telling.

Scott McMillan (Mill Valley, CA) said he usually travels as part of a group, and those who don't fit in don't get invited next time.

Thankfully, his divemaster took the same approach to rude divers on a Caribbean cruise ship with him and his dive buddy. Rather than simply relax in a drift dive, the divers ignored the dive guide's instructions and kicked all the way. Their guide couldn't get them to stop, so to stay together, everyone else had to kick as well, therefore flying over the terrain and critters at breakneck speed. Later, the rude divers harassed a pufferfish. So, the guide refused to invite them on the day's third dive. Are we surprised?

It's not uncommon when diving to have one diver who stands out and not always in a positive way: Douglas Peterson (Naperville, IL) remembers a fellow diver in PNG who wore all black and had a self-appointed moniker embroidered on his wetsuit - "Night Diver."

"He constantly grabbed, kicked, and banged into the reef, but after he stood on a table coral for a couple of minutes, I mentioned my concerns to the senior dive guide. He responded that this was his third trip and he was a good customer. No further need to discuss."

It can be difficult for guides in Southeast Asia to eliminate people from their group. The people's nonconfrontational nature can mean a guide may be reluctant to enforce diving or environmental rules when Westerners are the dissidents. It's even more difficult when tips, such a large part of their income, might be in jeopardy. Less so in the Caribbean, where tips may be a smaller share of total income.

In Cozumel, writes Tim Lambert (Birch Bay, WA), a diver was quite inconsiderate to others on the boat, and nobody wanted to buddy up with him, so it became the divemaster's chore. When he decided to stand on the coral, the guide immediately directed him out of the water.

Day boat etiquette is essential. Raymond Clark (Whiting, NJ) reflected on sharing space with a father and son who turned up late for departure, moved someone's gear without asking so they could sit together, and left their bags blocking the isle while they set up. After the first dive, they left their gear scattered all over the deck.

Getting ready for the next dive, they started rummaging through Clark's dive bag, and when he asked them what they were doing, one said someone stole his mask. They insisted on going through everyone else's bag. Clark says, later in the day, in the rinse tank, "I find a knife hole on the top of my wing and a matching hole in my dive bag, so it didn't happen on the dive." He thinks he knows the culprit.

A subscriber from Virginia reflects on a similar experience diving out of West Palm Beach. "This diver was new, very rich, and had all sorts of new equipment. After one dive, he spread it all over the deck. I don't have good balance and don't walk well in fins, so I had to sweep his regulator aside to get to the back of the boat for the next dive. He lit into me. But there was no way I could get across the deck without doing that. Divers should keep their equipment by their place under the bench or in their net bag in between dives, not all over the floor of the deck."

But, if we may offer a bit of advice: best to ask some to move their gear before undertaking it yourself. Or you may become the rude person.

Some liveaboards specify a minimum number of dives before passengers can book (in Egypt, it's commonly 30), and some don't at all. I've been on liveaboards to adventurous places like the Galapagos, the Maldives, or the remote parts of Indonesia, where currents can be unpredictable and go both up and down. And yet, there have been divers aboard who barely know how to dive. Rude? Inconsiderate? Or just plain stupid?

Cocos Island, Costa Rica, is one of those difficult destinations. Steve Damsky (Poughkeepsie, NY) thought his trip aboard the Okeanos Aggressor just last May was clearly affected by four divers not up to diving in the strong currents. He says that since this was group diving, deep (around 100' on every dive), the inexperienced divers should have never been on the boat. "There was one person with only 40 dives and three others with less than 100, but none had any deep experience or certifications beyond open water, including Nitrox. So, within the first two days, we had one case of DCS, and two got swept by the current and had to be rescued. On another dive, one of them panicked and caused the dive to be abandoned after 10 minutes. As a result, until we all complained, the divemasters wouldn't take us to the more challenging sites where large pelagics were more common. We were limited by the four inexperienced divers.

The entire Western Pacific offers difficult conditions, one reason for its spectacular diving. Alice Ribbens (St. Paul, MN), a dive professional, and her husband traveled on a Nautilus liveaboard last December to the Revillagigedo Islands/Socorro, where there are often big seas. A number of divers from a California group hadn't researched Socorro conditions and were unprepared and overwhelmed, complaining about the currents, the visibility, and the rough seas, and why they were staying at Roca Partida for so long (where the diving was spectacular).

"The divers were divided into three groups, rotating as Group One, and told to be ready to get in the pangas at a specific time, with the others following five minutes apart. The crew was very frustrated when one day's designated Group One (made up of some of the California divers) was not ready and their drop time was 25-30 min later than it was supposed to be, which threw off the schedule for the rest of the day. For the remainder of the trip, a group of primarily dive professionals (most of whom did not know each other before this trip) was designated Group One. This caused a lot of complaints from the divers who hadn't managed to get their act together when they were Group One - and a lot of disparaging remarks about the "Instructor Group." If a liveaboard tells you to be ready to jump in the water at X: o'clock, you should be ready at least 10 minutes prior!"

Diving from liveaboards and day boats requires cooperation among the divers and the crew. A rude diver is a self-centered diver. It only takes one to spoil a dive, spoil the day, or maybe spoil the week.

- Ben Davison