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The liveliest letters from the DIVER mailbag...
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We all have to start somewhere in our diving, and some lucky beginners are given sound information on how their equipment should fit. For me, it was trial and error. Over the years I have progressed. I work for a dive centre and I have always tried to give good advice, as has everyone else at the centre.
Over the years at the dive shows, however, I have seen instructors giving advice to students which is clearly wrong. At the last London International Dive Show three students came up to my stand with their instructor, who told me what they wanted - semi-dry suits, masks and fins.
I tried to ask the students about their price range but the instructor butted in to state that they wanted this, that and the other. So I went to get them, but also brought back a few other masks and fins.
The specified masks fitted two of the students nicely but not the third. We tried another mask but the instructor insisted that she should have the one he had specified. I told him it didn’t fit, so she shouldn’t buy it - would he?
The specified fins were then tried on. I said they were pricey and showed them another set at less than half the price, but just as good for the diving they would be doing - holidays and the odd dive around the coast. The instructor again stated that the students must have what he wanted them to have.
My reply was a bit heated, pointing out that the students were the ones diving in the equipment and paying for it, not him. He rounded them up and said he would take their business elsewhere.
I told the students that the items he was asking for were the most expensive and not necessarily the best for them. An hour later, all three came back to buy their masks, fins, semi-dry suits and snorkels, saving more than £155.
All you Instructors out there who think you have a God-given right to dictate to people what they should buy, you’re supposed to give sound advice on equipment and its fitting. If you don’t know or are unsure, put your students on to someone who does.
All good stores give this information freely and, if students are given the wrong Item, will either give a refund or have the item exchanged. Give sound advice, and the people you teach will come back to you.
Ken Lloyd, Swadlincote, Derbys
Who wears a watch? I do, Mr Short (Who Wears A Watch, Anyway? Off-Gassing, April). wear a watch and a bottom-timer, for redundancy should one or the other fail. For my own sake, I abandoned dive computers years ago.
Like every other member of my club, I dabbled with computer diving. We all bought the same model on the recommendation of one member. There we were, all shapes, sizes and ages, of differing experience and training, but with one make of computer in common.
Computers have no idea about their owner's age, experience, fitness, previous injuries, how much they drank the night before, if they are dehydrated and a million other factors - but they will plan your dive without you having to think.
It was only when I got involved in technical diving that I realised I had become dependent on my computer. I had not stopped practising proper dive-planning, or tracking of residual nitrogen times. What would I do if it failed?
I thought about it. My computer was generating really odd decompression times, sometimes with ridiculous levels of conservatism. It knew nothing about me, so had to presume the worst. And it paid no attention to my increasing knowledge, for example about the use of deeper stops.
It provided me with a lot of useless information - accompanied by confusing blinking icons and distracting beeps. Violate a deco stop and it would lock completely - very handy.
Since doing away with my dive computer I have started planning dives again. Properly. And my watch/bottom-timer and slates accompany me on every dive. I believe I am safer and happier for it. The Stone Age, Mr Short? Ask the cavemen.
Vince Harris, Birmingham
Gordon Short’s statement " don’t know anyone who actually does wear a watch under water" marks him as either a solo diver or somewhat short-sighted.
Perhaps his ego requires him to have a "massive all-singing, all-dancing job" that he, along with his many friends, never wears (so how he knows "they" all have one, I'm not sure).
But to buy a diving watch that doesn't have a strap that fits over a drysuit is plain daft. My Omega Seamaster has a very useful bracelet extension that can be unfolded for that purpose. For those not wanting to spend as much, I typed "watch" into the searchbox on one popular dive-gear website and found three watches that could be worn diving and day-to-day, men's and ladies', all for under £60.
Safety dictates a policy of redundancy with equipment. The sport is already expensive enough, so owning a computer, gauges and watch and being prompted by Gordon also to invest in a dive-timer does little to encourage newer divers or set a correct example.
If I had encountered Gordon's missive on an Internet newsgroup, he would have been flagged as a troll and popped into the kill-file or ignore list. In a magazine as highly regarded as yours, I’m guessing this is just bait for sad folks like me to bite on. So please feel free to begin reeling in.
Kevin James, Bucks
If I agreed with one of David Lloyd Barker's comments (Camera Blind, Off-Gassing, March), it would be that the type of underwater photographer he describes is in the minority, if such a Trojan exists.
Sometimes when I dive I take my underwater camera. It holds no mystical power over me; it is an electro-mechanical object and does not affect my abilities to dive.
It does however, make me think about slowing down, watching the fascinating behaviour of the marine life, observing the topography and the environment. This tranquillity is often interrupted by divers who dont have cameras, though they do have reels, torches, pipes and gauges trailing around, bashing the seascape and stirring up the bottom. I wonder if this is a pre-requisite of the marathon tour many of them appear to be doing.
My buddy never gets in the water without his camera. After more than 25 years, he is well practised in diving and photography. Perhaps men and women photographers are a bit more mature and experienced than the boys and girls with whom David seems to dive.
Most underwater photographers (and I know a lot) don't lie on coral. We assume a very precise and well-practised neutral buoyancy for as long as we need to, or until disturbed by the marathon tour. Photographing coral would be impossible if we were lying on it. Damaged coral and poor visibility do not make good photographs.
Has David ever looked through a viewfinder under water? With a 16mm lens you will see 180° and know far more of what is around you than you could with the tunnel vision imposed by a mask. I don’t have to look round to know that the marathon tour is approaching; neither does the marine life that vanishes for fear of life and fin.
So, all you non-camera-carrying divers, spare a thought for the majority of photographers who would like to record the underwater world before you dredge, kick or scare it to death.
Helena Knowles, Hayling Island, Hants
After reading Steve Davies’ letter (Off-Season In Gozo, April) I would like to add a note about our disappointing club trip to the island in March with a well-known aquasports centre in Marsalforn. We chose an independent package consisting of accommodation, transfers, 4x4 hire, dive permits and six days’ diving, total price £1416 for 12 divers. We met the company at LIDS days before our departure and all seemed OK.
Our flight arrived in Malta soon after midnight, so we had a five-hour wait in the airport as the ferry didn’t start till 5.45. It was a tight squeeze in the taxis but we made it. We were met on the other side with two small 4x4s and had to drive ourselves to the accommodation, which was so basic that five of the group booked themselves into the nearest hotel.
We arrived at the dive shop in the afternoon and were given no outline briefing, so all week we got into its bad books for not following procedures on booking out cylinders or taking wet gear into the shop. We were given no advice on sites and felt unwelcome.
The two 4x4s were inadequate for 12 divers, so we had to make two trips to each site. We asked for another vehicle but were told that none was available on the whole island. It took us 10 minutes to find a hire car, but at more expense.
Included in the price had been the Malta dive permit, but though we were told this was not needed any more we were not reimbursed. On the final day we were dumped at the ferry and expected to pay for it ourselves.
Gozo is fantastic for diving, with spectacular shore dives, but be careful who you dive with. We hope to go back later this year but I guess this outfit doesn’t need our business. Its loss.
Craig Beaufort-Dysart, Margate
From the cold of dear old Blighty to the Sinai peninsula - my first liveaboard!
I’ve been diving for three years (50-odd dives) and am one of those dubious PADI Advanced fellows. Having followed the various PADI v BSAC debates in your pages I was apprehensive about liveaboards, terrified of being buddied with Aquaboy and my “advanced” status revealed to all. But I thought I’d have a go.
I'm really glad I did. We dived with Oonasdivers out of Sharm and our vessel, the my Juliet, was a stunning boat with a crew to match. The other divers were just the best bunch and there was no sign of the snobbery I had feared.
I was buddied with a very experienced diver who taught me more in that week than I'd picked up since passing my PADI bits (thanks Denise). We were looked after by two of the Oonasdivers crowd, both very attentive and with bags of experience.
I was, however, mildly alarmed at how crowded dive sites such as the Thistlegorm are, and did start to feel quite “advanced” after watching some of the muppets down there trying to fool their computers with extreme roller-coaster profiles.
So if anyone is umming and ahhing about a liveaboard, have a go. Sleeping under the stars, waking at the crack of dawn and an hour's dive before brekkie is the best.
Finally, a word of caution. Should the crew encourage you to see who can dive off the highest part of the boat, decline. I now have a good idea of what colonic irrigation is all about.
Dave Wyatt, Stevenage, Herts
Once again I have read an unbelievable DIVER Test (You Can’t Take Your Eyes Off It!, May). This time I believe we are into a safety issue and I intend to make this letter public to all our dealers worldwide so that they can correctly inform the misinformed.
I am amazed that someone of John's "guru" status suggests that if you are an underwater photographer/videographer it is OK to ignore a safety-critical procedure such as completing a micro-bubble stop. To further suggest that if you use camera gear you can't do the stops is ridiculous. Many of the world's top photographers use our equipment in just this situation.
The VR3/2 range are the only computers to actively employ current thinking in decompression physiology, namely deep stops.
A range of tables and computers will get you out of the water OK but it is now widely accepted that including deepwater micro-bubble-controlling stops vastly improves decompression safety.
To say that the VR2 just abandons you to your fate is ridiculous. The "poorly written manual" states that even if you do violate a micro-bubble stop, it will still give you best-guess decompression. Had John bothered to compare it to his other computers he would have seen that the decompression continues to track. The VR product range has a design philosophy of never "dumping you", no matter how bad your control of the dive. This is not the case with most computers, which generate "lock-out" scenarios.
Kevin Gurr, Delta P Technology, Poole
John Bantin replies: I have championed the idea of multi-level diving and hence deep stops since buying a Decobrain and writing on the subject in DIVER in 1987. The point Kevin is missing is that if you're looking through a camera you can miss the requirement to do a stop, and the 60 seconds allowed by the VR2 is not enough to get back down to it. A minute is not long when you're trying to get a good picture. During testing, the computer then simply displayed: "Missed Stop Use Tables".
It may continue to calculate best-guess deco, but how do you access that information? If yours is not a pre-planned. disciplined dive. what do you do? Certainly the VR2 sent for test gave no hint while I was under water.
I have read and reread the manual and found no clue, but all I can assume from Kevin's letter is that the VR2 I was sent was returning straight to surface mode at that point during the dive. If it was a faulty example, I will be happy to test a working one.
With my DIVER subscription and recent Open Water Diver qualification firmly under my belt, I was astounded to have such a quality experience so soon - and I didn’t even get wet!
I had travelled 120 miles to a well-known UK dive site at a stupid early hour one Sunday morning. While I waited for the others I rummaged through the shop's bargain bins. £10 bought me a pair of 3mm gloves that would suit me in other climes, and I was as happy as a diver in Sharm.
Surveying my prize back home, I was dismayed, for the first time in my life, that I did not have two left hands! Thinking that I could do some kind of mail-order exchange, I rang the shop to find that no right-hand gloves existed. I would have to settle for a refund.
I sent the offending articles back, which was when my consumer experience hit a new high. In return I received (with compliments) a spanking new pair of gloves retailing at £15.95 - with an apology for my inconvenience!
Now that’s customer service, and if anyone needs a lesson in it, contact Chris at Capernwray. Chris, it's not easy to impress me but you did.
Thanks.
Michael Mahony in his letter PADI Extra Diver, Anyone? (January) points out that while on holiday in Spain he was not allowed to dive because he was an Open Water Diver, though his daughter, who had done her Advanced Open Water Diver course, was allowed to dive.
I think Michael is a little confused. Divers with an AOWD qualification are not advanced divers but novice OWDs who have also done a range of dives to increase their experience under the guidance of an instructor.
Michael says he has done 80 dives, making him more experienced than his daughter, but hasn't bothered to take the AOWD course. As I'm sure he is aware, an OWD is limited to 18m, whereas an AOWD Is allowed to dive to a recommended 30m and 40m max.
One of the most common reasons for diver accidents is people diving beyond the limits of their training. As a PADI instructor I often meet divers at OWD level who have dived for years (sometimes beyond the limits of their training) and have never seen the need to do an AOWD course.
Problems arise not because authorities misunderstand the word "Advanced", but from a liability point of view. If I lead a group on a dive as an instructor, I have to choose the site based on their qualifications.
If I was to lead an OWD on a dive beyond the limits of his training and that diver had an accident, I would have no defence in court.
What I say to the many divers who are very experienced and competent but have never bothered to progress beyond OWD level is that perhaps they should bother. One day they, like Michael, will come across a situation In which they are refused diving, not because they are not competent, but because they are simply not qualified to do the dive, and liability or insurance issues arise.
Divers have a responsibility to improve their skills and qualifications and not think of further education as a money-spinner. If they don’t want to do that, fine - as long as they stick to diving within their limits and accept that occasionally they will be refused diving.
Matthew Disley, Bodmin, Cornwall
Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch has pressed my political button in talking about John Bantin's excellent Deep Breath (Divers Are Shark Killers, March), in my opinion a really lateral-thinking wakeup call for conservation-minded people.
Jeremy thinks, unlike the rest of us, that his existence has no impact on the environment, but the fact that he wrote the letter has in a small way infected the environment. Surely, this is what John's article is all about. Jeremy has even excommunicated John from the Shark Trust.
Also in the April Off-Gassing was my own letter, Asda’s Damien Hirst Impression and, more importantly, the comments of Dominic Birch of Asda:
"We do sell shark meat" (aggressively)... "At the moment thresher shark from Sri Lanka" (obviously indifferent to third world economies, never mind sharks)... "We check any species of fish we sell on the IUCN red list to ensure that it isn’t endangered" (so they will know when the world has run out and can endanger some other species).
It's exactly what John Bantin was saying in his article. Dominic added: "But there is a demand - we wouldn’t stock shark if it didn’t sell."
There's a demand for rhino horn, tiger parts and crack cocaine, but I don’t see those on Asda's shelves. Nevertheless, should they appear on some obscure, bureaucratic list, I probably would.
Got the message, Jeremy? Here's your target; take your scattergun, get on with your job, have a pop at Dominic and save some SHARKS! (They’re in Sri Lanka.)
Paul Chapman, Flixton, Manchester
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