| Baah! John Liddiard has a major grumble about the way in which dive guides insist on shepherding divers around. It might be safer sometimes, but is it character-forming? |
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GO TO JUST ABOUT ANY MAINSTREAM TROPICAL DIVING DESTINATION, and the standard format for a dive is several buddy pairs being led around the reef by a guide.
The numbers can vary, from small groups of four to trains of 20 or more, but the principle is the same - all divers are guided.
Even as an experienced diver, at times I have to make a strong case for being allowed to dive with my buddy outside the "official" group. I realise that a dive guide knows the area better than me, and might be able to show me some cool stuff, but I usually prefer to do my own thing and be able to take photographs without masses of other divers in the background.
Besides, one of the reasons I dive is for the freedom it offers to plan my own dives and make my own decisions.
Other divers with less experience and, dare I say it, unable to claim to be a regular contributor to Diver, have less choice. To dive, they must follow a guide.
But wait, these dive centres that insist on guided dives are the same ones that train divers to a standard that supposedly enables a pair of them to dive together. Do they not consider their training good enough to allow divers to be responsible for their own safety?
I raise the question, but acknowledge that in many ways the dive centres are right. Someone who has done only four or five dives and knows some basics about buoyancy control, mask-clearing and coping with an out-of-air situation should not be let loose on a wall that descends well past 20m in a current. The only way to get a newly qualified diver safely through the sort of exciting and spectacular dives that customers demand is as part of an escorted group.
My point is that for many centres the escorted group has become an auto-matic reflex, a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When resort-qualified divers are paired up and escorted as part of a group, the dive guide or instructor does most of their thinking for them. He or she looks after navigation, monitors depth, time and air. And if divers have a problem, they turn to the guide rather than their buddy.
Even if they run out of air and use their buddy's octopus regulator, the guide will close in and take over. That's what a guide is paid to do.
In this way, divers never get to develop or practise the skills needed to become fully rounded and capable divers. They end up as underwater sheep.
They might climb the qualification ladder, gaining more badges that say they are advanced divers, rescue divers etc, with long lists of specialities, but once a course is over, it's back to the group. They are well-qualified underwater sheep.
I have been on liveaboard boats that allow total diving freedom. Following a safety briefing at the start of a trip, everyone can dive how they want.
Even on the most adventurous dives, customers can dive with or without a guide, in a buddy pair or even solo. The decision is left to them.
I don't believe that such boats have a higher incident rate than those with totally escorted groups. Perhaps the divers on such trips tend to be more experienced?
Perhaps not. In Bonaire I found a universal policy across all dive centres of complete diving freedom. Yet many of the divers were not that experienced.
When unsure about a dive, a less-experienced pair of divers could follow the guide. Then, as dives got shallower through the day, they would decide and even be encouraged to do their own thing. More experienced divers would do their own thing from the start.
Anyone could rent cylinders, jump in a car, drive off to pretty much any beach and go diving. They could go as deep as they liked, stay as long as they liked, and do as many dives as they liked. Divers were responsible for their own actions.
As far as I know, the incident rate in Bonaire is no higher than anywhere else.
Perhaps some destinations have a bigger share of idiots than others: divers who want to hit 70m on every dive, who don't watch their air, or who are a menace to themselves and to their buddy. But stupidity is not the same as inexperience.
There are experienced divers who sneak away from the group and disappear into the depths even though they are supposedly being escorted by a guide. There are guides who indulge a fascination with depth on their days off.
I have seen enough divers worldwide to believe that nowhere has an exclusive claim to more than its fair share of idiots.
A new approach to guided diving is needed. A programme of dives with and without guides should be planned over a number of days, to encourage all divers to develop a fully rounded set of skills, able to make their own decisions.
Apart from the immediate advantages for them, the long-term benefit would be more competent divers with better skills and the ability to look after their own diving. Isn't that what diver training is all about?
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