Funny diving video

[FreediveWI]

My wife and I were in Belize a few years ago and did a nice morning dive. In the afternoon we got on the boat for another dive and the dive guide, Tulio, pulled us aside and said that there was another group on the boat that went out with him later on in the morning. He said that when we got to the dive site we should jump in first and get "the hell out of the way". The whole boat ride out we heard this other group talk about what great instructors they were and that they dove wreck in North Carolina all the time, blah, blah , blah.

Once we get to the site we rolled in and dropped to the reef and waited- and waited. Suddenly we see this group headed stright for the coral without a clue how to control their bouyancy. They hit bottom, and hit it hard! There was broken coral all over the place.  :  We stayed far away from the for the rest of our trip.

Spend enough time working a charter boat and you see ALL kinds of divers. You get to learn pretty quick which shops are doing their jobs and who is best to avoid. Just because someone is an instructor, or a tech diver, or a cave diver, or a course director, or a rebreather diver, or has all the latest DIR gear means nothing until you see them in the water. Sometimes you don't even need to see them in the water becuase you can tell how they're going to be just watching them gear up on the back of the boat.

One of the best transitions to openwater that I ever saw was when I taught for a diveshop back in college that had the students do all of their final pool training in FULL wetsuits, hoods, and mitts. Students got to spend a good 4-5 hours wearing all of this stuff in the pool so that when they got to openwater they knew how much weight they needed and how to do mask replacements with hoods and 3-finger mitts on. Pool time alone doesn't make the difference if they are not wearing the same gear they will when they get to openwater- as the shock of the cold, and more limited vis, is enough for them to get used to whithout adding in all the extra task loading of new gear. Having them try everything out first makes your openwater dives 1+2 MUCH easier. 8)

Jon