Posted by seahunt on August 22, 2001 at 10:22:42:
In Reply to: Roatan and why dive standards have been lowered. posted by Chris on August 21, 2001 at 23:33:59:
That's a funny thing I noticed in Florida and the Bahamas. I comtemplate
the utility of DIR procedures in CA and see some applicability or another,
largely due to that CA diving is actually fairly challenging. When I was
in the warm water, I was thinking similar questions, but came to very
different conclusions. The diving is about as challenging and demanding
as going to a supermarket. Those divers are never going to need to
worry about streamlining, the total swim distance on the dives was
usually near 100 yards at most. They complain if the water temp gets
under 80 degrees. I really think some of the people I saw were
non-swimmers. It's not just a matter of no desire to improve
their diving, it's also a matter of there being no observable
need... Though they did think that they were good divers.
Be happy you are in CA. Even basic diving here teaches skills and
fortitude that may not exist elsewhere. There are some great divers
there, just read what AUE Mike writes about, but most of the warm water
divers are just not thinking of challenge or adaptation when they go
diving. You CAN go diving and still be a couch potato.
Even when I went during Florida bug season and was diving with some
people that were supposed to be really good divers... They swim in
a straight line looking for bugs. They were not good at finding
them, I was finally pointing them out to them, and they were not
persistant. On the Duane, I was embarrassed that I had to wave water
some at the last minute to avoid touching the deck. I looked over to
see if anyone noticed and saw those guys crash right into the deck.
Enjoy the diving, seahunt