In Reply to: Slander of dive boats posted by Paul on March 01, 2006 at 11:08:40:

I haven't been on a Socal dive boat in a few years (I don't live there anymore) but I did work on a number of boats as a divemaster out of Oxnard, Ventura, Port Hueneme (Captain Midnight and Sea Ventures to name two) and enjoyed time on even more of them. And yes, boats can be a pain for the owner and crew, none of which should be apparent to a diver who pays good money to be conveyed to a dive site and in return expects a safe operation with a friendly crew, two things the operators can control when they can't control weather or dive site conditions.

I think that every diver anonymously or not has the right and responsibility (if so inclined) to report on safety and courtesy and the good and the bad about any dive boat. The arguement "would you rather not have dive boats" is a red-herring. The nice thing about bulletin board in particular and the internet in general is that it provides a great deal of information. Some of it will be inaccurate but little of it will be slander. If I have a bad trip with a discourteous crew and a captain (usually a relief skipper in my experience) who wants to get back to watch the Superbowl so they cut the dives short or whose deckhands are undressing customers (both boys and girls) with their eyes while other divers struggle with gear at the swim ladder and I am paying the equivalent of three or four hours wages to be on that boat, yeah, I am going to say something about it. And if the boat is in my opinion unsafe, I am going to say it even louder.

I decided 20 years ago not to go into the sport dive business because I did not tolerate fools gladly. If you can't either you got no business in the business.

• Three cheers... K 13:23:38 03/02/06 (0)