For many of us, scuba diving involves many offshore boat dives as it gives us the ability to explore outer reefs and wrecks, as well as minimise our swim back to shore and swimming with heavy equipment. Often with boat dives we are diving with people we do not always know and unfortunately there can be that rare diver who has little regard to their fellow divers and be downright rude- impacting the dive experience for all.
We have compiled a few tips for our tribe members to ensure awareness of these behaviours, so we are all respectful to our fellow divers – after all we want to ensure that every boat dive with our tribe is a safe and rewarding adventure.
- Arrive on time at the ‘show up time’ so that you are on board the boat for the ‘leave the dock’ departure time.
- Check with crew that the boat is ready to board.
- Pay attention to your boat safety briefing, your dive plan briefing, and any instructions given. All are particularly important and are paramount to a safe and enjoyable dive.
- Get ready, set up and check all your equipment whilst travelling on board to the dive site.
- Make sure weights are not lying around and put them away if not diving with them.
- Seats are for divers to sit on, so do not place your equipment and items on another divers’ seat.
- Find the rinse bucket/s.
- Keep dry areas ‘dry’ as there may be phones or other electronic devices stored there.
- A lot of diver’s pee in their wetsuit (there is nothing wrong with this) just make sure you rinse it off in the sea and clean yourself before approaching others (we can smell it!)
- Be ready to jump! There is nothing worse than being in the water with the entire dive group waiting for your dive buddy or a diver to get their wetsuit on!
- Listen and be respectful to your crew. Crew are there to ensure your safety, as well as give you the best dive adventure, so if dive locations change due to dangerous conditions or weather, do not argue with the crew. It is unpleasant for everyone on board.
It is always best to act and treat others the same way we would like to be treated, so keep this and the above tips in mind so that epic (and safe) dive adventures can be made.
