Things I never new until I went on Scubaboard

[Mattleycrue76]

So I hear Joe talking to Jake about me yesterday. He's laughing and says yeah man he totally frog kicks with his split fins. To which I replied that I had been blissfully unaware that it's impossible to frogkick with splits until i discovered Scubaboard and was informed thereof.

Thought this would make a good thread

What things didn't you know until informed by ?

[airsix]

I found out that I was living in the dark ages by using tables and a timer (and jetfins, and a weightbelt). Scubaboard taught me that I needed a computer. Then it taught me that once I'd done that I should upgrade back to tables and a timer. I also learned that a BP/W will float me on my face until I'm dead. Between tables and my kit I must be really really dead by now. But Scubaboard gave me something priceless - friends who led me here. So I can forgive it for its sins, which are completely blotted out by that good deed.

-Ben

[Mattleycrue76]

But Scubaboard gave me something priceless - friends who led me here.
-Ben

You know thats exactly the same way I ended up here. I think it was LCF that pointed me this way

Thanks Lynne!

[Pez7378]

THIS is what I learned on Scubaboard

[Joshua Smith]

THIS is what I learned on Scubaboard

Wearing drysuits feels sexy, so I started diving to wear them more often. I like breathing when I am underwater. I like pictures. I want to eat fishes, and I like boats on the bottom and caves. Crabs pinch my fingers. I have my own car and a drivers license, and I mostly remember to wear pants. My medication is expired.

LMAO! I quit looking at Scubaboard on any kind of consistent basis years ago, but that means I don't get to see posts like this.....my loss. Thanks for sharing, Chris!

[Mattleycrue76]

THIS is what I learned on Scubaboard

Wearing drysuits feels sexy, so I started diving to wear them more often. I like breathing when I am underwater. I like pictures. I want to eat fishes, and I like boats on the bottom and caves. Crabs pinch my fingers. I have my own car and a drivers license, and I mostly remember to wear pants. My medication is expired.

LMAO! I quit looking at Scubaboard on any kind of consistent basis years ago, but that means I don't get to see posts like this.....my loss. Thanks for sharing, Chris!

Note the author

[airsix]

Note the author

That's awesome.

I love the fact that we have global reach.

[Grateful Diver]

Well ... I guess you guys won't be stopping by to visit me at the Expo on Sunday ... I'll be working the ScubaBoard booth.

The fact is that SB is a victim of it's own success. Years ago, it was the domain of a bunch of scuba fanatics ... everybody pretty much knew everybody (even though we were widely separated geographically), and the information you could get there was generally being given by someone with thousands of dives and a ton of experience. That's where I met my dear friend Uncle Pug ... who became a mentor and the source of almost everything I know about diving that's worth knowing.

Over the years, the board became popular with younger, newer divers. Now, with diving ... as with most things ... there comes a phase in the learning curve where people tend to think they know more than they actually do. People form opinions ... sometimes very strong ones ... based on their personal experience. And in scuba, that experience often presents a very limited perspective on reality. I went through that phase myself ... sometimes I come across some of my old posts there and just cringe. Don't blame ScubaBoard for that ... it's human nature.

These days, the threads on ScubaBoard tend to be dominated by these types ... folks who learned how to dive last year, have amassed almost 50 dives in places like Cozumel and Bonaire ... and have dreams of becoming a DM or instructor in some exotic locale in the world. You can't really blame them ... if I was 30 years younger that might be me.

But for the most part, their perspective on diving is very different than yours and mine ... they've never dived in a place like Puget Sound, and have never done a dive that wasn't led by a divemaster. A lot of them are merely parroting things they heard from their instructor or dive shop owner.

People say some pretty off-the-wall things. But on the other hand, there's still those (like myself and Lynne) who are very active over there, and who do our best to convey information that's both useful and accurate to those who ask.

For the record, I've found good and bad information on every scuba related forum I've ever visited ... including this one. You have to take it as entertainment ... diving was never meant to be learned in the Internet. Sometimes you'll find some golden nuggets among all the detritus ... but it's up to you to be discerning. Just like in real life ... I've heard some real doozies from some of our local divers and instructors in real life too ... like the shop owner who insists to this day that having those big-assed banners on nitrox tanks is (no kidding, he really tells people this) ... a Federal law.

So go easy on ScubaBoard folks ... it's got its place ... just like NWDC does. If you don't like it, don't go there ... but please don't lump all of us who do into the "dummy" category. I've been visiting that board for over seven years ... and I can't even begin to count the friends I've made, and the good information I've taken away from the place.

That's why I'll be down at the Expo promoting it ... because for all the ... um ... entertainment that some folks post on there, it's still got some value to those who go there hoping for useful information ... in fact, I've gotten some really useful photography tips there just recently ... and y'all have been privy to the results ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Mattleycrue76]

Bob if I ever get accused of a crime I want you as my defense attorney. FWIW I really didn't mean to single out scubaboard and bash it. I'm not into bashing. I just wanted to hear some of the creative stuff that people have been "taught" about diving from other people on the internet. You're right, scubaboard is a victim of its own success which is why I used it to generalize. Kinda like using the term scotch tape.

Oh and if I am able to mke it to the expo I will make it a point to stop by the SB booth and say hi

:occasion5:

[Grateful Diver]

I'm with ya ... the split fin controversy gets revived about every two or three months ... as do a few other dandy favorites.

FWIW - I used splits for about my first 650 or so dives, and could frog kick in 'em just fine. Could do a reasonable helicopter turn too. Thing is, because of the difference in how they're built, they do require a different sort of kick. When I switched to the Turtles, I had to learn those kicks all over again. So my take is that people who say it can't be done are really saying that they don't know how to do it ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Tangfish]

I've been on ScubaBoard for nearly six years, and most of my posts consisted of stuff like this:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/genera ... ember.html

You just can't get as good of info on this board about diving *everywhere else* in the world. This board is fantastic as far as divers from the local community being friendly and actually diving together, and I've made some of my best friends on this board (far beyond just dive buddies). But, for planning dive trips to places I frankly would *rather* be diving than our own murky green waters, there isn't a better site on the web than ScubaBoard to do research and to communicate with people on the ground in whatever idyllic destination you're considering to travel to.

From my experience in running web sites from a few hundreds of users to hundreds of millions... the more popular the site becomes, the more idiots you attract and the louder they become. But.... I was such an idiot once (and probably still am).

By the way, this is for John Rawlings:


PS - I use split fins and I frog kick just fine.

[Mongodives]

good points GD

SB taught me that I will die if.... I don't have spring straps on my fins, I don't use brand XX regulator, I don't have a crotch strap,I don't route my hoses the same as xxxx,I wear a wetsuit,I wear a drysuit,I don't dive a BP/W,I was taught by PADI, NAUI,YMCA, CMAS, SSI, TDI etc. I wear a vest BCD,I don't drink member xxx's kool aid,I don't know or dive with xxxx,I don't read xxxx diving book,I don't take GUE fundamentals,I don't follow DIY gear config, I shop for gear online, I shop for gear at a LDS, I don't do a safety stop, I do a safety stop, I use an AL 80, I use integrated weights, I use a inflator hose alt air source.

The list is endless, you name it someone on SB will say you'll die if you don't do it their way.

[spatman]

good points GD

SB taught me that I will die if.... I don't have spring straps on my fins, I don't use brand XX regulator, I don't have a crotch strap,I don't route my hoses the same as xxxx,I wear a wetsuit,I wear a drysuit,I don't dive a BP/W,I was taught by PADI, NAUI,YMCA, CMAS, SSI, TDI etc. I wear a vest BCD,I don't drink member xxx's kool aid,I don't know or dive with xxxx,I don't read xxxx diving book,I don't take GUE fundamentals,I don't follow DIY gear config, I shop for gear online, I shop for gear at a LDS, I don't do a safety stop, I do a safety stop, I use an AL 80, I use integrated weights, I use a inflator hose alt air source.

The list is endless, you name it someone on SB will say you'll die if you don't do it their way.

dude, we we're talking about scubaboard, not NWDC...

oh wait, you did say SB. sorry, my bad.

[Joshua Smith]

good points GD

SB taught me that I will die if.... I don't have spring straps on my fins, I don't use brand XX regulator, I don't have a crotch strap,I don't route my hoses the same as xxxx,I wear a wetsuit,I wear a drysuit,I don't dive a BP/W,I was taught by PADI, NAUI,YMCA, CMAS, SSI, TDI etc. I wear a vest BCD,I don't drink member xxx's kool aid,I don't know or dive with xxxx,I don't read xxxx diving book,I don't take GUE fundamentals,I don't follow DIY gear config, I shop for gear online, I shop for gear at a LDS, I don't do a safety stop, I do a safety stop, I use an AL 80, I use integrated weights, I use a inflator hose alt air source.

The list is endless, you name it someone on SB will say you'll die if you don't do it their way.

Yeah. Me, too. But as much cool stuff as I've learned on the internet, I've come to the conclusion that you can't really learn much about diving on the internet. The net is a fine place to bounce ideas around, maybe pick up a trick or two, and read about new and different gear. But ultimately, you learn to dive by diving. It's an old truism, but the longer I do this, the truer it rings. I've been told that I was a danger to myself and others so many times.....well, I almost never write trip reports. Which kind of sucks, because I *should* write more trip reports- but it goes back to my early days of having people disect my dives on the net, and criticise them -diving air past X feet, SPG clipped off in the wrong place, wrong fins, no portable hyperbaric chamber on standby, whatever. I came to the conclusion that if I didn't write about what I was doing, and how I was doing it, I wouldn't catch flack for it. Scuba cops, are you listening?

[lizard0924]

These days, the threads on ScubaBoard tend to be dominated by these types ... folks who learned how to dive last year, have amassed almost 50 dives in places like Cozumel and Bonaire ... and have dreams of becoming a DM or instructor in some exotic locale in the world. You can't really blame them ...

OMG....you just described me (except I learned to dive two years ago and I don't post on SB)....but Bonaire is such a warm and cozy place to amass so many dives.....Puget Sound is so COLD. Please don't tell me my dream of becoming an Instructor in warm, tropical waters is just a stereotype!!!!

Of course....I do have a drysuit (and know how to use it). Now if I could just get my cold water/drysuit weighting figured out!

[Joshua Smith]

I didn't start diving until I was married, with a mortgage, and a life, and a dog, and responsibilities and junk. But If I had even had a clue that I could spend a few thousand bucks, (or whatever it costs....little vague on that) to become a dive instructor and move to some kind of tropical paradise, make very little money, dive every day, have lots of short-term, no-strings attached romances, party on the beach every night, and have no prospects for medical insurance, job security, or retirement.....Oh, MAN, I would have been all OVER that. Probably a good thing that I didn't do it- I'm sure I'd be serving a life sentence in a forced labor camp in Myanmar or some place like that if I had gone that way. But, wow. If I was a young 'un all over again.....

These days, the threads on ScubaBoard tend to be dominated by these types ... folks who learned how to dive last year, have amassed almost 50 dives in places like Cozumel and Bonaire ... and have dreams of becoming a DM or instructor in some exotic locale in the world. You can't really blame them ...

OMG....you just described me (except I learned to dive two years ago and I don't post on SB)....but Bonaire is such a warm and cozy place to amass so many dives.....Puget Sound is so COLD. Please don't tell me my dream of becoming an Instructor in warm, tropical waters is just a stereotype!!!!

Of course....I do have a drysuit (and know how to use it). Now if I could just get my cold water/drysuit weighting figured out!

[lizard0924]

Okay, Joshua, I'm laughing so hard I can hardly type.

So, yeah, I didn't learn to dive until I had all the trappings of adulthood, too, (plus a kid in college, so add private college tuition to the mix....yikes!). So we're in the same boat, sort of....I guess I'm more on the "3rd career dive instructor" dream plan myself....heck, as long as you're going to dream, dream big.......and what do you mean, the hottie Bonairean dive instructor who did my AOW certification is NOT into committed, long-term relationships? Shocking, simply shocking, I say.

Well, parts of the dream will have to be amended then, I guess.

[Zen Diver]

good points GD

SB taught me that I will die if.... I don't have spring straps on my fins, I don't use brand XX regulator, I don't have a crotch strap,I don't route my hoses the same as xxxx,I wear a wetsuit,I wear a drysuit,I don't dive a BP/W,I was taught by PADI, NAUI,YMCA, CMAS, SSI, TDI etc. I wear a vest BCD,I don't drink member xxx's kool aid,I don't know or dive with xxxx,I don't read xxxx diving book,I don't take GUE fundamentals,I don't follow DIY gear config, I shop for gear online, I shop for gear at a LDS, I don't do a safety stop, I do a safety stop, I use an AL 80, I use integrated weights, I use a inflator hose alt air source.

The list is endless, you name it someone on SB will say you'll die if you don't do it their way.

Actually, those very same discussions also took place on northwestdiver.com some years back. I agree with Bob, it's not so much a function of scubaboard, as the type of folks who passionately state their position.

All forums have their good and bad points, just like all dive agencies. Bashing doesn't do much to share the faith.

-Valerie

[LCF]

Man, I learned a lot of stuff on ScubaBoard. Jonnythan gave me the tips on using breath for ascent control. NwGratefulDiver organized a Big Buddy Orca Bait dive that led to him being my mentor, and turning my diving around. Uncle Pug taught me tons about decompression -- unfortunately, one of his best threads is gone. Roturner taught me to think through problems, and not to exaggerate the urgency of situations underwater. Rick Murchison taught me to be pragmatic, because little in diving is science. A number of posters in the DIR forum taught me that being shrill is neither convincing nor attractive.

The signal to noise ratio isn't very good there, a lot of the time. But if you ask a question, and you have enough background or enough common sense to sift the answers, you can still acquire a lot of good information there. The number of people who are willing, over and over again, to answer the same questions with the same patience and the same good material, constantly amazes me.

Of course, that's assuming you understand that split fins, snorkels, backplates, DSAT classes, rebreathers, overweighting, following DMS and taking PADI OW classes will kill you :-)

[ArcticDiver]

-Lots of Snake Oil on ScubaBoard, or any Board for that matter. It is tough to sort it all out when you are first starting. But, if a person makes a big effort and actually dives a bit the sorting can be done.
-Like in real life much conversation on the internet in effect says: "My way is the only way to dive safely". Which is garbage.
-There are some really neat people around and I'm way too far away to meet most of them. That is a downer.
-The really good dive sites are in places I wouldn't want to live. You folks in Seattle have some great dive sites. But two weeks driving I-5 convinced me that is no place for this country boy to live. Then the housing market crashed and I can't sell anyway, for now.
-Lately, maybe it is just me but the topic rehashing on SB seems to be boring.
-Most people dive so little they never do get very high on the comfort scale.

Well, back to a beautiful spring day.

[Fishstiq]

I would appreciate the chance to defend myself, since the post Pez referenced was 2+ years ago and some things have changed.....

Wearing drysuits feels sexy, so I started diving to wear them more often.

Anyone who saw the cover of the Herald knows I don't need to revise this statement.

I like breathing when I am underwater.

It beats the alternative...

I like pictures.

If I can't go diving, why not see diving?

I want to eat fishes, and I like boats on the bottom and caves.

I do eat fishes 'cause they're tasty. Boats on the bottom are sweet, a la BHUT, TTN, Sund Rock, and the like. Caves look sweet, and I still have them on my "to do" list, so I think I can stand by this statement.

Crabs pinch my fingers.

We've reached an understanding.....

I have my own car and a drivers license, and I mostly remember to wear pants.

I still have my own car. I still have a drivers license. I haven't worn pants since before this post went up on SB.

My medication is expired.

:suicidepills:

[H20doctor]

To go on another Board is Treason.. To be on any other scuba Board is considered an act of National security to NWDC... You are all Guilty and should feel bad for your actions.. ( I am joking ) have a Day !!!

[Mongodives]

After learning all the ways I'll die, I found out that there are scuba police. Funny in 15yrs of diving I've never seen them diving, but they know about SB.

[ArcticDiver]

After learning all the ways I'll die, I found out that there are scuba police. Funny in 15yrs of diving I've never seen them diving, but they know about SB.

I ran into one of the Annointed Officers a couple years ago when we were about to dive a 40' reef out of Islamorada. We were diving nitrox and he told me unless I let him check and verify my mixture he wouldn't dive with me and that without him as a buddy I would no doubt be injured, or die. He said something else too. But, I couldn't hear it for the splash as I entered the pool.

You mention you have been diving 15 years. That reminded me; I will have been diving 10 years come this Thanksgiving. I wonder how long the average diver pursues the hobby before letting participation peter out?

[Mongodives]

Articdiver, Just checked SB to get an answer about how long people dive after starting.
No real concensus on regular divers but for DM's and Instructors the concensus is 2-3 yrs of work then they give it up. This is an opinion stated by several of the grandfathers of diving that have been instructors for 20+ years. Doesn't make sense like a lot of the stuff on SB.

So another thing I never new until I went on SB