We dive with many different people while on dive trips. Each day Murray, R, B and I are the constants and a plethora of other divers from all over the world come and go. Divers from Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, US and Australia. These divers all have varying amounts of experience and levels of diving ability.
Murray and I pride ourselves on taking photographs under water without touching anything. We hover, using our breath to control our movements, over the coral to take a shot. If we happen to touch something, we both feel terrible.
We dive with a fellow that, even though he seems to be an experienced diver, feels the need to kneel or step on the coral in order to get a photo. We are appalled at this behavior. We think that there is a certain etiquette that must be followed when in the underwater world and the most important point is to NOT touch anything. Why do some photographers feel they have special exemption from this?
We enjoy diving with a sister and brother from Spain because they spread out over the terrain, just like us, and give everyone lots of room. The ocean is a big space so divers do not need to be all crammed together. It is more pleasant and relaxing to dive spread out and not be bumping into one another.
Find the Flounder!
We like other divers that move slowly. When we were in Grand Turk our dive master, Maki, taught us to move very slowly over the terrain. This allows a diver to study the behaviour of the fish. It also conserves air and diving for 60 minutes is not unusual.
When diving with new people every day, we notice that some divers travel quickly. Whether it is from the need to cross vast amounts of terrain or a lack of proper buoyancy, we do not know. We prefer to move slowly and so almost always take up the caboose position in the dive group. This allows us to travel at our own pace, always keeping the dive master is sight of course.
Anyone can learn to dive, but learning the art of diving takes time and many dives.