i booked a trip with poseidon divers for a day on the outer reefs, further north than where i dove in cairns. i probably shouldn't have gone because anything after the amazing time i had on the live aboard wouldn't be as great but i thought i should try one last reef system before i went back south. i spent $250 on 3 dives and hours of boat time and it wasn't worth it at all.
the reef wasn't as alive, the visibility was lower and the crew was weird. i did see some sharks and a lot of clown fish but overall not too great.
the crew on this boat operated with the idea that no one knows anything and should be treated as children doing their first dive. i'm sure most of the people loved that, as i asked around and the majority of people hadn't been on a dive in at least a year, maybe 2 or 3, so a good refresher for them. but sitting through an hour long briefing about 'this is a bcd, you inflate it with this button', 'this is your regulator, it goes in your mouth', drove me crazy. i've done about 80 dives by now, which isn't much in comparison to people that have been diving for years, but i've also had to be in charge of my own equipment for the last 8 months and now i don't want anyone messing with my gear, and i certainly don't want to sit through the entire open water course on an uncomfortable boat deck.
every time i'd get set up and ready someone would come by and adjust something that i had just set how i like and i'd have to redo. continual. the worst was after the first dive. we're coming up to the boat and my normal procedure is to surface about 10 feet away and float and look around and relax and enjoy before i get back on. as i surface i feel hands grab me, deflate my bcd and pull me under so of course i'm fighting him, wtf? apparently the procedure with poseidon is to come to the ladder under water, grab it and the dive master will peel off your fins and you walk up. aaaagh hands off! why can't i take my own fins off like i've been doing all these months? again, most people probably loved this, an extra loving step from an overly motherly crew but i wanted nothing to do with it. i fought my dive master as he's trying to drag me back underwater to the ladder, then trying to grab my fins. dragging me underwater was unexpected so my reaction was a bit intense, my brain went into fight or flight i guess.
so i had a talk with my dive master, a way way cheery french guy, and asked him if i could be exempt from the normal boat boarding procedure. he in turn had to tell every other crew member that on the next dive one person would be surfacing away from the boat, don't be alarmed. i got funny looks.
next dive ends and there's a lineup underwater for the ladder and i surface about 10 feet away to float. instantly the crew on board is frantic that something is wrong even though i'm giving a giant ok signal. when all the divers get on i swim over to the ladder but don't realize that my dive master has been waiting underwater for me, as i approach i feel him grab my legs and start pulling off my fins. i can't figure out why this bothers me so much.
third dive i surface in my spot, float, reassure the crew that i'm neither drowning nor in need of any help, and watch my dive master underwater at the ladder. the rest of the divers are on and he's waiting for me. seriously, you're not grabbing my feet again. i see if i can wait him out, he's got a lot of work to do on board and maybe he'll just go away. no. so i peel off my fins 10 feet away and swim over to the ladder, he's upset with me.
i don't normally try to be a troublemaker. what a weird day.
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