Signs Diving
Signs Diving If you dove into a Public Swimming Pool and got water in your nose, can you Charge the City with Water Torture? Or just the Parks and Recreation Dept. Shouldn't they have warning sig...
Signs Diving
Divebuddy Is My Dive Buddy
It doesn’t take long to realize that Scuba diving is an inherent social sport. In most cases, you are "teamed up" with one or more buddies, on a boat with several buddy teams, and on a trip with dozens, perhaps hundreds of other divers. In many cases, folks who attach themselves to this community start to take on an identity that is morphed by the sport. Divers with limited experience start to obsess about the activity "googling" Scuba a dozen times per hour at work; every piece of clothing in their wardrobe has a dive flag on it; license plate frames and coffee mugs are marked with their new found love.
This is a community that I am proud to call myself a member. It’s a great lifestyle and an identity that fits my interests.
The great thing about the Scuba community is it seems to be ever-growing. Every year, my social circle of divers seems to grow. And, while some people cycle out into other areas of interest, it seems more are cycling in to Scuba. It’s great for the sport, the industry, and all the folks like me who are looking for more dive buddies.
There are a lot of great tools out there that keep this community together. Local Dive Clubs and Shops do a great job putting socials and meet and greets together. There are many online forums that allow divers to trade ideas, ask questions and meet people. However, I am greatly impressed by a community that has been around for a while and proven to be a leader in community organization. At first I was resistant to join. However, after procrastinating for a bit and being told over and over again about this online community, I decided to take proverbial plunge. So I signed up (member name scubajcf) and it didn’t take long before I met some great people from all around the world. They weren’t trying to convert my religion or sell me Amway. They just wanted to meet another diver that joined their community. A community where a sanitation engineer (garbage man) can befriend a Fortune 500 CEO and sit side by side in the community infrastructure. This was cool!
So now, I am a member of Divebuddy.com. Much like parenthood, I was kind of lost at first. But, the more I played with the site; I learned this was a pretty powerful tool. DiveBuddy is a place where you can appreciate experiences of other divers and share your experiences in a sport that is filled with so much passion. There are a lot of folks "blogging" on DiveBuddy.com. I have already learned a lot about future dive sites and destinations. There is a powerful calendar feature that seems to list events, courses and trips posted to it every day of the year. One of my favorite places is the New DiveBuddy Member area, where you can meet people who are new to the community. If you don’t get in the water enough, there are tens of thousands of photos and videos posted by members that truly "put you in the water". And, while I could sit here and write for pages about all the features of DiveBuddy, I was most impressed by the Dive Site map. In this section, you can find or post all the dive sites you have visited and post your experience. Then, with little bubbles, your history is laid out on a map, ready to share with everyone. This got a huge thumbs up from me!
However, DiveBuddy.com’s strength is in its community. You can easily search for dive buddies in your neighborhood or on the other side of the planet. Before you jump in the water with them, you can view their experience level and learn a little bit about them. To me, I feel a lot safer when I know a diver I have never dove with before. After 25 years of diving, there is nothing that scares me more than being teamed up with a diver I have never met before sitting next to them on the boat. This is DiveBuddy.com’s greatest asset!
DiveBuddy.com is my Dive Buddy! While I am new to the network, I hope to be an active and supportive community member. I look forward to diving with all the great people I have met and hope anyone reading my blog will endeavor to join. See you at http://www.divebuddy.com/profile.aspx?MemID=9544
About the Author
PADI Master Instructor, NAUI Instructor Trainer, SDI Instructor Trainer, Technical Dive Instructor, DAN Instructor, SeaSigns Instructor Examniner