Culture Club

Text and images by @thedivepoet. Design by Rico Besserdich.

? Pre-dive Clicklist: Benny Hill Theme ?

I am a tech and cave diver with a three letter agency, and also a dive pro with a four letter agency, though I don’t work in the industry.

I decided to launch the @thedivepoet about five years ago as a way to teach myself social media as well as provide some humor for the dive industry. I was inspired by @thequalifiedcaptain on Instagram as well as several other meme accounts out there.

One of my main goals is to preach safe diving practices but in a fun and hilarious manner. At the end of the day, I want people who are diving to have fun and be able to return back home safely to their families, no matter what agency they’re affiliated with or gear configuration they may have.

I think my account works because I’m anonymous as I critique certain dive products or bad practices I’ve seen in the dive industry. I try to keep things real and call out people, practices, or products but add in a little humor at the same time.

One of the cool things about running my account is networking with divers and dive professionals all over the world. Although I may call out certain people for borderline dangerous dive practices, or certain products for poor design, I’m actually a very positive person.

Some of my posts might seem a little controversial, but I try to keep things real and unbiased. I think one of the benefits of being anonymous is you’re able to be unfiltered. Being sponsored by a dive company or affiliated with a dive shop, it’s hard to be unbiased or give an honest review of dive products. Like many things on social media, you are always going to have some people who will disagree with you and that’s totally okay. 

One of my favorite posts that a lot of people really liked would be my posts about hair styles for dive professionals (both men and women). I also have one of hairstyles for cave diving instructors around the world that was very popular. 

There are some other meme accounts online that may shame OW divers for kneeling in the sand, but instead of blaming the new diver who may only have 10 dives under their belt, we should really be critiquing their instructor. In the words of Mr. Miyagi from Karate Kid, “No such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher.”

I’m a lot kinder and gentler these days, but I have a no-holds-barred approach when I see dive instructors or technical divers diving with sloppy gear configurations or doing dangerous things. Being a dive professional or technical diver, we should hold ourselves to a much higher standard. I’d rather make an Instagram post calling someone/something out than sharing an obituary post.