Scuba Diving Slang terms from around the world
You can walk the walk and dive the dive, but can you talk the talk ?
I was chatting to a lady diver from South Africa the other day and she used a slang term I had never heard of before, that got me thinking, what are some other terms unique to diving that are used around the world?
Surface Intervals are great for this sort of chat, so I changed the subject from the usual “Sport and Politics” and came up with this list:
Slang from both sides of the “big pond”
Feeding the Fish – Throwing up through your regulator.
Insta-Buddy – The buddy you get allocated when you show up on a dive boat on your own.
Danglies – Every piece of unnecessary kit attached to the divers BCD.
Chamber-Bait – A Diver, who, through bad habits, is just destined for the decompression chamber.
Pools Open – Time to get off the boat please.
Air-Hog – A diver who uses lots of air – (As in “Hoover” see below).
Slang from USA Scuba Divers
Dive Chick – Female diver who puts on makeup; brushes hair; has her boyfriend assemble her kit; and then has him carry it to the water before doing her dive.
Dive Babe – Woman who is a real diver – the opposite of a “Dive Chick”.
Bug – A Lobster as in “bug hunting”.
Cattle Boat – A large dive boat carrying many divers, usually used to describe a cruise ship dive tour. You won’t find Cows on a “Cattle Boat”.
Sunshine and Seagulls as in “heading for” – an unplanned, uncontrolled emergency ascent.
Slang from British Scuba Divers
Christmas Tree – A Diver with lots of “Danglies” (See Above).
Hoover – A diver who uses lots of air (As in “Vacuum cleaner”).
Kellogg – A diver who’s basic skills are so bad that it is obvious to everyone that they got their Certification Card from the back of a Cereal box!
Chamber Child – as in “Chamber Bait” (See Above).
From our Canadian friends
Tim Horton Diver – someone whose best dives all happen in Tim Hortons, afterwards they run to the keyboard to tell everyone how great they are.
Bleaux & Geaux – Same as “Sunshine and Seagulls” (See Above).
Last but definitely not least, from South Africa
Froggy – As in:
“Not Froggy enough” – Inexperienced divers with very poor skills.
“Too Froggy” – Divers that take everything too seriously.
“Froggy enough for me” – That’s my new dive buddy.
