A good dive?

[metaldector]

What makes a good dive? That is a good question. Over the years I've had pleasant dives, that were in familiar surroundings, with perfect viz, and great companions. I've had dives in less than perfect circumstances that turned out to be the most memorable. I've had lessons learned dives in which I was uncomfortable and dive lessons that were not challenging at all. I've dove with "pick-up" divers and had wonderful experiences, and "pick-up" divers with loads of problems and "air-hogs" that shortened dives by their lack of skills. I've learned from more experienced divers on how to move fluidly through the water, and how to relax and conserve gas. I've watched new divers thrash about, hoses dangling, oblivious to air consumption, depth, or buddy. I've done skills with top instructors to improve my own short comings. I've been fortunent to dive many places in the world in many configurations, and meet wonderful divers of every age and nationality. I ocean dive, wreck dive, fresh water sink-holes, rivers, and cave dive. In each and in all they are good dives. When I find a problem, I log it. I learn to correct it, if a mechanical problem I fix it so the next dive is another "good" dive.

 

[Seaduced]

... are the ones where everybody in the party comes back with a smile on their face and story to tell!

 

[Diver0001]

Was wondering what people would class as a good dive?

Any dive lasting longer than I can hold my breath.

I honestly don't think I've ever had a dive that I thought "that was a bad dive".

I've had a few where I thought "I'm never doing THAT again" and one where we lost a student in a silt-out and I was really worried that he would panic and do something stupid. That last one ranks as a "bad dive" but in our defense we didn't cause the silt-out.

I had one "bad day" too. I didn't actually make the dive but rescuing someone who you think is dead (as it turned out he survived), is really stressful and something I hope I never have to do again.

R..

 

[LastManOut]

A lot of good answers, and I think that yeah... it's completely dependent on your perspective.

1) A good intro dive is seeing smiling faces covered in snot and screaming and hugging you.
2) A good pool dive is realising your students have worked out neutral buoyancy in four metres of water in less than ten minutes. That sure makes me smile and breathe a sigh of relief. Especially if there's 12 or more students.
3) A good open water dive is tightly packed, no problems with mask floods, good air communication, nice skill work and you (as the instructor) not seeing a bloody thing.
4) A good technical dive is finishing that last minute of deco and remembering your helium squeaking on the bottom as you sing "somewhere over the rainbow"
5) A good, personal, no responsibilities, bubble-blowing fun dive is rolling onto your back and just looking up at the surface (if you can see it) and then realising that for the time you're underwater, you're one of the luckiest people in the world!

That's my two rissoles worth.

-- Nemo

 

[Jupiter31]

Well, you're half right....

Other than safety issues, a "good dive" for me is when I see "something cool" underwater - it could be a shark, turtle, or like this morning - 4 eagle rays.

 

[Web Monkey]

I honestly don't think I've ever had a dive that I thought "that was a bad dive".

I've had two "bad dives" (maybe one. not sure).

The first one was when I was new and had temporarily disabled the "well this is ********** stupid" alert in my head because I was with with an instructor (even worse, he stayed on the boat and didn't actually get in the water).

Suffice it to say that an instructor is not sufficient reason to tell the voice in your head to shut up.

The second one was when my buddy and I went diving on a beautiful, calm afternoon and while hanging out at the safety stop, I looked up ad thought "What are all those flashing lights on shore?"

There were no lights. It was lightning and it was just going nuts. There was so much lightning you could actually see with it.

It scared the hell out of me, but I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "bad dive".

A "good dive" is everything else.

Terry

 

[TMHeimer]

No problems safety-wise and I got a good catch of live shells for the collection.

 

[gbray]

I'm not sure I know what a bad dive is as I have yet to experience one( and hope never to). However, Some are certainly better than others. Such as yesterday when myself and two others were kind of volunteered to buddy up with two new divers(one was on very first dive out of class and other could not remember how to assemble his gear). We couldn't let them buddy up alone. Sparing the details THEY had a good dive. Or the time I first saw a spoon bill as long as me glide past with his mouth large enough to fit my shoulders in wide open,totally oblivious to me and not a care in the world. That was awesome.

 

[spectrum]

Well, you're half right....

Other than safety issues, a "good dive" for me is when I see "something cool" underwater - it could be a shark, turtle, or like this morning - 4 eagle rays.

To me that's the icing on the cake.

It's real rare that that there isn't some observation of note on a dive. An unusual or uncommonly plentiful critter, the visibility, some noted milestone in the life cycles or a year over year difference. It might also be a "mastered" skill, experiencing new gear, bringing home some sort of treasure or having shared a site with a diver from away. There is always something memorable to write in my log.

 

[ScubaSam]

My definition of a good dive has always been if my buddy and I return unharmed. If we see wild sharks and rays while diving then it's an AWESOME dive.