There's several aspects to this post (for discussion) but in general there seems to be a lack of dive initiative in otherwise capable divers. It's personal choice of course but there seems to be a greater rush to take courses that teach specific skills at the expense of personal initiative/leadership/judgment/responsibility or however you want to look at it.
This applies to those looking to become DM's and Instructors but not having much dive planning/implementing experience, it applies to those rushing into tech diving without the same skills and in many cases it just applies to any group of divers.
I noticed it when I first started diving and I notice it now. I would go to a dive club to find more experienced divers but I noticed that 1) they weren't experienced and that's why they were in a dive club or 2) they had been diving for a long time but had never done any dives unless planned and coordinated by someone else.
I ended up doing new dives where I had to do the planning because no one else had much experience with anything but the local watering hole (not no one but many didn't).
I see it today when I'm in dive stores and no one has done many of the interesting dives. Of course there are many who have but my curiosity and this post is about the greater (than I would expect) numbers that haven't. It's not even about number of dives or dive sites. It's just about the lack of confidence or ability or experience or something that makes so many prefer to just follow someone else and yet want to push on to other levels having skipped this step.
There are DM's who have never done much diving except in classes.
There are tech divers who never really did any diving before their tech classes except the local sites.
I guess it's not exactly a skill that you can teach...initiative or whatever you want to call it but it seems to me this is the most lacking aspect of our sport that is not mentioned in these scuba boards to any great degree.
It's not that people have to be independent (except for their own safety) and of course many divers do plan dives...it's just surprising how many don't and I'm not just talking about occasional divers or ones who don't have local access to decent dive sites.
Maybe this has just happened to be my observation and maybe it's not widespread...I have no way of knowing ...therefore this post.
This applies to those looking to become DM's and Instructors but not having much dive planning/implementing experience, it applies to those rushing into tech diving without the same skills and in many cases it just applies to any group of divers.
I noticed it when I first started diving and I notice it now. I would go to a dive club to find more experienced divers but I noticed that 1) they weren't experienced and that's why they were in a dive club or 2) they had been diving for a long time but had never done any dives unless planned and coordinated by someone else.
I ended up doing new dives where I had to do the planning because no one else had much experience with anything but the local watering hole (not no one but many didn't).
I see it today when I'm in dive stores and no one has done many of the interesting dives. Of course there are many who have but my curiosity and this post is about the greater (than I would expect) numbers that haven't. It's not even about number of dives or dive sites. It's just about the lack of confidence or ability or experience or something that makes so many prefer to just follow someone else and yet want to push on to other levels having skipped this step.
There are DM's who have never done much diving except in classes.
There are tech divers who never really did any diving before their tech classes except the local sites.
I guess it's not exactly a skill that you can teach...initiative or whatever you want to call it but it seems to me this is the most lacking aspect of our sport that is not mentioned in these scuba boards to any great degree.
It's not that people have to be independent (except for their own safety) and of course many divers do plan dives...it's just surprising how many don't and I'm not just talking about occasional divers or ones who don't have local access to decent dive sites.
Maybe this has just happened to be my observation and maybe it's not widespread...I have no way of knowing ...therefore this post.