How are you at Navigation?

[Buoyant1]

I can usually find my way to the surface...I'm not quite that bad but I have had my moments of precise navigation. I can usually prevent long surface swims to a boat, but have a tough time sometimes at my local quarry.

I'm getting better at it though.

 

[pdelannoy]

How good I am at navigating depends on the conditions. In the ocean with good visibility I do pretty well without a compass. But in the lake where I train, visibility can be so bad that you must rely entirely on your compass skills.

PD

 

[boulderjohn]

So I was trying out a scooter for the first time, taking a class. Our instructions were to take a heading, descend on a line created by shooting an SMB up from a spool to near the bottom (about 45 feet), scooter out on that heading for two minutes, make a turn, scooter back on the reciprocal, make a turn around the descent line using a specified technique, get back on the original heading, and then repeat (2 minutes out; 2 minutes back) until we had demonstrated all required turn techniques.

Visibility was about 5 feet.

I have to admit I had some difficulty getting back to that descent line.

Where does that put me?

 

[fdog]

So I was trying out a scooter for the first time, taking a class. Our instructions were to take a heading, descend on a line created by shooting an SMB up from a spool to near the bottom (about 45 feet), scooter out on that heading for two minutes, make a turn, scooter back on the reciprocal, make a turn around the descent line using a specified technique, get back on the original heading, and then repeat (2 minutes out; 2 minutes back) until we had demonstrated all required turn techniques.
Visibility was about 5 feet.

I have to admit I had some difficulty getting back to that descent line.

Where does that put me?

Pretty darn good I'd say; that's some decent scooter work!

Given that the typical technical scooter runs about 180 fpm, your 2-minute runs are at least 300' long - being able to return to the same point in 5' vis indicates an error of less than a degree. Good one!

Compasss on the arm or the scooter? If it's on your arm, it's even more impressive.



All the best, James

 

[boulderjohn]

Pretty darn good I'd say; that's some decent scooter work!

Given that the typical technical scooter runs about 180 fpm, your 2-minute runs are at least 300' long - being able to return to the same point in 5' vis indicates an error of less than a degree. Good one!

Compasss on the arm or the scooter? If it's on your arm, it's even more impressive.



All the best, James

On the scooter. It would have been impressive if I had hit the mark, but I didn't. When I said "I had some difficulty," I meant it didn't happen.

 

[OnceLoyal]

I am getting there. It kind of sucks lately since my inst. is my DB.. This makes me feel a little to secure at times and I find myself relying on him to do the work. I am trying to get over this... Seems like it would be easy to do, but for some reason it is not . I will be taking a dive next week with a buddy and it will force me to do the work..........so!!!!!!! Can I answer this again next week?

 

[RJP]

Keep going 25 kick cycles on a 120 heading, turn right to 190 and then 15 kick cycles, it's on your left.

Unless you're wearing webbed gloves, in which case it's 4 kick cycles and then 2. (But you'll silt the whole place up and go OOA before you get back anyway.)

 

[BioLogic]

So far I've managed to upgrade from my natural ability (unbelievably miserably bad) to merely very bad. That's in my usual 5 ft vis haunts.

In Kona, I could have told myself I was as impressive as 'not good' as at the end of the dive I knew where I was to within a stone's throw without looking up to check for the hull.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I manage to find my way back to where I want to be ... most of the time ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[RJP]

I manage to find my way back to where I want to be ... most of the time ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I heard an interesting definition of "natural navigation" the other day:

Natural Navigation: Lost, right up until the last moment.