How good do you need to be?

[TSandM]

I'm not sure how much psychoanalysis you wanted here, but I suspect I'm still trying to please my father, who felt that anything worth doing was worth doing perfectly, and worked very hard to instill that attitude in me.

It leads to a great deal of frustration and dissatisfaction with myself in anything I do, but also keeps me working at things for a long time. One of the things I've seen in diving is that you have to find something that keeps you doing it, whether it's getting into marine ID, photography, teaching, travel, or just beating your head against the wall of higher and higher standards. I'd put a smiley on that, but I'm not sure I'm being funny.

 

[djanni]

It's a somewhat thought provoking question similar to your post "Who owns your hobby."

I don't think I'm trying to please anyone. My wife and I dive simply for fun. It's a recreation we both enjoy a lot. I don't think there's any one thing that keeps us doing it.

We're PADI trained because the LDS we choose was a PADI shop. We choose it because of it's location and we liked the people. Had they been with another agency we would have probably gotten certified by a different agency. Personally, I don't think the agency is any major deal. Had the LDS been DIR then we'd probably have gone that route. I'm glad it wasn't though. We were certified before I came across SB and I'm glad of that too.

How good do I need to be? Good enough not to endanger myself, my buddy or any diver in our group and in the event someone needs help that I could assist. I believe I'm good enough to accomplish that in the conditions we dive.

We don't penetrate wrecks and outside of swim throughs, we don't enter caves and we don't do deep dives. Why? Because we have zero interest in it. There are those who do and more power to them. We're just not the types who have to know what's around the next turn.

We're just recreational divers managing to get in about 50/60 dives a year in the least demanding diving conditions we can find.

So, I own my hobby and I'm not out please other people. We are self-aware and we consciously work at becoming better at what we do in the conditions we do it in and that pleases us. We're happy divers.

A lot of people here on SB are DM's, instructors, equipment manufacturers and dive professionals whose experience and training is far greater than that of the typical recreational diver. Of course they're going to recommend their way of doing things, more training or the use of the gear they sell, manufacturer or use themselves. It's their livelihood in some cases. You could hardly expect less from them. Unfortunately, some posters are bigheaded, arrogant, pretentious, some overbearing and some simply hard to take and I admit I like to rile their feathers sometimes. I get a little amusement out of it.

 

[BabyDuck]

i'm trying to please *my* image of what 'good divers' look like, how they dive, how they think. i think that's different from trying to please the 'good divers', because the divers themselves don't know or care how i'm diving. (i don't mean they don't care about me, i mean they don't care if i'm diving up to their level. i don't want to insinuate that they have some admission requirements or something.) interesting question, though.

 

[bamamedic]

I'm my own worst critic...the only person I'm really trying to please underwater is myself. While my buddy might think I'm performing a skill well, when debriefing later on, I can point out all the various flaws/mistakes I made.

If I *know* that I can perform a skill better, plan a dive better, execute a dive better, then I will push myself until I can perform to my own personal standards.

This gets frustrating sometimes, though (because I will never be as good as I feel I can be), so sometimes, I need to remind myself that diving is supposed to be fun, and if I'm mentally beating myself up because I made a minuscule error, then I'm not really having as much fun as I should be having.

As fun (and rewarding) as it is to try to please (or impress) an instructor, or a dive buddy, or a role model, it's way more rewarding to simply strive to perform to to the best of your abilities.

 

[Teamcasa]

Later I decided to please my wife. I do this by not getting killed while diving. So far this has worked out nicely, making both of us happy.

As long as I can dive, have fun and safely return me and my wife to shore, I'm happy. Attempting to please anyone else is just an exercise in futility.

 

[tedtim]

So, who are YOU trying to please?

R..

"But it's all right now, I've learned my lesson well.
"You see, you can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself" Ricky Nelson Garden Party 1971

I am not in a competition with anyone. I dive for the enjoyment of it.

 

[nessum]

Myself.

And my buddy at the time (because it's only fair).

I aim to improve my skills for my own enjoyment, comfort and safety, as well as that of whomever it is I am diving with.

 

[NudeDiver]

Why would I be trying to please anybody?

This question seems very strange to me.

 

[BTravlin]

I strive to please myself only and if I survive to dive another day then I've succeeded.

 

[dave4868]

This is perhaps the big question in this sport.... the question of standards.

Let's answer it by asking these questions:

1) who are you trying to please, and why?
2) what will it take to please them?

I'm trying to please myself by meeting my own "standards", but those can vary depending on the challenge of the dive and whether I'm diving solo or with a buddy. My standards are flexible, perhaps even loose, I suppose.

Standards, regimentation, status and/or achievement mean very little to me compared to simply planning for and meeting the needs of myself and/or my buddy on a particular dive.

All it takes to meet my standards is to keep the risks manageable. The risks vary and so do my standards.

To each their own.

Dave C