New divers and "trust me" dives

[Aquawookie]

TSandM,

I think, for the most part, everyone here is telling you that you are doing exactly the right think. You are using the resources you have available to further your diving education and enhance your diving skills.

The best way to improve your diving is to DIVE. Pick the brains of those you dive with, ask questions until the answers make sense to you, see what they do or don't do when they dive, think about it and then alter your dives accordingly to make yourself safer and your dives more fun.

My rule of thumb is that a diver needs between 20 and 50 dives before all the information that was poured into their heads makes sense to them. At that point a diver usually has enough experience to say, "Nope, this dive is not for me. I'll see you after the dive. I'm taking a nap!" rather than follow blindly along.

Strech yourself, just don't over stretch yourself.
Keep your brain engaged at all times while diving.
Enjoy your dive vacation in Maui.

Nuff said.
Aquawookie

Well, Thursday I am off to Maui to do some of that clear, warm water diving . . . and it will be "trust me" dives in exotic locales, since I don't know the area at all!

 

[Xanthro]

Well, Thursday I am off to Maui to do some of that clear, warm water diving . . . and it will be "trust me" dives in exotic locales, since I don't know the area at all!

Xanthro, I'm a little puzzled by the level of criticism. The dives I am doing with people other than instructors are very simple dives to very conservative depths (eg. 40 fsw). I don't know how we could do easier ones. And with each trip under, I'm getting a little more comfortable and able to manage more things for myself. But I definitely did not come out of OW cert with those skills, and I really don't see how anybody could -- read my dive journal!

I apologize, I did not mean to come across as overly critical, but often you see people do dives beyond their comfort level, and this is always dangerous.

I think I found this

I don't feel as though I can reliably manage dive planning, gas usage planning, and navigation by myself.

to be worrisome. You should be able plan any dive you make. Simply do less complicated dives till you are comfortable with your skills.

I'm sure you can actually plan many of the dives you do based on your other responses, but you feel less comfortable doing so because others are more experienced. You should plan some for the practice, because soon you'll be the more experienced diver and will need to pass the knowledge on.

Maui will be great for your diving. The water is warm, visibility is beautiful, and you'll have a great time which will help even more. If you are not going with other divers, you will find you are more experienced than others diving depending on the boat.

I found Black Rock to be overrated, but it is a very easy shore dive. For boat dives, Lanai is a great dive. Everyone does Molokini, but I found Lanai to be a better dive spot. Molokini at night is incredible, if you feel comfortable with a night dive.

Again, sorry for coming across as overly critical. I posted that while I was at work, and sometimes I can be unintentionally curt.

 

[m3830431]

"You have put your entire safety, in my hands, taking no responsibility of your own."


Ditto not a smart move in any activity you do.

 

[m3830431]

I apologize, I did not mean to come across as overly critical, but often you see people do dives beyond their comfort level, and this is always dangerous.

I disagree somewhat with this statement. It depends on what degree you extend yourself beyond that comfort level.

I do not think that less than 75% of the divers when they think back to the original dives did not dive beyond their comfort level starting with the first.

Rule of thumb know your limit and only then if you choose venture beyond.

 

[TheRedHead]

I disagree somewhat with this statement. It depends on what degree you extend yourself beyond that comfort level.

I do not think that less than 75% of the divers when they think back to the original dives did not dive beyond their comfort level starting with the first.

Rule of thumb know your limit and only then if you choose venture beyond.

I don't think you read her dive journal. She was diving in the conditions in which she was trained. She did her OW dives in a drysuit, apparently all shore dives in the cold water of the Puget Sound. Her dive training conditions were more like the conditions that the BSAC British divers experience. I find a corollary in that she is also seeking mentors rather than attempting to dive beyond her experience since all of her OW experience has entailed very challenging conditions. How does one to learn to dive in those conditions other than diving with more experienced mentors? I would like to see some BSAC divers comments on suggestions on how she can gain safely gain the experience she needs to become a diver.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

I don't think you read her dive journal.

... in which case, you missed the best part of this entire thread ...

It's a journey every experienced diver should take from time to time ... to remind ourselves what it felt like the first time we strapped a tank on our back, put a reg in our mouth, and did something God never designed us to do.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Hank49]

The only way to increase your experience is to dive with people of greater experience and learn from that. .

Not necessarily true. If you learned your dive tables in your OW course and have access to dive sites you should be able to plan and execute dives with a buddy of your same level of experience. Start with 5 meter dives and progress to 18 meters over time. In this way you can gain lots of experience never having dived with a more experienced diver. This is how the first divers did it. There was no one to teach them.

 

[theskull]

. . . First, I would define a trust-me dive as a dive which, if a little Martian dude were to float past & "vaporize" your buddy at the deepest/farthest/most dangerous part of the dive, you wouldn't have the skills, comfort level, site knowledge, equipment, or whatever else might be necessary, to safely end the dive on your own, and instead, are dependant on your dive buddy if something were to go wrong. . .

And I HATE IT when that happens!!

That was an excellent definition, and is still how I judge whether to make a dive on an invite from more advanced divers than myself.

theskull