plan your dive, or not?

[noreastDIVER84]

If I am on a site that is new to me than I will determine a plan before entering the water. I generally dive the same sites, and you have to work around the tide more than anything. My plan usually involves choosing if I am spearfishing, taking photos, or just sightseeing. I do sometimes deviate from the plan due to a longer than expected tide. In these cases I am never deeper than 40' and have more of a NDL than air supply.

 

[Cave Diver]

Now, I was serious. I really haven't connected the dots where "some people discuss these detailed plans" to my training where "the sites are chosen in a catch-as-catch-can manner". Our plans are much, much more fluid, it seems, compared to those of you with experience.

Au contraire. I think some plans for more experienced may be more fluid than those that aren't at times. A purely recreational diver with a limited experience may not feel comfortable changing plans on the fly. My normal dive buddies and I often communicate and change dive plans mid dive.

Examples are we jump in on a wreck with a destination in mind and find a bottom current running counter to the surface current, we change the plan on the fly. Or we find an interesting critter that we want to get a better picture of so we spend more time deeper, so the plan changes.

Experience gives you a basis for doing this comfortably. Or at least I'm more comfortable doing it now than when I was a new diver.

 

[drydiver]

Au contraire. I think some plans for more experienced may be more fluid than those that aren't at times. A purely recreational diver with a limited experience may not feel comfortable changing plans on the fly. My normal dive buddies and I often communicate and change dive plans mid dive.

Examples are we jump in on a wreck with a destination in mind and find a bottom current running counter to the surface current, we change the plan on the fly. Or we find an interesting critter that we want to get a better picture of so we spend more time deeper, so the plan changes.

Experience gives you a basis for doing this comfortably. Or at least I'm more comfortable doing it now than when I was a new diver.

this is funny in a way to me. . . insta-buddy, no deviation in the dive plan, regulars, hell, they expect nothing less, especially if they see my camera or they have a camera in tow

 

[TSandM]

For me, every dive has a plan. It can be just the bare framework of the dive, but the hard deck, expected dive time, gas plan if relevant, deco strategy, team composition and responsibilities is the minimum.

Example: Dive plan for a 45 foot reef dive in a local site: Max depth 45, dive time no more than an hour. No gas plan because we both had TONS of gas for the dive. Deco was swimming upslope. Team was the two of us and I led because I knew the site. Hazards were current, and we were going to turn the dive toward the end of the jetty, when we felt the current getting stronger.

Dive plan for a 100 foot dive off a charter boat: Hard deck 100; dive time no more than an hour. Gas was all available (drift dive) with 40 cu ft rock bottom reserve. Deco was 1 minute stops from 50 feet; my buddy was deco captain, I was to shoot a bag on ascent.

Takes about a minute to go through all of that, if you're used to doing it.

 

[Cave Diver]

this is funny in a way to me. . . insta-buddy, no deviation in the dive plan, regulars, hell, they expect nothing less, especially if they see my camera or they have a camera in tow

No reason you can't still have a plan with an insta buddy. It just takes a little more commitment to planning it.

 

[drydiver]

No reason you can't still have a plan with an insta buddy. It just takes a little more commitment to planning it.

you misread me, always a dive plan with insta-buddy, no deviation, unlike those you dive with all the time were, where less prep is necessary and more deviation is allowable

 

[Jax]

No reason you can't still have a plan with an insta buddy. It just takes a little more commitment to planning it.

you misread me, always a dive plan with insta-buddy, no deviation, unlike those you dive with all the time were, where less prep is necessary and more deviants are allowed

Fixed that for ya!

 

[ScubaSteve]

Fixed that for ya!

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e293/MarsNova/GrammarNazi.jpg

 

[Jax]

Uh, Steve . . . that wasn't a grammer fix.

 

[azchipka]

This should allow for multiple options since some of us are tech and rec.

Recreational I almost never plan my dive other then ok this is the site im going to go diving.

Technical I plan every dive and dive my plan